Frame relay looked pretty good to Guelph-based Hammond Manufacturing when it first implemented the technology in the 1990s to link seven industrial sites in Ontario, Quebec and the US. Hammond was planning to implement a new line of business application and their current frame relay network was insufficient to support it.

Hammond placed a call to its local provider of optical networks when preparing for a new wide area network requiring much faster throughput. FibreTech, with its utility Telco partners, could provide a wide area network (WAN) based on fibre and Ethernet technologies to replace the frame WAN between the manufacturer's Ontario sites. But other issues called for specialized expertise. One was having to link the Ontario network to the Quebec and US sites which used different technologies. A second was the need to install and configure customer premise equipment that would be accessing the network. FibreTech referred IT strategists, Data Perceptions.

The first task for the consulting firm was to review Hammond's business objectives and then recommend appropriate technologies for equipment and connectivity. To connect the Quebec and US locations to the rest of the private network, Data Perceptions recommended using virtual private network (VPN) connections. VPN links provide security by encrypting over public networks; but the underlying network provides the reliability and service quality. The team then worked with Hammond and FibreTech to select providers in Quebec and the US that had good network peering relationships with utility Telco's and could ensure excellent connectivity between the different internet providers. At the plant level, Data Perceptions worked with Hammond staff to complete installation and configuration of network equipment and provide training of Hammond's staff throughout the project.

The results? A state-of-the-art optical network now flows information between the seven plant locations at speeds 10 to 20 times faster than the old frame relay. The graphical interface is a big improvement over the character-based application, and this also reduces training time. Additional benefits have been improved security and better remote access capability. Hammond now has the network it needs to support future infrastructure.