CCH Hosted Services` Business Continuity offering includes disaster recovery and data security services as well as high-level business process consulting for corporate clients. The CCH Business Continuity solutions are supported by a state-of-the-art IT environment. Aiming to provide the best solution for its customers CCH Hosted services have chosen networking leader 3Com`s CoreBuilder 3500 switch, as well as its 1100 and 3300 SuperStack II range, as part of its offering.
"3Com`s product was exactly what we were looking for," says Wayne Reed, national technology strategist at CCH Hosted Services, "in terms of flexibility, reliability and ease-of-use, no other solution we looked at could compare." "In addition, 3Com`s product integrated with our solution far more seamlessly than other offerings," he adds, "due to our environment, 100% uptime is critical, and that`s what we have had with 3Com so far, and our time frame response has been greatly enhanced."
Reed goes on to say that the advanced VLAN functionality that 3Com`s switch offers, allows CCH Hosted Services to make changes at short notice, a vital part of disaster recovery, and plans to integrate VLAN into the company`s nation-wide network, once it is poised to expand. The company has a Recovery centre in Cape Town, and hopes to see a Durban facility opening in the third quarter, "we aim for maximum utilisation, by incorporating the solution into our other branches," explains Reed.
Targeting primarily the financial services sector, CCH Hosted Services` business continuity offering ensures it`s clients have Disaster Recovery. Business Continuity services include disaster prevention, impact analysis, business continuity planning, disaster recovery plan audits, recovery testing and resumption of normal business activities in the event of a disaster.
The company`s premises are equipped to accommodate customers` individual software and systems configurations. Should disaster strike, the customer can move onto the premises, log on to the IP network and continue to work in an environment that is a match of their own. Furthermore, the company will patch through telephones, ensuring that clients phoning in to their original service provider will not know that they are connected to a different site. The entire site and all of its services is supported by UPSs, backed up by diesel generators.
With business continuity being of the essence, CCH Hosted Services offers its customers top performance with 3Com`s CoreBuilder 3500 Switch, as it redefines performance and functionality. Built around sophisticated third-generation ASIC technology, the switch provides wire-speed Layer 2 and Layer 3 traffic forwarding and supports realtime, multimedia network traffic using the most advanced policy-based services found in networking devices today. Combined with flexible virtual LAN (VLAN) support, multicast services, multiprotocol routing and network management with RMON-1, RMON-2 and Roving Analysis Port (RAP), the CoreBuilder 3500 Layer 3 switch provides a robust and resilient networking infrastructure.
Designed to act as a backbone LAN router, replacing legacy LAN routers for Layer 3 forwarding functionality, the switch will also be used as an edge device performing Layer 3 forwarding while connected to a backbone of Gigabit Ethernet or ATM, explains Elaine Cox, account manager at 3Com.
She goes on to say that the advanced programmable distributed ASIC + RISC Flexible Intelligent Routing Engine (FIRE) architecture provides non-blocking, wire-speed routing and switching on all 100 Mbps ports for unicast, broadcast, and multicast packets with an aggregate throughput of more than four million packets per second. In terms of migration, she adds, the CoreBuilder 3500 module will allow Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet, FDDI, and ATM to communicate transparently. Furthermore, its policy-based services prioritise and allocate bandwidth to different types of network traffic, and the AutoFocus SmartAgent software provides powerful self-management tools in conjunction with 3Com`s Transcend network management.
A robust platform for mission-critical applications is provided by dual hot-swappable power supplies, changeable fans and a system management module, allowing high-performance upgrades to new networking standards as they evolve, she concludes. . With superb performance, flexibility and network control features, the CoreBuilder 3500 Layer 3 High-Function Switch is the ideal networking device for today`s mission-critical networks, such as deployed by CCH Hosted Services.
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3Com Corporation
With over 300 million customer connections world-wide, 3Com Corporation connects more people and organisations to information and each other in more innovative, simple and reliable ways than any other networking company. 3Com delivers e-Networking solutions through information access products and network systems to enterprises, small businesses, consumers, and service providers. For further information, visit 3Com`s World Wide Web site at www.3com.com or the press site at www.3com.com/pressbox.
CCH
CCH is a full service e-Business systems integrator focused on providing insourced and outsourced business solutions and professional services primarily to the financial services, telecommunications, public sector and retail markets with a growing emphasis on e-Business. CCH understand how to integrate business and technology solutions and are capable of effectively operating in both domains.Hosted Services provides IT services such as Business Continuity Application Hosting, Marketplace Hosting, Outsourcing Customer Relationship Management and full solution implementation of Hosted Services.