Sify's Network Solution for Regency Ceramics

Regency Ceramics opted for Sify's Virtual Private Network (VPN) for connecting its head office, factory and depots. Sify's VPN, which functions on Internet Protocol, was selected as it provided connectivity of high speed, and proved cost-effective. This Hyderabad based manufacturer of ceramic tiles runs a factory at Yanam, whose production capacity is 28,000 square meters a day, head office in Hyderabad, 12 regional offices and around 50 depots across Andhra Pradesh.

The Need

For data exchange among these establishments, the company initially used ordinary telephone lines with the help of modems. The process was time consuming as the size of large data files had to be reduced by zipping before transmission. The company wanted to establish high speed connectivity using some of the advanced connectivity modes like VPN, leased lines, VSAT and web networks, given these various benefits.

How it works

Sify's VPN solution first connected the central application server (MS Windows 2000 server) located in Hyderabad with the regional offices and depots. The company uses CITRIX clients to access the central server, which runs Oracle's ORION, an ERP product that Regency had installed.

The central server at the corporate office was based on a 256Kbps VPN port and a 128Kbps Internet port using Cisco 2611 dual Ethernet router with ISDN back-up.

Sify established a WAN connecting the head office and all regional offices through its IP VPN that handles voice and data of multimedia, ERP and e-mail applications.

The solution provides an option for the customer to manage the traffic, based on their priorities for applications and protocols running on the network. It also facilitates segregation of Internet and VPN traffic at the corporate office and gateway level. The customer can also tune the IP VPN to suit business requirements.

Sify uses Netscreen 254 port appliance-based firewall to ensure information security. Further, the data is always routed through Sify's managed IP network.

IP VPN comes with built-in mechanisms designed to partition one set of data from another on a managed IP network for more users to share.

Benefits

The leased line and VSAT networks cost more than the IP VPN provided the bandwidth is within a medium range. IP VPN is more secured, scalable, flexible and fast. Regency Ceramics believes that their decision to go on for IP-VPN's has resulted in lower TCO's.

Regency has chosen 256kbps bandwidth for the IP VPN that cost substantially less than what leased line or VSAT based networks would cost.

Since Sify's IP VPN performs packet encapsulation (tunnelling), encryption, and authentication, the data reaches its destinations without being tampered on its way.

"Sify's IP VPN definitely has several advantages over other technologies. The reason why we selected Sify's service is because it supports our factory operations round-the-clock and keeps us updated about production, sales, and collections that happen in our offices and depots. We use the network quite extensively. Our reports say that we exchange one giga byte of data everyday," says ASVST Nageshwara Rao, Manager (IS), Regency Ceramics Limited.

Employees working at remote locations or travelling, dealers, suppliers, and customers can access the network since it functions on Internet protocol. Thanks to the network, the performance of ERP and Supply Chain Management (SCM) and other mission-critical business applications gets enhanced.

IP VPN overcomes certain limitations of other new options. Beyond a certain point, any legacy network whether it is ATM, Frame Relay, VSAT or a private network, will not be able to scale up for 'any-to-any connectivity.' Besides such legacy systems become extremely complex and difficult to manage and sometimes impractical to implement.