Chemicals company BASF is implementing a managed network
from BT to cut costs, improve network flexibility and cope with
future data requirements.
The Multi-Protocol Label Switching-based network is being used to
connect 200 BASF sites around Europe, including major sites in the
UK.
MPLS allows BASF to ensure that the most important users in the
business get the bandwidth they need for their applications, and
offers better service than a standard configured network.
Fareed Mohammed, BASF's director of information systems technology
and architecture, said, "BT had a good understanding of our
requirements and the special characteristics of our company.
Working with standardised products, BT has developed an ideal
solution."
By allocating bandwidth according to users' needs, the new network
will reduce BASF data traffic costs, as well as freeing up
bandwidth for the most business-critical processes.
As part of the contract, BT will also help BASF migrate some sites
to a voice over IP system, which will help the company reduce the
cost of voice calls.
BT has one of the biggest MPLS network capacities in the world and
BASF plans to extend its MPLS network to include the US, Africa,
and Asia.