‘Of Terrestrial and VSAT Links’

When Gillette India Ltd wanted a WAN to interconnect

its 30-plus locations across India–factories and warehouses–for its

enterprise IS applications, it preferred to go it with terrestrial links,

against the reliability of VSAT links. Rajnish Kumar, the company’s

regional IT manager, spoke to Dataquest about the company’s WAN.

Excerpts:

Rajnish Kumar: Regional manager (IT) at Gillette India

l What

technologies have you put in place on your corporate WAN?



At most of the locations, we have taken leased lines for last-mile connectivity,
with ISDN links as backup. In a few locations where leased lines are not

practically viable, we have implemented RF-based connectivity. We are using VPN

links at all places, using Sify’s backbone. Sify is our network implementation

partner, providing us with end-to-end service.

l Why

did you commission an all-terrestrial network? And what made you choose Sify

over other network implementers?



By the time we commissioned the network in 2001, the reliability as well as
availability of leased lines had improved considerably. With falling prices to

boot, it did make a far competent alternative to VSATs, which lost out primarily

on the cost factor.

For the VPN network, we did consider several other vendors,

but Sify stood out for its depth and presence in the country.

l Has

the network performed according to your expectations?



It has. We are completely satisfied with its performance. Also, there is a
comprehensive SLA governing the network performance, with multiple relationship

and technical parameters that ensure a good quality of service. Our

implementation partner manages the network end-to-end.

l How

will the network change or scale up in future, if required?



In terms of change, we will be looking to enhance our last-mile connectivity,
bringing leased lines to all our nodes. Besides, the implementation of a

tier-one network with backbone speeds touching 45 Mbps will address all our

scalability issues. Even our present day applications will benefit from this

next-generation network, in terms of response times and bandwidth.

TEAM

DQ