Scalable Communications
Scalable brought us in-depth knowledge of protocols, equipment and network design, wrapped in a very professional methodology. We now have the core networking infrastructure that the business needs to move forward, and we continue to rely on our partner Scalable as our network continues to evolve within a very fluid environment.
The Conde Nast Publications Ltd
When The Condé Nast Publications Ltd, the publishing powerhouse behind legendary title Vogue, needed to upgrade its multi-protocol network to deliver higher performance and greater reliability, it turned to Scalable Communications.Condé Nast Publications Ltd is the international publishing giant behind UK titles Vogue, Vanity Fair, and GQ, to name just a selection. Most famous in glossy monthly print formats, these titles also have prolific on-line formats that extend and enliven coverage. The journalistic and creative impetus for the UK focuses on The Condé Nast Publications Ltd.
Headquartered at Vogue House, Hanover Square, the publisher spreads its operations over three other London locations at Old Burlington Street, Bond Street and Acton.
In its own words: The Condé Nast Publications Ltd is committed to journalistic integrity, influential reporting and superior design. Each magazine features world-renowned editors, writers and photographers who demand excellence, put a premium on truth and refuse to compromise.
Journalistic endeavour is a 24hour activity, and creative design and print pre-production in digital media demands the highest levels of network performance and reliability. So when Scalable Communications won a highly competitive tendering process to upgrade the core infrastructure in a multi-site network, they did not underestimate the challenge.
"The business needed increased reliability and better performance from its network", said Lauraine Turner, IT Director at Condé Nast Publications Ltd. "Our business is driven by creativity, and our computing and IT systems had just kind of evolved within that creative process. We mix Mackintosh with PCs, Novell Netware with Microsoft."
A need to re-house the server farm and communications room provided the impetus for a rationalisation and upgrade of the networking infrastructure. The business had already deployed hardware from Extreme Networks and anticipated redesign, redeployment and incremental upgrade, rather than wholesale change-out.
Some equipment made redundant from the upgrade was utilised in the expansion of the Local Area Network at The Condé Nast Publications Ltd Bond Street office, further safeguarding previous IT investments. A Wide Area Network refresh also gave Scalable the opportunity to integrate automatic failover of Internet services and guarantee delivery of business critical applications.
The round-the-clock nature of journalist operations dictated a running programme of small, scheduled improvements and upgrades. Timing and testing was everything.
"The consulting and design process that we implemented was able to identify some immediate improvements through reconfiguring and redeploying existing network components", says Simon Brown, Managing Director at Scalable. "However each change we made represented a potential disruption to a 24 hour business, so the art was to ensure that each worked first time and delivered an obvious improvement in performance or reliability."
The next stage was the upgrade of the network core, using additional Extreme switches, to remove single points of failure and better balance traffic flows. These changes were targeted at delivering network uptime of the telco-class five nines variety. The infrastructure was very much a multi-protocol environment - Apple Talk, Novell IPX, and IP as dictated by the spread and mix of applications and operating systems so this was no straightforward task.
Lauraine again "Scalable brought us in-depth knowledge of protocols, equipment and network design, wrapped in a very professional methodology. We now have the core networking infrastructure that the business needs to move forward, and we continue to rely on our partner Scalable as our network continues to evolve within a very fluid environment."
For further information on The Condé Nast Publications visit www.condenast.co.uk
0844 7422010
