Case Studies
ENTERPRISE IRELAND
17 June 2010
ENTERPRISE IRELAND
“With the very intense demand on our network bandwidth, we are always looking for a standard’s based Class EA/Cat6A system with associated full guarantees,” says Aidan Ryan, IT Project Manager, Enterprise Ireland.
ENTERPRISE IRELAND
A key consideration in the supply of a structured cabling infrastructure for its new headquarters was performance and reliability, together with backwards compatibility and full interoperability.

Local Government

As the government agency responsible for the development and promotion of the indigenous business sector, Enterprise Ireland has a mission to accelerate the growth of world-class Irish companies in global markets with a view to increasing national and regional prosperity.

With an extensive network of 10 Irish and 31 international offices, Enterprise Ireland works with local businesses to assist them to compete and to grow. Key areas of focus for Enterprise Ireland and its clients are research and development together with technological innovation, business development and internationalisation. When Enterprise Ireland decided to consolidate its four Dublin offices and two data centres into a new headquarters based in The Plaza at East Point Business Park, it was essential that it had a high performance, reliable and robust technology and communications infrastructure.

A key consideration in the supply of a structured cabling infrastructure for its new headquarters was performance and reliability, together with backwards compatibility and full interoperability. Brand-Rex was chosen as the preferred supplier because of its innovative and comprehensive product range that comes with a 25 year system and product guarantee as well as an application lifetime warranty.

“On site we have two data centres and eight comms rooms, so performance and reliability was foremost in our thoughts when discussing infrastructure,” says Ryan. “We chose the Brand-Rex system to meet these challenges.”

The planning and installation responsibility was with Brand-Rex’s authorised installer, Designer Group. Peter Wolfe of Designer Group said: “There was intense planning and design between ourselves and design teams in the months prior to start-date to implement the most efficient and flexible infrastructure in a very tight timeframe.’’ Timescales were also an important consideration for the project, with a tight deadline of only four months to complete the installation of 5,000 network points and 250 kilometres of 10Gb structured cabling. “In addition, there were five kilometres of OM3 10Gb Ethernet supporting fibre backbone to install,” says Rob Walsh, MD of specialist Brand-Rex distributors, RWL. “Also, refurbishing an existing building brings its own additional challenges. With floors, walls and voids already in place designing and efficiently routing cabling can become a complex task.”

A high density solution within the data centres was achieved by combining Brand-Rex 10Gb plus cables with CPI Chatsworth frames to cater for the volume of cables and the mass of data points. Under floor trays and existing voids were used where possible to maximise space and a fully configured fibre backbone was an integral part of the high performance design.

Warranty was a crucial consideration for Enterprise Ireland. Regular audits by both Brand-Rex and RWL engineers during the installation process ensured that the structured cabling infrastructure met the stringent standards and guidelines set by Brand-Rex as part of its warranty process. A month after completion, a final inspection ensured that Enterprise Ireland received its infrastructure guarantee and warranty certificates.

Brand-Rex and RWL delivered a 5,000 point, high performance, scalable solution, within stringent timescales, providing Enterprise Ireland with a fully future-proofed infrastructure.