City of Airdrie Reduces Total Cost of Ownership with Move to New Switching Environment

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City of Airdrie

Industry: Municipal Government

Population: 54,892 people

Location: Alberta, Canada

Website: http://www.airdrie.ca

Background

The City of Airdrie offers its residents a small town lifestyle with big city

amenities. This popular locale is one of the fastest growing regions in Canada

with 54,892 people located 10 minutes north of Calgary. The vibrant, caring

community puts a great deal of value on creating a healthy, sustainable

environment for its residents. This mission extends to city employees who

are championed to examine what they do each day in an effort to establish

efficiencies while maintaining or improving service levels for its workers and

constituents.

Challenge: Unsustainable total cost of ownership (TCO)

The City of Airdrie’s IT team is mandated to deliver long term solutions

while maximizing budget dollars. With the current networking infrastructure

reaching end of life over the course of the next few years, the City began to

take a closer look at the cost of sustaining their existing environment. Facing

rising equipment costs, they had a hunch that it might no longer make sense

to continue down their current path. They started investigating their options,

making a list of critical requirements and taking stock of the features they

were currently paying for and not using.

The network engineers had also run into quality of service (QoS) issues. They

required Power over Ethernet (PoE) technology in all new networking gear;

however, this functionality came at a steep premium with their existing

provider.

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Objectives

• Reduce capital and operating costs of the networking environment, reducing overall TCO.

• Simplify the deployment and ongoing management of the switches.

• Increase visibility into the equipment to assist with the identification of network issues and to resolve problems quicker.

Solution

• Brocade ICX 6430, 6450 and 6610 Switches

• Brocade Network Advisor

Benefits

• Reduced TCO

• Able to apply firmware updates without the fear of impacting users

“ When we began looking at Brocade, we

brought in Scalar as we knew they were

the right partner to broker the relationship

with the Brocade team”

Evaluation: Dipping a toe in the water

City of Airdrie took a look at a variety of networking solutions and zeroed in

on Brocade. “When we began looking at Brocade, we brought in Scalar as we

knew they were the right partner to broker the relationship with the Brocade

team,” said Paul Hurst, Network Engineer, City of Airdrie.

They started out slowly by replacing just one switch. The sole purpose of this

first switch was to run a set of security cameras. It was a relatively low risk

test; Hurst knew that if the test failed and they had to start from scratch,

they would be able to revert back and not be out a great deal of money. They

were in for a pleasant surprise when they made the transition – not only did

everything go smoothly, they found they were able to deploy the equipment in

a fraction of the time with no issues, paving the way for a complete upgrade

on gear that had reach end of lifecycle.

Rollout: Smooth cut-over, improved visibility and control

Starting in February 2014 over the course of 3 months, Hurst installed

fourteen new switches across 5 departments. “We mounted the hardware,

powered it on and cut over while users were away at lunch; we were able

to literally cut over hundreds of machines with no impact to our users,” said

Hurst.

While disruption was kept to a minimum for users, the IT team is pleased with

the new centralized management tools at their disposal. Network engineers

now have visibility and control to proactively manage installed hardware right

from their desk. “I can now apply updates without the fear of bricking the

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S c a l a r D e c i s i o n s I n c .

“ The Scalar team has been fantastic throughout this process.

We have leveraged their relationship with Brocade and they

have come to the table ready to help,”

switch,” said Hurst. A unique feature in the network management software

allows Hurst to apply new firmware to a secondary flash – if any issues

arise, he can quickly revert back to the earlier version. “From an upgrade

standpoint, we don’t have to be years behind on firmware updates simply

because we are worried about the impact of updates on the equipment. The

primary and secondary flash capability gives us peace of mind that we can

easily fall back,” Hurst continued.

Total cost of ownership of the networking gear has been favourably impacted

as well. “The move to Brocade enabled us to replace almost twice as many

switches with our capital replacement budget while including 3-year support

on all the equipment,” said Hurst.

With a successful deployment under their belts, the City of Airdrie continues

its investment into the new infrastructure. They have confidence in the

new direction they have taken and have now expanded the rollout to

encompass equipment that supports operations that are critical to the city’s

infrastructure. “The Scalar team has been fantastic throughout this process.

We have leveraged their relationship with Brocade and they have come to the

table ready to help,” said Hurst.

For more information, please visit http://www.scalar.ca

For the latest news, visit our blog at http://blog.scalar.ca

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S c a l a r D e c i s i o n s I n c .

Phase 1Network UpgradeFocus Areas:

• Procurement Fleet Services

• Recreation Centre

• Building Operations

• Arenas

• City Hall (to support new employees)

• Call Centre