Recruitment consultancy Kelly Services is consolidating
multiple networking contracts and technologies across 242 sites in
14 countries onto a single network from virtual network operator
Vanco.
The company anticipates savings of £1m on its network operating
costs over the five-year term of the Vanco contract.
Kelly Services has grown through acquisitions in Europe, the
Middle East and Africa, inheriting a range of network technologies.
This has resulted in the company using a mixture of Frame
Relay-based leased lines, ISDN, and IPSec virtual private networks
running on ADSL.
This disparate infrastructure will be replaced with Vanco's MPLS
(multi-protocol label switching) network, which uses a technology
called MPLS Matrix to integrate multiple domestic MPLS provider
networks.
MPLS is typically used to enhance an IP network. Routers on the
incoming edge of the MPLS network add an "MPLS label" to the top of
each packet, based on criteria such as destination IP address. This
label is then used to steer a packet through the subsequent
routers.
Vanco's MPLS network runs over ADSL and uses quality of service
technology to label the packets.
Jason Jennings, European IT director at Kelly Services, said the
company would be live on the new network in seven or eight
countries by Christmas. The firm will run both old and new networks
simultaneously, and migrate on a branch-by-branch basis.
The greatest challenge in migrating such a large operation is
ensuring continuity of service. "We are spending as much time in
the planning and migration as we can. Building a network from
scratch is not particularly difficult. Migrating from one network
to another is challenging," said Jennings.
By moving to a fully IP-based network, Jennings said Kelly
Services would have the capability to run multiple VPNs and use
voice over IP and video over IP in the future.
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