Network News :

TRAC Case Study

TRAC is a supplier of engineering, installation and support services based on Strathclyde Business Park at Bellshill, Lanarkshire. With bases in Aberdeen, Central Belt Scotland, Chesterfield and Winchester plus additional site-located facilities, TRAC are able to effectively organise and manage local, national and international operations. The company has developed an extensive client portfolio and has a proven record of successfully delivering projects on budget and on time.

TRAC’s national communications needs are looked after by C-Mar Teleinformatics. The C-Mar Group of companies provides value-added solutions based on a comprehensive and complementary portfolio of products and services, as well as consultancy and support services, to a diverse range of companies and industries around the world. C-Mar’s Teleinformatics Division provides a wide range of technology-based services and solutions, ranging from consultancy to specific services such as e-business, communications and networking solutions.

In Scotland, TRAC currently has two offices locations on Strathclyde Business Park and a head office in Aberdeen. Each of the Central Belt offices had its own separate internet access -- one was an ADSL-based internet access service and the other a 2Mb leased line internet service. Data traffic flowed between each of these offices and the head office in Aberdeen.

TRAC were keen to enable direct communication between the two offices on Strathclyde Business Park, create a more stable link and consolidate their data communication between the Central Belt and the HQ in Aberdeen. They were also keen to be able, at a later stage, to use these links to support all their voice traffic.

Being the current provider of ICT services for SE Grampian on the Aberdeen Science and Technology Park in Aberdeen, C-Mar was aware of the fibre optic connectivity that project Atlas was delivering to buildings and businesses located on the park. They were also aware that the same investment was being made on Strathclyde Business Park (SBP) and immediately knew that they could recommend a solution for TRAC which would physically link their offices on SBP and provide a consolidated link for data and voice traffic using the ATLAS fibre infrastructure.

Given that the fibre on the Atlas parks is all pre-installed like pre-laid roads waiting for cars to use them, connecting the two buildings together via the co-location building was a very simple task, literally taking a few minutes with the aid of a couple of patch leads. Lighting the fibre is entirely up to the service provider and their customer. In this case, TRAC were keen to exploit the scalability of dark fibre and requested C-Mar to install 1Gb fibre to ethernet converters at either end.

TRAC now has the ability to transfer as much traffic as they wish at very high speeds between their two buildings on Strathclyde Business Park as if they were on the same LAN (Local Area Network). They now have only one connection (2Mb) but are considering ordering a flexible ethernet based 10Mb connection, where they can decide how much bandwidth they want guaranteed, and yet have the ability to burst to higher speeds as and when they need to.

C-Mar has delivered an innovative and stable communications solution which reinforces the reputation that TRAC has gained as a business. The new connections will allow convergence of voice and data bringing reduced communications costs and greater efficiencies for the business as a whole.