Destination: Advanced IP paradise IPv6: The missing link? Trouble in paradise? Hungry for automation Thinking through virtualization Mainframe for rent How to get IT right

For IT directors, the new data center road map is clear: Head toward an all-IP network, complete with advanced IP applications such as real-time collaboration.

Already, companies are moving along the steppingstones to this all-IP place. Many have implemented voice and video over IP, and are turning out frame relay networks and other private links in favor of pure IP connections, such as provided via MPLS-based networks.

Two network leaders plotting their courses to the advanced IP paradise are Erik Durand, IT director for Costa Mesa, Calif., civil engineering firm Psomas, and Jim Klein, director of Information Services and Technology at Saugus Union School District in Saugus, Calif. Both were finalists in the Network World Renovator Awards earlier this year.

For Durand and Klein, the goal is to achieve real-time collaboration with advanced IP applications and an all-IP network.

Engineered for advanced IP

In a perfect world, Durand says, the CAD/CAM drawings his users rely upon would be available from anywhere at anytime. "Our engineers would be able to collaborate on construction projects using whiteboard applications and videoconferencing over wireless LAN, cellular or satellite connections from a remote office, an on-site trailer or even a dirt mound," he says.

Today, he is laying the groundwork that will help him attain this network nirvana.

"As an engineering company, we work with large CAD files - 300M bytes to 500M bytes on average for each one," he says. "This wasn't a problem when we were a smaller company and everyone worked in the same office, but as we've grown - 20% per year over the last two years - we find we really need to share work across offices."

Durand already has swapped out his frame relay network in favor of an MPLS-based, fully meshed, pure-IP topography.

"The advantage is that we can have every-office-to-every-office connections, where before we had to pass through a main hub. We've lessened the number of hops, which will speed access to data," he says.

He also has consolidated file servers at the company's locations in Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada and Utah to a handful of data centers equipped with Riverbed Technology's Steelhead file services appliances. These appliances allow real-time access and sharing of centralized data over the wide area.

Whitepapers

• The Trend from UNIX to Linux in SAP(r) Data Centers
• Network-Wide Change Management Visibility with Route Analytics
• A Comparative Study of CDN Architectures
• Best Practices for HP Servers and HP Enterprise Virtual Array in a Microsoft Exchange
• REMOTE CONTROL: How to Reduce the Cost, Complexity and Risk of Managing Your Distributed IT Infrastructure
• Best Practices for WAN Optimization with Data Replication

View more LANS & WANS whitepapers

Webcasts

• Branch Office Trends and Best Practices
• Correlating granular network and application visibility
• Migrating to an MPLS-Based Network
• Round Table Webcast with Forrester Research
• Best Practices for Deploying WAN Optimization for Disaster Recovery
• WAN Optimization Editorial Webcast

View more LANS & WANS webcasts

Special Reports

• Ehternet Services: WAN options mature
• Keeping Spam at Bay
• Network World Executive Guide: The Virtualization Equation
• Get More From Your WAN
• WAN Optimization: How to rev up sluggish applications
• Network World Executive Guide: Perfecting Application Performance Management

View more LANS & WANS special reports