Garda Installs Nationwide MPLS Network from New Edge
Armored Transport Company Uses Technology to Compete, Add Value
VANCOUVER, Wash. (Business Wire EON) April 29, 2008 --
When seconds on a clock represent millions of dollars, Garda USA, the
second-largest cash logistics company in North America, takes
extraordinary measures to ensure its communications network and systems
perform at their peak so money gets to the right places at the right
time, every time.
Garda’s U.S.-based
armored transport subsidiary, formerly known as AT
Systems Inc., migrated to a private wide area network supported by
Multi-protocol Label Switching, or MPLS, and powered by New Edge
Networks, the business communications unit of EarthLink, (NASDAQ:ELNK).
The network is valued at more than $6 million.
The new MPLS
network links about 150 branches and money rooms with redundant
communications access to data centers in Dallas and Denver so that no
data traffic traverses the public Internet. The data centers, in turn,
have redundant access to different regional aggregation points on New
Edge’s private national backbone network. The
company also maintains a DSL-based private backup network with automatic
failover and return to the primary network, in the event of network
issues.
“Our customers are extremely concerned about
the security and resiliency of our private network,”
said Wes Colvin, chief information officer for Garda USA, based in
Pasadena, Calif. “Our business is all about
accountability and accurate accounting. If those elements –
accountability and accuracy – are not there
you don’t have anything.
“If you want to get someone’s
attention, mess with their money,” said
Colvin, noting that a fully meshed, highly secure MPLS network helps
Garda deliver mission-critical applications to its clients, add value
and differentiate itself among rivals.
“To distinguish ourselves in the market and
to find ways to add value to the customer –
that give us a competitive advantage – we
have to use technology,” Colvin said. “The
only way we can grow our business and successfully compete and be
pre-eminent in the field is through technology.”
A number of large banks outsource their money rooms to Garda for
processing deposits and handling cash transfers and change orders.
“We have to convince them that we can handle
this (responsibility) for them as well or better than they can do
themselves,” Colvin said. “The
network and proprietary systems we use enable us to operate as an
extension of their business and in compliance with their legal
obligations.”
Garda migrated from a legacy frame relay network to an MPLS network. The
primary network automatically switches to a DSL-based backup network and
back to the primary network in the event of network failures anywhere.
New Edge built and maintains Garda’s backup
network using alternate network facilities.
“The savings in costs for the primary network
more than paid or covered the cost of the backup network so it was as if
(Garda USA) got two networks for the price of one,”
said Joe Gomez, chief information officer for W Lange and Co., a
California-based telecommunications consultancy that advised Garda USA.
“We were able to triple Garda’s
bandwidth and dramatically increase the network survivability while
still achieving a $400,000 savings over the life of the three-year
service agreement,” Gomez said.
Garda uses its MPLS network to power proprietary cash management and
tracking systems as well as collaborative tools for improving
communications, video surveillance, VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol),
and email.
“MPLS
technology is ideally suited to enable various types of traffic with
differentiated levels of performance requirements to move across the
network without affecting other traffic,”
said Greg
Griffiths, vice president of marketing for New
Edge Networks.
A T1-based MPLS network delivers performance levels and service
guarantees that one cannot get with a DSL-based network. It also
provides a scalable approach to deploying network access to new branch
locations as businesses grow in size and market share.
About New Edge Networks
New Edge Networks builds and manages private IP-based wide area networks
that do not use the public Internet. Connecting business sites at
virtually any address in the United States, New Edge allows businesses
to choose any blend of available access technologies –
from DSL and T1 lines to fiber-optic connections –
for building private and secure MPLS networks with performance
guarantees. A wholly owned subsidiary of Atlanta-based EarthLink Inc., (NASDAQ:ELNK),
New Edge is based in Vancouver, Wash. For more information visit www.newedgenetworks.com
or call 1-360-693-9009.
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