New Network Increases Speed, Security for AFCEA Headquarters
Donated by Brocade, a strategic partner of AFCEA that provided full installation and training, the network replaced a legacy system that was long out of warranty with one incorporating open standards and mechanisms for meeting cybersecurity threats as they develop.
An aging, proprietary network at AFCEA headquarters has given way to an advanced system that positions the association to incorporate future information system capabilities. Donated by Brocade, a strategic partner of AFCEA that provided full installation and training, the network replaced a legacy system that was long out of warranty with one incorporating open standards and mechanisms for meeting cybersecurity threats as they develop.
Jim Griggs, vice president, chief information officer and chief technology officer for AFCEA, expresses that the old network generated two main concerns. One was the ability to monitor the network for cybersecurity—“We had really no visibility at all,” he relates. The other was the need to support a high-bandwidth virtual desktop environment. The old network had neither the speed nor the flexibility needed for that approach.
Griggs cites the Brocade network analyzer as a key element in the new network. “[It] really gives us the ability to visualize what’s going on in the network at any moment … and see in real time, and actually be alerted to in real time, performance and security anomalies.”
Other key capabilities brought by the new network include the ability to do quality of service and voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) routing, Griggs adds. AFCEA has done a virtual local area network (VLAN) for five years with its VoIP, so the association is dependent on that VLAN performance for unfettered voice traffic. It wanted that capability changeover in the new network to be seamless.
The new network analyzer complements that capability. In addition to serving as a cornerstone for cybersecurity, the ability to visualize the operating environment helps ensure quality performance. Potential network problems can be detected and fixed before the user community becomes aware of them.
Jimmie Adkins, Defense Department director, Brocade Federal, explains that Brocade brought to AFCEA the same open standards approach it offers its federal government customers, which helped installation and training. “One thing that Brocade does is take great pride in customer service and customer experience with our equipment, with our installation,” Adkins says. “So we condensed this installation, which normally would take two to three weeks, into three days. And that included moving the servers over, doing the training on our CLI [command-line interface] and testing the equipment and the cutover.”
Both Adkins and Griggs emphasized that the cutover was transparent—customers did not notice any difference. “The very best result you can get in an environment where you are doing a hardware and software upgrade is that nobody notices,” Griggs points out. “So the next day, after the upgrade was completed, we had no staff calls, no issues, no performance problems.”
A video chronicling Brocade’s donation to AFCEA can be viewed at url.afcea.org/BrandLinkBrocadevideo
