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SUCCESS STORY

PeakColo

PeakColo Goes to the Cloud and Rises above the Competition

DATA CENTER

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Challenge

Offer best-of-breed, white-label Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) to clients over public, private, and hybrid cloud networks

Solution

• Brocade VDX 6720 Data Center Switches

• Brocade TurboIron 24X Switches

• Brocade ServerIron ADX Series switches

• Brocade NetIron CER 2000 Series routers

Results

• Introduced private, public, and hybrid cloud services that can be customized to clients’ needs

• Saved approximately $20,000 annually on cabling and other infrastructure costs while simplifying management

• Achieved return on investment in only 11 months

• Increased performance capacity to offer 10 times the bandwidth at one-third the cost

Cloud computing, hosting, and colocation are some of today’s hottest trends, especially as more enterprises look to reduce costs, become more flexible and agile, and focus on core business competencies.

For these companies, working with a partner like PeakColo can make a significant difference to their bottom line. Based in Denver, Colorado, PeakColo focuses on the Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) piece of the cloud puzzle, delivering public, private, hybrid, and custom white-label solutions to clients. According to John Palley, Chief Operating Officer of PeakColo, the company’s business is split evenly between private and public cloud services. “We have Fortune 10 and Fortune 100 companies using our private cloud, and we’re seeing an increase among companies whose business or technology decisions are mandated by HIPAA or other requirements, particularly around disaster recovery.”

Palley adds that PeakColo provides the underlying platforms for enterprises to deploy applications such as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and disaster recovery, and offers its clients an SSAE 16/SAS 70 Type II-compliant infrastructure.

To accommodate this array of requirements, PeakColo needed a solid network infrastructure and the ability to virtualize its data center. In fact, PeakColo is one of the first cloud infrastructure companies in North America to achieve the VMware vCloud Powered designation—given to qualifying members of the VMware Service Provider Program—for its cloud service offerings.

BRINGING DATA TO THE CLOUDS

During the past few years, PeakColo experienced significant growth. It has three data centers in Denver and another located in Phoenix, Arizona, connected with two redundant 10 Gbps circuits. To add 13 microsites around the U.S., and to support the opening of its new data center in the United Kingdom, PeakColo needed to purchase a “bulletproof” infrastructure that could deliver secure and robust services to its clients.

“We wanted a network infrastructure that could accommodate our explosive growth and ever-increasing client demands, while providing that in a secure, high-performance environment,” says Palley.

PeakColo selected a suite of products from Brocade, after evaluating various solutions from competitors. The Brocade® solution—which essentially replaces gear from Cisco and Juniper Networks in the core of PeakColo’s network—includes Brocade VDX™ 6720 Data Center Switches at all four data centers. These switches utilize Brocade VCS™ Fabric technology, which provides an intelligent foundation for building data center Ethernet fabrics and streamlines the transition to cloud computing.

In addition, Brocade TurboIron® 24X Switches provide ancillary connectivity, and Brocade NetIron® CER 2000 Series routers provide Internet connectivity, while Brocade ServerIron® ADX Series switches support load balancing.

NOTHING BUT CLEAR SKIES

The Brocade VDX 6720 Data Center Switches allow PeakColo to reduce its cabling from a mix of 10 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) and 1 GbE cables to two 10 GbE cables. This decrease in cabling has also led to fewer headaches when managing such a dense cloud computing environment. Palley estimates that the company is saving approximately $20,000 annually on cabling, cable managers, switches, rack space, and labor—in addition to the power savings from using Brocade network equipment.

In addition, Palley estimates that PeakColo can offer 10 times the bandwidth for one-third the cost. “Brocade is known for its ability to move high volumes of data in a high-bandwidth, secure environment. This has enabled us to see a return on investment in just 11 short months,” he says.

According to Palley, the primary reason for selecting Brocade was its ability to provide a smooth transition to a new, future-proof infrastructure. “We looked at what we needed to support our business and our clients into the future, and Brocade provided that with minimum disruption and maximum capabilities,” he says.

Brocade also delivered at a price point that was extremely attractive to PeakColo. “It’s the best combination of computing storage and communications capabilities at the lowest price in the industry,” Palley says. Had PeakColo stayed with Cisco, Palley estimates a similar solution would have cost four to five times more.

According to Luke Norris, PeakColo Chief Executive Officer, virtualizing the data center has allowed his company to do much more with less. “Moving forward, standardizing on Brocade shows we’re picking best of breed and the best price/performance,” he says.

Norris adds that the comprehensive Brocade Ethernet fabric strategy, based on Transparent Interconnect of Lots of Links (TRILL), is extremely valuable to PeakColo. “By transitioning to a cloud-optimized network built on Brocade VCS Fabric technology, we are able to expand much more rapidly and respond to support issues faster and more predictably than environments using the legacy Spanning Tree Protocol,” he explains.

LOOKING TO THE FUTURE

The Brocade deployment across PeakColo’s data center environment has helped the company bring its cloud services to the next level and beyond. “We bought it for the future, and as our business grows and our clients consume more bandwidth, the Brocade solution will allow us to scale to meet increased demand,” says Palley. “Brocade is an essential component in what we’ve designed, built, and deployed for our Infrastructure-as-a-Service model.”

For more information, visit www.brocade.com.

WHY BROCADE

“Brocade is an essential component in what we’ve designed, built, and deployed for our Infrastructure-as-a-Service model.”

— John Palley, Chief Operating Officer at PeakColo

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