New Foundry network gives 60 per cent network savings for Kuwait's leading scientific research body

The Institute's remit covers a wide range of tasks based around the advancement of the nation's industry, protection of the environment and natural resources, and the production of energy and agriculture. KISR also undertakes joint research projects with other government bodies and third party companies such as the Kuwait National Petroleum Company.

In August 2002, KISR began a vast upgrade of its IT network using Foundry Networks' switches to improve both internal and external access to information throughout its 16 building campus in Kuwait City. Foundry Networks and implementation partner, Computer Data Networks (CDN), upgraded the entire network at KISR in just 21 days. After initial testing, the total downtime for each building upgraded was as little as one hour.

KISR's work tends to be extremely data intensive and requires a high level of data sharing between disparate organisations. As a result, it is vital that KISR's network is reliable, flexible, fast and that the technology supplier is financially robust and a market leader in networking innovation.

The growth of a country-wide network
In 1992, after the end of the Iraqi occupation of Kuwait, KISR began looking at ways to improve its processes and infrastructure including its IT systems and network. For this first upgrade, a complete system of network hubs from Ungermann-Bass (later renamed UB Networks) was installed to cater for KISR's 150 network users.

As KISR grew, the number of users rose and the network began to feel the strain. By 1995 there were almost 1,200 users crowding a network that was designed for use by a fraction of this amount. Upgrades to the network seemed a sensible solution, but UB Networks had merged with other companies and upgrades and services were becoming increasingly difficult to come by.

Sadeq Hasan, KISR's senior network specialist, explains, "We wanted a faster network that could handle all the latest market developments: extensive security features, VLAN capabilities, video conferencing, multimedia transfer, contingency planning and even worldwide systems back up. It was no small task and our old network simply couldn't cope with the growth of users."

One budget - one network
After a two-year study of the technologies available, which took into account all the future technological directions KISR might want to take, CDN was chosen to provide Foundry equipment. A key requirement was that all network technology had to be bought and installed at one time from one company that would be able to support them over the long term.

Hasan explains "We issued a very comprehensive tender with more than 250 technical requirements. The most important aspect for me was that our supplier could give me switches that were flexible and upgradeable. I wanted to have a single vendor network throughout, but knew that I wouldn't have any further budget to spend after installation. Foundry's offer gave me upgrade paths and modules on each switch that could be re-purposed for almost any part of the network, be it at the core or the edge for just one price. No other vendor could offer us this."

The tender asked for two core switches and a selection of edge switches with both fixed and expandable ports. To fill the brief, Foundry provided two BigIron 8000 Layer 3 switches for the network core and 28 FastIron II Layer 2/3 chassis as edge switches with connections to the core switches.

Security was another major concern for KISR. Before its network expansion, the KISR network and data was relatively private from the outside world. However, new cross-divisional and inter-company projects demand increasing access from external sources to KISR data, opening up risks of possible external attacks on the network.

Over the two-year evaluation, every possible network security option on the market was examined. Hasan says, "We discovered that depending on what we requested in terms of security, vendor quotes seemed to change. With Foundry, the initial quote we received for the switches already included all of the security features we wanted and Foundry was more price competitive anyhow. "

KISR employees tend to work on different projects day-to-day and many workers have to move offices at short notice. At the same time, Hasan estimates that up to 70 Gigabytes of data are crossing the network at any one time. With this level of traffic and such changeable demands on network use, flexibility is vital to network success. Here, the simplicity of Foundry's switch re-purposing proved to be a major bonus for Hasan.

CDN already had a good relationship with KISR having installed its previous network equipment. Dejan Nikolin, Marketing Manager of CDN, says, "The fact that we knew KISR's current network and understood its business needs meant that we could recommend a vendor who we knew wouldn't let them down. Foundry's products are second to none, especially when looking at upgrade paths, network management, flexibility and security features."

Life with a Foundry Network
The new network has opened up opportunities for KISR that simply weren't available before.

In one such project, the Agriculture & Resources department of KISR is undertaking a Government-led project to reclaim desert land throughout Kuwait and turn it into 'green' land. The network allows KISR to share huge amounts of data with external government departments such as the Environmental Protection Agency and Public Authority for Agriculture and Fisheries. As part of the project, these three bodies are sharing data analysis from KISR's advanced geographic information system (GIS). Without the network, the project would literally have taken years to complete. Instead, the first piece of land reclamation is already finished.

KISR has already seen both performance and financial returns on its investment. Jamal Al-Akrouka, KISR department manager of systems development, commented, "Third parties trying to access KISR information have traditionally had difficulty downloading database details and the service could be slow and inefficient during peak traffic. Since the implementation of the new network, these issues have disappeared completely."

Savings have been greatest in the reduction of ongoing maintenance and network expansion costs. Previously, when new users came onto the network, KISR had to buy new power cables and modules in order to include them. With Foundry switches, this ability is already in place at the touch of a button. Hasan comments, "Maintenance times for the old network were soaring, employees were spending up to 70 per cent of their time on network problem-solving. Today, they can spend 90 per cent of their time on KISR's developmental projects and I no longer need to keep taking on and paying for new staff!"

Looking towards the future
The Kuwaiti Government is in the process of upgrading the country's cabling infrastructure from traditional copper to fibre-optic cabling. This is going to include a direct fibre optic link between KISR's HQ in Kuwait City and its Petroleum Research Centre over 80 kilometres away. Already, KISR is preparing to install Foundry equipment to link the two sites because of its positive experiences with the equipment and Foundry's ability to provide high-speed quality fibre network connectivity over such long distances. Hasan feels that this ability to provide both WAN and LAN technologies is another of Foundry's winning qualities.

KISR currently has five main branches around the country. Of these only three are heavily involved in large data transfers and the remaining two tend to work on an independent research lab basis using separate networks. Hasan sees Foundry playing a large role in his future plans for network expansion, "The three busiest branches in terms of data traffic are the Petroleum Research Centre, the Marine & Fishery Centre and the Desalination Centre, all of which are at least 20 kilometres from the KISR HQ. When the cabling infrastructure is in place to support these branches, we will have an opportunity to speed up our network even further with Foundry's10 Gigabit Ethernet technology. It's a big comfort factor to know there is a tried and tested upgrade path."