From Ian’s desk

With our ultimate parent being Singapore based, March marks the end of our financial year.

Our final quarter for the year has been an interesting and challenging one considering the changes in the global economy. We finalised contracts with over 150 new customers for the year and had the opportunity to step up our corporate social responsibility through supporting numerous activities around bushfire relief efforts.

As the first carrier to provide Ethernet WAN services to business customers in Australia, certifying our Ethernet services to MEF standards was the next logical step for our business, and we completed the exercise in early Feb.

MEF certification provides Australian businesses with the assurance of independent international standards, removing confusion arising from proprietary service names and overlapping options provided by service providers.

Amongst the numerous companies that have recently signed up with Uecomm are a number of schools and universities. ACU National has been a Uecomm customer for just over a year and we’d like to share their story with you. The education sector is increasingly moving towards introducing dedicated DR networks with high-bandwidth capacity as the industry relies more heavily on its data requirements.

The high-speed data services offered by Uecomm allows critical business information to be available in the event of a business interruption like a power failure or network outage and facilitates business continuity.

We worked closely with ACU National to deliver a DR solution that met their required bandwidth while remaining flexible on price and implementation.

Naturally we have all been moved by the affect of the recent bushfires that devastated a large part of Victoria. We were proud to hear the stories about our own people out there fighting the fires, moving cattle or keeping watch over property. As ‘city folk’ we were active in our support and I continue to see examples of our people displaying the true Uecomm spirit and culture.

Regards

Ian Noble
Acting CEO, Uecomm

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Uecomm’s VPLS network receives global MEF certification

In February 2009 Uecomm announced its successful certification in both MEF 9 and MEF 14 standards, making it Australia’s only service provider to receive both MEF certifications.

The certification recognises Uecomm’s Ethernet VPN service, comprising EPL (point to point circuit), EVPL (more than one point to point circuit with a single point of multiplexing) and ELAN (multipoint to multipoint circuit) adheres to the global standards developed by the MEF.

The MEF (Metro Ethernet Forum) is a global industry alliance comprising more than 150 organisations dedicated to accelerating the worldwide adoption of Carrier-class Ethernet networks and services. The MEF develops Carrier Ethernet technical specifications and implementation agreements to promote interoperability and deployment of Carrier Ethernet worldwide.

As the founding Australian service provider member of the MEF, our certification in both MEF 9 and MEF 14 demonstrates our commitment to the development of the Carrier Ethernet market in Australia.

“By joining the MEF it was our intention to receive certification to align our Ethernet services with the stringent global standards developed for next generation Ethernet services” explains Uecomm’s Acting CEO and Director of Technology, Mr Ian Noble.

The certification testing was conducted by Iometrix, the networking industry's pre-eminent testing authority. Iometrix provides globally recognised and trusted certification tests and is the official certification laboratory of the MEF.

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ACU graduates with network honours

Australian Catholic University (ACU National) is a public university with 13,000 students enrolled across its six campuses in Australia including Melbourne, Ballarat (VIC), Canberra, North Sydney, Strathfield (NSW) and Brisbane.

ACU National’s business has become more reliant on information sharing across its campuses, requiring the organisation to invest in a disaster recovery (DR) network to provide added assurance and greater resiliency for the business’ data, voice and video requirements. 

Uecomm was chosen to deliver a fibre DR network for all six campuses.  Uecomm fibre was used to the Melbourne, North Sydney and Strathfield sites delivering speeds of 6Mbps, 14Mbps and 2Mbps respectively.  The campuses in Ballarat, Canberra and Brisbane are also connected by fibre with a 4Mbps link to Ballarat and 10Mbps connections to Canberra and Brisbane.

The primary data centre is located in Melbourne and the disaster recovery centre is at the North Sydney campus. 

ACU National signed a three-year contract with Uecomm after extensive comparison and negotiations with various vendors.  Uecomm’s was chosen for its customer focus, ability to meet very tight deadlines and flexibility with implementation.

Paul Campbell, IT Director for ACU National, says the new DR network provides the business with much-needed insurance against extended network delays or outages. 

“Network reliability is of critical importance to our business.  All campuses need access to the centralised database for maintaining and updating student records and our teaching spaces require a robust network to run virtual lectures and video streaming, video conferencing and access to the internet,” explains Mr Campbell.

“Our new dedicated DR network has removed our vulnerability in the event of an issue with our primary network; so we can continue with only minor disruptions to students and staff,” he said.

For ACU National, a key motivating factor to choose Uecomm was its flexibility and agility to respond quickly to network issues.

“Uecomm has been able to arrange for increased bandwidth during peak periods of time for the university, which provides us with greater insurance if our primary network happens to fail during critical times,” Mr Campbell concluded.

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Good networking in the economic downturn

As the economic downturn forces a review of priorities and a renewed focus to control costs, 2009 brings with it a challenging year ahead for CIOs.  In fact industry analysts are suggesting 2009 will be the year of ‘no surprises’ with IT spending directed towards getting the greatest ‘bang’ for the IT dollar.

According to IDC, Australia is the 10th most IT-intensive country in the world.  While Australia will be less impacted from the current economic crisis than its global neighbours, our CIOs are still being told do more with less.  In times likes these, CIOs need to make IT spending decisions that will guarantee a greater return on investment by increasing business productivity with minimal capital investment.

Some of Australia’s largest enterprises and government organisations are realising the benefits of carrier Ethernet, which has the capability to deliver up to hundreds of times the bandwidth of a traditional WAN solution for around half the price. This literally means more “bang for your buck” and, on a price-performance basis may radically reduce your telecommunications bill. 

Uecomm’s Ethernet VPN provides a flexible, scalable, resilient and cost-effective broadband data service that allows customers to easily and effectively link their business sites and share information.

By combining voice, fax, data and multimedia traffic onto a single multi-purpose network, businesses can enjoy:

• lower total cost of ownership of the network
• enhanced productivity
• simplified network management
• reduced infrastructure costs
• ability to implement a host of new and powerful applications.

Further, as environmental sustainability continues to move up the list of CIO’s priorities - with Gartner listing Green IT as one of the Top 10 strategic technologies for 2009 - and as governments legislate on emissions reduction targets and environmental tariffs, businesses are keen to adopt technologies that can assist to reduce their environmental footprint, including Carrier Ethernet.

The use of Carrier Ethernet allows companies to centralise their servers into a single location, which not only reduces administration costs, but also equipment costs and associated expenses such as electricity.

Ethernet networks allow organisations to run bandwidth-heavy applications like video conferencing, which reduces air or car travel and leads to greater productivity for employees and fewer emissions from travel.

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Black Saturday – Uecomm’s spirit shines through

Saturday 7 February will be remembered as the most devastating date in Australia’s history. Amidst the heartache there have been some wonderful stories of hope and survival. Across our nation there has been an overwhelming response to support those affected by this tragedy and assist in re-building communities. Every effort helps to make a difference.

We were proud to hear the stories about our own people out there fighting the fires, moving cattle or keeping watch. As ‘city folk’ we were active in our support. I continue to see further examples day after day, displaying the true Uecomm spirit and culture.

As the drama unfolded, Uecomm was quick to respond to a vital request from our customer CeniTex, to upgrade the Internet service to the Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE). This priority request has ensured the DSE’s internet link copes with the demands of the CFA, SES, Police and other Emergency services, by providing 100Mbps capacity.

Across the Optus Group people have responded with great generosity. Alphawest, Uecomm and Virgin Mobile have all joined the cause with fundraising and blood donations. Uecomm people also helped man phones for the Red Cross after Uecomm customer UCMS donated call centre facilities to the appeal.

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