The diverse nature of the Reox Holdings business puts a greater demand



on its IT systems than other, non-diversified enterprises face. The IT

department in Reox works with four distinct business divisions: the

4Homes DIY retail business; the Dairygold dairy business; a cold foods

division; and a substantial property business. The Group IT division

is responsible not only for the Reox data centre at Cork Airport

Business Park, but also for anticipating and meeting the changing

needs of the four divisions, each of which has its own IT manager.

"We decided that AirSpeed would become our primary WAN circuit to our

sites. The wired network will become our backup."

Michael Costello, Group IT Service Delivery Manager, Reox Holdings

In 2007 Reox undertook an initiative to strengthen its wide area

network, as the momentum within the business was toward the

centralisation of more IT infrastructure in the company's data centre.

The WAN serves a number of sites in Cork and Dublin, and the first

priority in strengthening it was to provide resilience. The company

already had an IP MPLS network from another provider as its primary

WAN circuit, and it began investigating its options for a secondary

network.

"It became clear, as we looked at the AirSpeed solution, that we were

being offered a very high performance network that offered excellent

bandwidth capabilities," explains Michael Costello, Group IT Service

Delivery Manager for Reox Holdings. "So we decided that AirSpeed

would become our primary WAN circuit to our sites. The wired network

will become our backup."

Radio from AirSpeed -- the right technology and the right skill set

The decision to go with AirSpeed was an easy one, Michael notes,

because of the total package on offer. Not only did AirSpeed offer

coverage and excellent bandwidth to all six sites, but it also offered

a fully managed solution using its own Juniper-certified personnel.

"Other companies were either providing only the equipment and leaving

us to manage it, or were providing a managed solution using outsourced

personnel, which would mean more complexity and more people involved

whenever support issues arose," he said. "Only AirSpeed offered just

what we needed, including the in-house management."

Michael says the dramatic increase in bandwidth AirSpeed offers over

its current provider will provide real business benefits. With the

current environment, the company has a 10Mbps connection to the MPLS

cloud. But with the implementation of AirSpeed, the company will have

a 150Mbps WAN link.

"We will be able to start looking at remote-site disaster recovery --

our current network just doesn't have the bandwidth for that," he

says. "We will be open to other business opportunities by allowing

more centralised applications, so from a strategic point of view there

are good opportunities."

High bandwidth, limitless possibilities

The significant increase in bandwidth will be a major boost to Reox,

Michael says, and to its plans to create a stronger, future-proofed

WAN for all types of potential projects. With the MPLS network

providing resiliency and AirSpeed providing a primary network with a

large bandwidth increase, Reox is well positioned to get the maximum

benefits from its WAN, with AirSpeed radio leading the way.

"We have found AirSpeed very approachable and obviously very

knowledgeable in their field, and we feel they can help us with our

business needs going forward," Michael says. "They are technologically

very good but they also understand from a business perspective what

the solution needs to provide us with."

Michael also notes that he's pleased and encouraged to see the huge

strides radio technology has made in just a few years.

"I've had quite a bit of input into wireless technology over the last

few years, and I've seen it improve vastly," he says. "We're

comfortable not just in using wireless technology, but in making it

our primary WAN infrastructure. Areas like functionality, security and

cost were all taken on board during the assessment process, and we are

confident the solution is going to be a huge benefit to the

organisation moving forward."