Back to Case studyElectricity Department Managing Power Generation in Gujarat Improves ROI from its Core Applications with TTBS Smart VPN
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The company generates, controls and distributes electric power in Gujarat. It distributes electricity through four distribution partners for the south, central, west and north zones within the state. Using coal, gas, water and lignite as resources for energy production across different power stations, the company also follows the Accelerated Power Development and Reforms Program (APDRP) that aims to upgrade the sub-transmission and distribution of electricity in urban and industrial areas. The program was started to improve the reliability and quality of state power utilities and enhance customer satisfaction, while reducing aggregate commercial and technical losses.
When the government decided to continue with the Restructured APDRP (RAPDRP), the new projects to be undertaken were divided into two parts. Of these, one included the projects for the establishment of baseline data and IT applications for energy accounting/auditing and IT-based consumer service centres.
Tata Communications also owned by the Tata Group like Tata Tele Business Services (TTBS), was chosen for a project under the APDRP for the government of Gujarat. The task required the setting up of a private Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) based virtual network to connect the different offices of the state’s power distribution company. With TTBS’ years of experience and proven expertise in handling such networking tasks, the work was assigned to our team.
Business Challenges
The electricity generation and distribution company had been facing some discrepancies in transmission and distribution as its branch offices were unable to access the organisation’s data centre and IT applications based on the main head office’s servers. As different work sites were using data solutions from different service providers, the organisation had to ensure that the MPLS Virtual Private Network (VPN) solution could enable telco-agnostic connectivity. Other expectations from the network builders were:
- Rapid deployment and provisions for switching over to a reliable backup system in case of any downtime issue on the main link
- Facility to monitor network performance and an assurance that all offices would have consistent access to applications they needed in daily operations
- Ease of scaling the network cost-effectively to bring more locations on it when required
The organisation wanted the MPLS network with the Quality of Service (QoS) attribute and also preferred traffic-engineering capability to balance the traffic load on different routes as and when required.
TTBS Solution
As the company’s chosen service provider, TTBS implemented its MPLS-based Smart VPN solution to connect the different branches and increase the speed of movement of data packets.
Our solution architects followed the hub and spoke architecture in building the network. They deployed 220 primary links and 220 secondary links for reliable redundancy. All the spoke locations were connected to the hub with data centre and disaster recovery (DC-DR) setup for seamless traffic flow.
TTBS built telco-agnostic connectivity for the organisation and its branches. We also ensured redundancy at all last-mile levels. The private network created under this project enabled the branches to access the enterprise applications and database speedily while also keeping the traffic encrypted for cyber security.
The solution met our customer’s expectations on all parameters:
- It came with SLA-backed uptime, and secondary links were deployed to ensure constant availability of network – the links were terminated to different MPLS points of presence.
- Both TTBS and the organisation’s IT team could check the network’s performance through a user-friendly dashboard.
- In line with redundancy benefits, the monitoring systems were provided on DC and backed up in DR in active-passive modes.
- The company could get more sites added to its private network without investing in expensive equipment.
With TTBS Smart VPN, the IT heads also received QoS flexibility to prioritise access to mission-critical enterprise applications. They could use traffic-engineering to route other traffic through alternate routes.
We delivered the electricity management company’s project well before the promised deadlines and the clauses of the agreement signed between the involved parties were fully met.
The customer felt that their experience with Tata Group had always been optimum. We built the MPLS network in minimum time, giving the customer teams direct access to the data centre that hosts enterprise applications. Our work on effective encryption of traffic movement within this network was also much appreciated.
Benefits
- Robust private network built with failover capabilities for secure and uninterrupted traffic flows
- Consolidated network with a single, enterprise wide view of all branch offices, access to centrally stored applications
- Better power distribution and minimal losses with the smooth functioning of digital processes on a private network
- Secure connectivity not threatened by the risks affecting public internet services
- Increased workforce productivity backed by more reliable uptime
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