Skilled Group, Australia's largest provider of workforce solutions has created an always-on IT infrastructure by deploying a network design using Brocade Ethernet and Fiber Channel Storage Area Network (SAN) fabrics.
Skilled Group uses Ethernet fabrics based on Brocade VDX switches and VCS Fabric technology to connect its primary data center to a secondary site 30 kilometers away.
The Brocade VDX switches create a virtualized infrastructure that provides failover and IP replication services to the Brocade Gen 5 Fiber Channel SANs within each location.
This approach helps ensure a highly resilient foundation between servers and a broad array of EMC high-end and midrange storage systems.
Skilled Group provides both onshore and offshore total workforce management, flexible labor solutions, and project-based workforce solutions including shut downs, installations, and relocations.
The company' branch network includes more than 80 local and regional offices across Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Malta, and the United Arab Emirates. In all, it employs approximately 50,000 full- and part-time staff in a broad range of fields.
"The success of our business relies on automation, standardization, and centralization of core processes, which requires an agile, zero-downtime IT environment to enable all applications to be always available," said Pavel Rogik, senior technical analyst at Skilled Group. "To achieve this, we have deployed Brocade Ethernet and SAN fabrics to link our data centers so that they behave as a single entity."
Skilled Group's IT staff utilizes the Metro VCS feature of the Brocade switch to stretch a VCS fabric across both sites for greater resiliency and application availability. The feature allows interconnects between different locations by forming clusters over long distances (up to 30 kilometers) in order to provide disaster protection/recovery and load balancing.
Inside each data center, the switches also enable active-active connections between Skilled Group's SANs.