Long-distance data center connectivity
Optical networks to transport any protocol over any distance

Business need

Financial services firms need increasingly secure and reliable connectivity for remote data centers to support compliance and customer service objectives. At the same time, increased merger activities means that integrating inherited data centers successfully is becoming even more critical. Data centers need to be connected over longer distances, driving the need to build a single long-distance network for carrying both storage and Local Area Network (LAN) traffic. Many financial institutions implement "follow-the-sun" customer support, which requires data center connectivity across Asia, Europe and North America so information can be transferred from continent-to-continent as the working day evolves. Customer service representatives in each of these regions need access to updated information, which requires high-speed mirroring and data replication. These organizations also need to implement long-distance data center connectivity to comply with regulatory requirements. For example, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act both mandate requirements for U.S. financial services organizations regarding the storage and retrieval of business information.

Challenges

Financial institutions face many challenges in connecting data centers across long distances. Database replication is a time-sensitive application that requires a near-zero latency network to work effectively. Organizations therefore need low-latency, high-performance optical networks. IP networks have difficulty handling more than 100 gigabytes of traffic per day. At more than 100 gigabytes per day, IP-routed WANs exhibit significant packet loss and retransmissions. While IP equipment is appropriate for the edge of the network, it is insufficient for the needs of core networks connecting data centers across long distances.

Solution

Safe and reliable access to replicated data at a backup data center in another geographic area— preferably outside of the power grid of the primary data center—is critical. Both storage and LAN traffic must be efficiently transported between data centers, and database replication must be implemented to regularly transfer major amounts of data. Layer 1/2 networks must provide the capacity and efficiency needed for the core, and the network must be extremely efficient so firms can control bandwidth costs. Financial services firms also need network equipment with proven interoperability with storage systems to ensure efficient operations.

Ciena's offerings

Ciena's assured, adaptive network solutions support any mix of applications between sites by providing all traffic with high-performance, zero packet loss and low fixed latency—regardless of whether the data is sourced from a remote LAN-based server, a Storage Area Network (SAN)-based storage array or a legacy mainframe. Ciena offers adaptive network solutions that support Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM), SONET/SDH and Gigabit Ethernet, and dynamic bandwidth assignment makes more bandwidth available to support increased demands to access stored information. The flexible Wide Area Network (WAN)’s intelligent Layer 1/2 transport and switching capabilities allow for application transparency to provide local LAN-like connectivity across the WAN. Solutions based on Ciena's assured, adaptive network architecture are qualified by all major storage vendors, including Hitachi Data Systems®, EMC®, IBM®, McData® and Qlogic® so financial firms can connect data centers across long distances while leveraging existing storage investments.

Benefits

  • Data centers can be connected efficiently across any distance. Adaptive networks have already been successfully deployed in many financial applications encompassing even transcontinental and transoceanic distances
  • Ciena solutions provide five-9s (99.999%) and six-9s (99.9999%) to provide carrier-grade availability levels
  • With multi-protocol, hardware-based data compression, efficient protocol mapping and dynamic bandwidth allocation, Ciena’s solutions minimize leased line costs with more efficient bandwidth utilization
  • Through minimized latency and maximized throughput, adaptive networks enable high-performance, long-distance data center connectivity
  • As opposed to application-aware networks, applications transparency minimizes expensive and time-consuming applications tuning and debugging—for initial deployment as well as for every software update, bug fix, etc.
  • Ciena's FlexiPort technology provides software-programmable ports that minimize capital expenses and maximize flexibility and scalability
  • Eliminate external switching/routing equipment for many scenarios to reduce equipment costs