Leica Geosystems: UMB and Juniper Revolutionize the Network in the Areas of Core, Distribution and Access.

With dedication, speed, and Swiss precision, Leica Geosystems is revolutionizing the world of surveying. To support these innovations, it takes a modern and reliable network infrastructure. So, the company decided to renew its aging campus network with the support of UMB and Juniper Networks.

Challenges

IT forms the backbone of Leica Geosystems' core areas of research, development, production, and sales. For the approximately 1,400 employees within the campus, the technology must function smoothly, enable rapid information exchange and data transfer, be operated with few resources for the network team, and keep pace with the changing and mostly increasing requirements of an innovative company.

Like many other companies today, Leica Geosystems faces growing volumes of data that need to be processed. In addition, continuously increasing demand for more bandwidth and higher performance needs to be satisfied. These developments also have an impact on the network. When the existing infrastructure began to age, the company decided to modernize its campus network and replace the outdated hardware as part of a complete lifecycle management process.

Solutions

With the high-performance Ethernet switching solutions from Juniper Networks, the network specialists at UMB were able to demonstrate a technically convincing as well as attractively priced alternative to the existing manufacturer. «Juniper Networks delivers the functionality we need and meets the speed and stability requirements that are important to us. These points, combined with an excellent price, were decisive for our choice», says Carmelo Velardo, Network Engineer and Service Owner LAN at Leica Geosystems.

The new campus solution includes Juniper Networks EX switches, mostly from the 3400 Series, for the access layer and Juniper Networks QFX switches, mostly from the 5100 Series, for the distribution and core layers. «Not only the complete infrastructure has changed, but also the whole way of network design, such as installation and configuration,» explains Carmelo Velardo. «UMB prepared us for the Juniper Networks platform through several training sessions and accompanied us during migrations, which allowed us to build up more know-how step by step. Given our existing network experience, we soon had everything well under control. Today, we are technically capable of handling the tasks at hand ourselves. And if we do need support, we can always count on UMB.»

Precisely because one can find very similar functionalities for classic campus networks at many manufacturers, it's worth taking a look at the details. «I like the fact that Juniper Networks generally uses standard protocols. Since we use several different vendors for different purposes in our network, it simply makes our day-to-day work easier, for example when it comes to troubleshooting,» Velardo explains. The team leader also finds the ability to pre-test configurations before they go live and the ‘commit-confirmed-command’ very practical - as a kind of insurance policy for configurations. «For example, if there's a mistake in the configuration or I don't like it, the Juniper Networks operating system automatically reverts to the previous version after a certain amount of time, barring confirmation.» This feature can save hours of time that would otherwise be lost by requiring someone to travel to the appropriate location in order to physically access the device.

If a problem is not so easily fixed, a new design is needed, or an RMA needs to be handled, Leica Geosystems relies primarily on UMB's manufacturer support. «Support is among the most important items for me,» Velardo says. «UMB's technicians are always ready to go and do really top-notch technical work. A big added value is definitely that they know our network very well and we don't have to start from scratch when we have problems. But also, JTAC, Juniper Networks' own support, works absolutely fantastic and responds within a very short time. We are very happy with that.»

Solutions

Upgrading the infrastructure allows Leica Geosystems to offer its employees the first-class network experience they need in their work environment, which is characterized by high quality standards. Carmelo Velardo explains, «Fast equipment is important to us - we now have 1 Gbit/s and 10 Gbit/s throughout - and the network must be stable. A prolonged Internet outage in one of our buildings would not be acceptable to us. With Juniper Networks, we can optimally cover both requirements.»

The infrastructure manager sees further advantages in simpler network management for his team of five employees and in the significantly lower costs: «With Juniper Networks, we were able to reduce the costs for our infrastructure by almost half. That's partly due to the lower-cost hardware but mostly due to inexpensive maintenance.»

90 percent of the entire switching infrastructure is now based on Juniper Networks. The goal is to eventually operate the entire access and distribution network with Juniper Networks. By the end of the lifecycle project, nearly 200 machines will have been replaced. Carmelo Velardo takes stock: «I am very happy about the decision to modernize our network with Juniper Networks. The devices work well and don't cause any problems.»