APEXnetworks, a business broadband and connectivity services provider, has selected the Brocade ICX family of campus Ethernet switches and Brocade NetIron 2000 CER Series of routers for its next-generation equipment within its distribution network and for deployment at customer premises.
Through Brocade, the company plans to redeploy, upgrade and grow its network with redundancy and high-availability solutions. The core network solution was delivered by long-term Brocade partner, ASI Solutions, and then implemented internally by the team from APEXnetworks.
Following 140% growth over the past two years in terms of customers and bandwidth demand, APEXnetworks was approaching the limits of its existing infrastructure to cope with further expansion of its Metro Ethernet services. The company migrated to new data center facilities nationwide and introduced a new generation of Ethernet switching systems that could meet continuing demand, while improving service resilience and operational economics.
“With advances in last-mile technology, the core network needed to grow significantly,” said Ryan Crouch, chief technology officer and director at APEXnetworks. “We were experiencing a large increase in demand from our customers in both wide area and private networks. Additionally, as people move more services into the cloud, bigger bandwidth in the core of the network is needed, with a corresponding increase in uplink capacity. Support for new protocols is also important.”
Crouch said he canvassed the company's existing network system vendors, as well as potential new suppliers such as Brocade, to find a cost-effective switching platform with hardware-based forwarding and high port density, which would also offer APEXnetworks greater flexibility in terms of network configuration at the distribution network layer.
“Brocade's switching families ticked all the boxes in terms of technical capabilities and, compared to alternative solutions, is kind to us in terms of capex and opex. The fact that we're seeing Brocade switches proliferate among our ISP peers gave us a lot of confidence to change vendors. And having a local account team that understands our business and works on our behalf within Brocade has been great,” said Crouch.