Case Study:
eircom
combines analogue and digital
for data centre command and control
eircom
is Ireland’s leading communications company, providing a full
portfolio of voice, data and Internet solutions over one of the most
technologically advanced networks in the world.
Offering hosting services to the Irish Market since 1997 from three centres –
Dublin City Centre, Dundrum and the Citywest Business Campus –
eircom
offers customers the ideal environment in which to house their business-
critical hardware while providing a range of IT solutions that allows them to
get on with running their business. The company is uniquely positioned to
combine service offerings in Hosting, ISP services and Telecommunications
network services into a single managed solution offering
The challenge
eircom
’s data centre facilities comprise centralised banks of over 400 servers
across multiple platforms including Dell, Compaq and Sun running a mixture
of operating systems including NT, Windows 2000 and various flavours of
Unix. The systems run hundreds of differing applications including exchange
email servers, SQL and Oracle database servers, remedy fault logging
database servers and pumpkin call centre traffic analysis servers.
Each centre has 24/7 monitoring and operates in a highly secure
environment. Constant vigilance is maintained on both an automated and
operator-initiated basis. System-wide checks take place at frequent intervals
including analysis of performance metrics, minesweeper implementations
and firewall monitoring.
To meet its advanced network management needs and to provide scalability
for the future,
eircom
has combined a range of Avocent’s analogue and digital
KVM switching solutions – the AMX and DS Series. Avocent’s XP range of
modular matrix KVM switching systems are also used extensively and these
are being integrated successfully with the new combined analogue and
digital installation.
The solution
eircom
implemented the powerful Avocent AMX analogue matrix switching
solution at its Dundrum data centre and Avocent’s DSR™ digital switching
solution at the company’s multimedia data centre at Citywest.
Avocent’s AMX matrix switching solution is designed to support growing
server installations allowing simultaneous control and operation of multiple
servers independently of each other.
It intelligently facilitates multi-user, multi-platform and multi-rack server
environments with end-to-end CAT 5 connectivity for access from the desk to
the server.
“Together, the AMX and DS Series
comprise the most user friendly
network management solution we
have seen. The overall solution
provides significant benefits for the
large-scale data centre operator.
The choice of analogue or digital,
or a combination of both, provides
very adequately for our needs now
and in the future.”
Donagh Quish
Network Administrator, eircom
Donagh Quish, Network Administrator, eircom and
Marcus Doran, Avocent Sales Manager, Ireland
inspect the Avocent KVM installation
