Total gases up network speed

Local petroleum company, Total has completed the first of its two phase R1.5 million networking project.

According to Total South Africa`s network manager, Mike Landman, the project with leading network integrator, Dimension Data Networking, coincides with the company`s move to its new offices in Rosebank, Gauteng.

"The IT infrastructure at our previous premises consisted of an inadequate cabling infrastructure and a mix and match of networking equipment, causing delays in information passing through the network to users` desktop PCs and limiting our ability to implement new client-server applications across the network."

Says Christo Fourie, IT Manager at Total: "We saw this as an opportunity to put in place a network capable of handling our existing bandwidth requirement, as well as the intended increase in capacity we will require in the future. Our head office is the central core of our entire WAN and must be technologically advanced enough to meet the demands of the organisation`s information requirements."

Landman continues: "With the implementation of the new Cabletron SmartSwitch Local Area Network (LAN), our users are already seeing an improvement, enabling them to access and process the necessary information faster.

"We now have 10mb dedicated to each desktop, while our power users, including CAD users and employees within planning and supply and production, now have 100mb to the desktop."

Total`s selection of the SmartSwitch technology rested on the product`s reliability and scalability, Says Landman: "As we run mission-critical applications on our network, reliability is crucial. Through this project, we have increased power on the users` desktops and will also be able to implement new technologies as they evolve."

Following an intensive planning period, phase one of the project involved the installation of the switches and a separate back up switch. To avoid interference with the day-to-day traffic on the network, the back up is kept on a separate network.

"The switches for the entire Total head office were installed within five days, and were up-and-running by the time our employees had moved into their new offices. Without the involvement of Dimension Data Networking, it would not have been possible to make the move in such a short time."

Phase two of the implementation will involve the installation of a SmartSwitch router for extra redundancy, as well as Layer 4 functionality.

"We firmly believe that with our network architecture of Cabletron on the LAN and Cisco on the WAN, we have a stable and high-capacity network to support critical business applications. Added to this, we have Dimension Data`s excellent support base which we have the utmost confidence in," says Fourie.

Landman agrees: "The quality of service offered by Dimension Data Networking is of the highest level. We would not use anyone else," he says.

Ian Roy, account manager at Dimension Data Networking explains that Dimension Data Networking was also involved in the rollout of Total`s Wide Area Network (WAN) to 80 sites country-wide. "The new LAN also smoothes the path for Total`s future plans of Virtual LAN (VLAN) technology."