Challenge
For years, Wabtec supported the information and communications needs of its global employees with disjointed networking solutions from several telecommunications companies. However, as Wabtec’s ever-evolving business and IT needs modernized, its incumbent telecom providers’ rigid legacy network infrastructures proved to be inefficient.
The company needed a higher-quality global network from a single global provider to support its critical business applications like Microsoft Lync, video conferencing systems and Oracle solutions, while also managing Wabtec’s substantial data back-up needs.
“Many of the larger telecom providers are very old companies and not as agile as we would prefer,” said Doug Salah, lead security and network architect at Wabtec. “We needed a single provider that would help us design a global network that is very agile to meet our rapidly changing business demands.”
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Solutions
Wabtec turned to professional services firm Advanced Technology Consulting, Inc. (ATC) and Darren DeMartino to provide telecommunications expertise and recommend a global network solution provider that could meet their stringent requirements. ATC’s experienced network and communications team provided a thorough assessment of various solutions and recommended Masergy’s global network platform for all of Wabtec’s locations and introduced them to Masergy’s technical team.
Masergy’s flexible and passionate team engineered a customized solution that guarantees network performance on a global scale.
“Tier-One providers offered inflexible solutions that we had to adapt to, and we subsequently had to change how we operated as a company to fit into their ‘box,’” said Salah “Masergy on the other hand wanted to help us find the right solution and ensure that it met all of our needs. It was really refreshing.”
Masergy and ATC helped Wabtec deploy a seamless global MPLS network to over 90 worldwide locations for reliable worldwide application delivery and performance with:
- MPLS for guaranteed service and security
- Internet Plus on the same access circuit for Internet connectivity
- Intelligent Service Control for real-time bandwidth allocation, visibility and control
- Intelligent Network Analyst for real-time network forensics and analysis
- Multiple circuit configuration to diversified POPs for redundancy and disaster recovery
- Critical Plane QoS to ensure priority for business-critical applications and data
- Limited Plane QoS for continuous delay-tolerant data backups, while giving top business apps higher priority
Business Success
To date, Wabtec has experienced multiple benefits following its move from more rigid network providers to Masergy, including:
Customized, Agile Solutions
Masergy helped design and deploy a customized network solution for Wabtec that could meet their global IT demands, while providing the flexibility to easily adapt to both planned and unexpected changes in the future.
Specifically, Masergy’s cloud-based Intelligent Network Analyst and Intelligent Service Control tools have given Wabtec management the ability to constantly monitor the status of their global network and easily make real-time bandwidth modifications within minutes.
In addition, Masergy’s multiple service planes allow Wabtec to prioritize bandwidth as necessary while maximizing efficiency. For example, the Critical Plane in Wabtec’s network can prioritize the company’s Oracle data and applications above regular Internet traffic for greater speed and reliability. Also, the network’s Limited Plane allows for lower-priority, continuous data backups while other applications receive greater bandwidth.
Passionate Expertise, Enhanced Customer Experience
From Masergy’s sales force to its project support team to its 24/7 NOC, Wabtec’s previous unsavory experience with its old providers was turned on its head. Masergy provided the expertise, passion and service that Wabtec sought in its new partner.
“Our biggest concern was to have a much better experience with our new vendor. Customer service from our previous vendors had been very spotty,” said Salah. “Masergy’s focus was 100 percent customer satisfaction. Their networking experts and consultants were a great fit with our team, and it has been a very positive experience.”
Guaranteed Application Performance
Masergy’s global MPLS network provides a reliable platform that delivers consistent and superior-quality application performance to support Wabtec’s use of Microsoft Lync, Exchange and SharePoint solutions, as well as Tandberg video conferencing and Oracle applications, among others.
“We are becoming a more technology-driven company, and are moving more towards applications like Microsoft Lync and Oracle systems to enhance our operations and communications,” said Salah. “Masergy provides the networking power we need to make our applications run efficiently and effectively across our global enterprise.”
Delivering on Promises
“The whole experience from day one has been fantastic,” said Salah, “I was very skeptical that we could find a vendor that could provide the level of service that we required, and we were pleasantly surprised with the great services Masergy promised. And as we dug deeper into to the project, they have really delivered on those promises.”
“This has been a great initiative, and will be a great long-term partnership.”
