In accordance with a three-year project set to see Hunt Lascaris keep pace with the changing needs of bandwidth intensive, graphic operations, IT solutions provider, Electron Highway, has added two SMC TigerStack 100 hubs to the agency`s existing network.
The first part of the proposed solution saw the company move away from a Thin Ethernet topology to UTP as the new standard within the two buildings that make up Hunt Lascaris` premises. The two buildings are themselves linked via fibre optic cabling.
"Dividing the LANs into logical workgroups was the next step. This ties in with the company`s philosophy of incorporating strategic planning, client services and media planning into individual business units. Each unit is a separate workgroup, making for a logical networking infrastructure," says Trevor Green, managing director of Electron Highway.
This design offers Hunt Lascaris the added ability to segment the workgoups, making it easy for business units to change positions or for departments to expand.
"In this highly developmental and graphical line of business, traffic flow can become intensive considering image file sizes. It is thus sensible to break the teams up into workgoups and put each one on their own segment by switching the environment," says Greg Perkins, country manager of SMC South Africa.
The result is that intensive traffic types are isolated and not detrimental to the performance of the rest of the network.
"The existing EZ switches are used for less demanding 10Mbps workgroups, and the newly installed TigerStack 100`s are used for power hungry users that might have a requirement for SNMP management which the hubs bring to the equation," says Perkins.
Initially the SMC EZ Switches were implemented for true workgroup switching. Simple to maintain and not requiring in-house expertise, the switches are ideal for Hunt Lascaris` environment as all the IT service and maintenance is outsourced to Electron Highway.
"Having used SMC hubs and switches for a number of years, the choice to remain with SMC was obvious as we know the product - and it works," says Green. "Networking close to 50 Apple Macintoshes and 176 PCs, Hunt Lascaris` solution is solely dependent on SMC hubs for its workgroup connectivity."
Ahmed Loonat, group financial manager at TBWA Hunt Lascaris, says that besides the performance and efficiency achieved with the SMC TigerStack hubs, their low cost is another compelling feature.
"Not being in the IT business, we rely on Electron Highway for service, backup and support. They have the IT knowledge and experience and we share their confidence in the product, which has motivated us to continue with an SMC solution," he says.
Share
Editorial contacts