Swiss insurance firm Chooses Ciena to connect data hubs
System will allow Helvetia to transport data at 200 Gb/s across distances up to 130km without amplifiers
Swiss insurance firm Helvetia has selected Ciena for a data centre interconnect (DCI) network between its major data hubs in Switzerland.
Helvetia will use a suite of Ciena solutions as part of this network build, including Waveserver and the 6500 Packet-Optical Platform, for high-capacity Ethernet and Fibre Channel interconnect.
This deployment will also enhance the security of Helvetia's network using Ciena's integrated WaveLogic Encryption, ensuring data is always protected as it travels between Helvetia's Swiss data centres.
Helvetia Switzerland (part of the Helvetia Group) is one of Switzerland's large insurance providers, with more than 1.3 million customers nationally. Recent corporate acquisitions and market growth is driving Helvetia to increase its data centre footprint within Switzerland and improve existing links between key business hubs. With Ciena, Helvetia is significantly increasing the scalability, reliability and capacity of its network links between the Swiss Data centre locations.
With this simple high-capacity network, Helvetia will be able to transport data at 200 Gb/s across distances up to 130km without requiring costly Raman amplification or intermediate amplifier sites.
This deployment also includes 200G wire-speed encryption for enhanced data transmission security, along with Ciena's software-based MyCryptoTool, a dedicated management user portal that provides full control of all security parameters associated with protecting data traveling across the network. This allows Helvetia's security team to manage the encryption capabilities, while the network team separately manages network operations.
Kapsch CarrierCom, a global system integrator and supplier of end-to-end telecommunications solutions and a Ciena BizConnect partner, is deploying Helvetia's robust Ciena-based network as a fully managed service.
"As the financial services sector moves to provide more online offerings there is a growing need for highly-reliable and continuous connectivity. By bolstering our DCI networks with Ciena, Helvetia ensures we can securely deliver the applications and services needed for our employees to be successful at their jobs and our customers to have access to critical information "“ whenever they need it," said Andreas Hagin, lead engineer, IT Infrastructure, Helvetia
"Today's data centres don't exist in isolation but rather need to share data and content with each other and provide back-up and redundancy. Helvetia sees these challenges as opportunity, and by using Ciena's solutions for its in-house data needs the company is well-placed to be a leader in the digitisation of the insurance market," said Daniel Prokop, regional sales director, Central Europe, Ciena
