[By NBC-1TV H. J Yook]Brocade (NASDAQ: BRCD) -- As one of the top specialists in its field, Australian network solution provider Over the Wire Pty Ltd (OTW) is used to handling tough projects. With a portfolio of solutions that include IP WAN, IP Voice and Infrastructure-as-a-Service, the company has a strong footing in the SME market but its real challenges come from the complex network requirements of its corporate customers. For example, for the last few years OTW has been supporting Australia's premier technology conference for IT Professionals and Developers, which combines hands-on learning on current and soon-to-be-released products, solutions and tools, with live presentations in an extremely demanding network environment.

To ensure it can meet existing and future customer demands, OTW has deployed Brocade® (NASDAQ: BRCD) NetIron® CER 2000 Series routers and NetIron CES 2000 Series switches as the foundation for a new, high-performance network -- delivering resilient connectivity within its points-of-presence and customer sites. With its new network platform in place, OTW is positioned to maintain a strong growth trajectory, which saw the company more than double in size over the last 12 months.

“You might say you are only as good as your last major project, and in terms of the solutions we provide we‘d reached the point with our existing platform where we really couldn’t scale the network any further,” said Over the Wire director, David Tisdall. “More generally, technology will always be the driver behind our growth. We‘d like to maintain our rate of growth, and that’s why we are investing in Brocade switching and routing solutions to stay in the game.”

“Our requirement was for high-speed Layer 2 connectivity at the right price point, with VPLS functionality for larger networks, especially large corporate environments. Additionally, Brocade was the only vendor with MPLS capability in a single unit at a good price. A lot of our industry peers use Brocade solutions and recommend them highly, and so do our network engineers courtesy of past exposure to Brocade solutions.”

The new Ethernet platform deployed by OTW includes Brocade NetIron CER 2000 Series compact multiservice Carrier Ethernet routers, Brocade NetIron CES 2000 Series multiservice compact Ethernet switches, Brocade 6910 Carrier Ethernet access switches, and Brocade ICX® 6430 and ICX 6450 enterprise-class stackable Ethernet switches.

This network platform is supported by Brocade's world-class support infrastructure. With multiple Brocade Technical Assistance Centers and more than 170 parts depots in over 40 countries, Brocade is capable of delivering reliable support whenever and wherever it is needed.

With these system building blocks, OTW has been able to structure a highly capable and scalable network that enables it to take a standardized approach to customer requirements, leading to cost savings and greater efficiency. Its core network now comprises two devices rather than 10 and, according to Tisdall, OTW has been able to boost network speed by a factor of 10 while reducing operational costs by 20 percent.

“With the Australian Federal Government funding regional bandwidth increases, there is strong competition to deliver enhanced services so that customers will have an increasing range of options to choose from,” said Charlie Foo, vice president for Brocade Asia Pacific. “With a more scalable, functional, standardized, streamlined and cost-effective Carrier Ethernet service platform, Over the Wire will continue building its business on its well-known ability to handle complexity and its reputation of getting things done.”