•         Network delivers 200x improvement in failover timing
•         28,000 users have reliable access, 24 hours a day, 365 a year

GUILDFORD, England (May 8, 2012) - Avaya, a global provider of business collaboration and communications solutions and services, today announced that Leeds Metropolitan University has successfully implemented the Avaya VENA Enterprise Fabric to deliver faster service activation, enhanced business continuity, and increased overall network agility to its more than 28,000 staff and student users.

The Leeds Metropolitan networking team needed to evolve their infrastructure while maintaining the levels of robustness and stability that they had worked hard to achieve. Their challenge was to identify a solution that had the ability to deliver both current and future technology improvements and would enhance the overall availability of the system to the many users who need reliable access to their information.

As with other higher-education providers, Leeds Metropolitan faces an incredibly competitive environment, with ever-present funding pressures and the need to offer compelling differentiation to attract fee-paying students. For Leeds Metropolitan, as for many others in this sector, networking services underpin all IT services, which can be key differentiators for a university, helping establish and project their ‘brand’ and appeal.

After conducting a comprehensive review of the various alternatives, Leeds Metropolitan chose Avaya to bring the Avaya VENA Enterprise Fabric capability into play throughout the network. This next-generation networking solution leverages the open and interoperable Shortest Path Bridging technology, specifically enhanced and optimised by Avaya, to create an enterprise-friendly solution that allows virtualisation with enhanced versatility to facilitate the University’s adoption of technology-enhanced learning initiatives – critical to attract students both at home and abroad.

The Avaya VENA Enterprise Fabric enhances everyday availability and performance, working in tight unison with a distributed and virtualised data centre environment. Incremental software and hardware changes were made to enhance Leeds Metropolitan’s proven, robust infrastructure, and the Avaya Ethernet Routing Switch 8800 estate delivering multi-faceted networking services now and into the future. With Avaya, Leeds Metropolitan is experiencing a 200-fold improvement in network failover time compared to the conventional design that it replaces. The tangible benefit for users is that their sessions and access will not be impacted during planned or unplanned transitions.

This announcement highlights Avaya’s commitment to bringing The Power of We™ to every Avaya customer to help drive faster collaboration, smarter decisions and better business results.

Quotes
“In designing for the future, Leeds Metropolitan did not feel bound to the past, and despite a long and successful history with Avaya Networking products, we undertook a rigorous analysis to find the solution that best matched our strategic goals. After conducting a comprehensive review, we determined that by using the Avaya VENA Enterprise Fabric capability to empower our network, we can develop new solutions to the challenges and demands of delivering cutting-edge learning services. We now find ourselves in the pleasantly refreshing position of being able to consistently say ‘yes we can’.”
-Phil Taylor, Communications Consultant, Leeds Metropolitan University

“Leeds Metropolitan University has always prided itself on an ability to collaboratively innovate new services to meet the evolving needs of a large student and faculty user population. The education sector is increasingly driven by the same requirements as any large organization—they need technology to power their business properly so that they can move key business initiatives forward rather than worry about the technology operating as it should. Now, more than ever, new projects are being driven on the basis of their business imperative, and agility is key to success. With the Avaya VENA Enterprise Fabric capability in place, Leeds Met can focus on running their business better, faster, and smarter—meeting the needs of educators, students, and professionals globally.”
-Olivier Baraquin, EMEA data and video leader, Avaya