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Brocade, a provider of networking solutions, has announced that the Royal College of Physicians of London has upgraded its network in an effort to drive the implementation of advanced IP-based unified communications applications, including VoIP, unified messaging and HD video conferencing.

The new network is expected to substantially increase performance as it is based on the Brocade (News - Alert) FastIron SX 800 series 10 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) backbone switches and 1 GbE FastIron GS PoE1 edge switches. The network will ensure first-class delivery to members and commercial clients who use the College’s award-winning conference facilities. At the same time, the new switches will enhance network resilience, reduce power consumption and enhance virtualization projects.

Christopher Venning, the Royal College of Physicians’ IT network and services manager, said in a statement: “Last year we hit a crunch point with network capacity and decided to upgrade. Faster Internet connectivity had to be provided to conference delegates. Our 15 year old PBX (News - Alert) was end of life, giving us the opportunity to move to unified communications technology, and we wanted to save on staff and committee members’ travel costs through HD video conferencing. The new equipment gives us a 10-fold performance increase comfortably allowing us to run all these new services.”

After reviewing a number of different options, the college selected Brocade for its entire Layer 2/3 and Layer 4-7 networking needs. Brocade also offered the most attractive financial proposition with the latest generation Brocade FastIron backbone switches as they consume up to 40 percent less power than previous models.

Venning added: “We’re trying to do a lot at the College with a relatively small team of IT staff who manage our systems day-to-day. Selecting a single, end-to-end vendor means simplified management, plus we’ve used Brocade’s equipment happily for years [previously had Brocade FastIron 1500 switches] so have the utmost confidence in the technology and its ability. ”

The core of the network is made up of two Brocade FastIron SX 800 switches, dual linked for resilience. In addition, 28 Brocade FastIron GS PoE edge switches are installed in wiring closets throughout the college’s four London sites and its Oxford premises. The college also deployed Brocade’s ServerIron Layer 4-7 application switching technology to ensure the availability of roughly 14 websites the college hosts.

With the network upgrade, the College has been able to increase reliability substantially, so that it is now at 99.95 percent. The College has refreshed its server environment, which reduces the estate by more than 70 percent – a decrease from 36 physical servers down to eight virtual servers.

As part of its unified communications roll-out, an HD video conferencing solution has also been implemented, along with a VoIP platform and more than 400 VoIP handsets. Unified messaging services and VoIP handsets for remote workers have been deployed to complete the new communications infrastructure.

Ulrich Plechschmidt, vice president, EMEA at Brocade, stated: “Like all organizations, particularly not-for-profit, the Royal College of Physicians has to balance getting the best technology, at the best price, which will evolve with its demands and deliver reliable service. Having used Brocade technology for over eight years, the college knew that we offered the best solutions on the market and I am delighted that it has standardized on our next generation FastIron switches to underpin its unified communications strategy.”

Last week, Brocade announced that Hostway is driving advanced service and global footprint growth with Brocade’s IP network. Hostway (News - Alert) is one of the top five largest independent Web hosting companies in the world.

The company also introduced this month the new Brocade NetIron CER 2000 Series compact multi-protocol label switching, or “MPLS,” router that features their hardware-based routing capacity in a 1U form factor.