SHI | Locuz - An SHI Company

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

D B Corp Ltd. is largest print media company of India, publishing 46 editions of Dainik Bhaskar Newspaper (Hindi daily), 9 editions of Divya Bhaskar Newspaper (Gujarati Daily), 6 editions of Divya Marathi Newspaper (Marathi Daily) and 211 sub-editions in three languages (Hindi, Gujarati and Marathi) in 12 states in India. Radio Business of MY FM consolidates its network with 30 radio stations in 7 states, across India. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Locuz?

Large scale SDWAN deployment helping with faster Go-to-market and gain faster performance while consuming less bandwidth. With this we could easily deploy services to a branch office, could add WAN optimization and security services on demand and deploy applications in minutes, on any platform, with a consistent user experience and predictable app performance.

What were your goals for this project?

Gain faster application and network performance Consistent and enhanced user experience and predictable app performance Increase IT agility Lesser TCO Increase Uptime In Branch

SOLUTION

How did you select Locuz?

After evaluation of many Cisco Partners and System Integrator, we were very impressed with the capability that Locuz got to the table. They had deep knowledge of Cisco solutions and were accredited with Cisco Gold Partnership. We also learnt that Locuz had considerable experience deploying similar solutions for other Global customers.

Their Leadership team gave us confidence in their competencies and worked with us as true and trusted advisors focusing on our key objectives with clear outcomes. Their strength not only on network technologies but also in core infrastructure technologies and cyber security ensured that we not just chose them as our strategic partner for our current need but for any future needs.

Describe the project in detail.

The solution majorly included High Speed Converged Network Infrastructure: The network architecture design had high speed switches and 10G backbone connectivity over Fibre and multi gigabit Ethernet. It has modular network having advanced technology to support data, voice and video traffic simultaneously High density & performance for integration of wireless connectivity:

The network architecture design supports the overlay WLAN Infrastructure across multiple locations (branches) to provide seamless wireless coverage and performance to end users. WLAN Infrastructure should support 802.11ac for multi-gigabit Wi-Fi and support use of multimedia applications such as voice, video and real-time applications Secured Wired and WLAN integration.

The network architecture design had advanced capabilities of providing secured connection to authorized users connecting via both wired and wireless network supporting secure end user/end point along with BYOD capabilities. The authentication mechanism uses 802.1x authentication protocol.

The proposed network architecture design is capable of supporting the required technology for users connecting via their own devices Locuz proposed and deployed Cisco SD-WAN solutions like – Cisco IWAN, Cisco Prime Infrastructure, Cisco One, Cisco APS, Cisco switches and many more and quickly experienced the huge difference it made in our network and user performance.

Solution Components Includes: Cisco IWAN platforms include: Cisco ISR 4000 Series with APIC-EM IWAN Application and Cisco ASR 1000 Series. Cisco APIC-EM Cisco Prime Infrastructure Cisco One Cisco WAAS Cisco Firepower Appliances Cisco ASA 5500 – X Series Firewalls Cisco 5520 Wireless Controllers Cisco 2802 access points

What was the team composition?

The team included: Project Sponsor Project Management Office Solution Architect Team SMEs Deployment Engineers Team Steering Committee/Governance Team

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

1. 99.95% uptime resulting in 'No Delay' across all our editions
2. Uninterrupted service during peak hours when Editorial teams are filing stories, VDO & preparing pages, passing it thru image correction software, sent to printing plant.
3. Newspapers reaching ''on time across all óur cities - for approx 6 M subscribers / readers.
4. 24x7 support assurance

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Working with the Locuz team was seamless with Effective Project Management and SPOC alignment Effective and proactive communication plan Effective Risk Management Appropriate Stakeholder Management Adherence to Project timelines with regular cadence meetings

What did you find most impressive about this company?

After evaluation of many Cisco Partners and System Integrators, we were very impressed with the capability that Locuz got to the table.

Some of the key factors that impressed us about Locuz were: Advanced Technology focus (Digital Infrastructure) Deep Cisco Competency Flexible service delivery models Highly involved Leadership Team Highly skilled resources with deep domain experience Field tested methodologies and best practices Sensitive to Customer needs and priorities

Are there any areas for improvement?

There was a minor delay in the project timeline owning to dependencies. However, we were pleased with the quality of service received from Locuz.