Malaysian Biotechnology Corporation (BiotechCorp) was set up by the government as the national agency for the development of biotechnology in Malaysia. Biotechnology is expected to generate an estimated RM270 billion in revenue by 2020 and create nearly 280,000 jobs. It is viewed as a key driver of the national economy.

BiotechCorp's goals are to nurture and accelerate the growth of Malaysian biotechnology companies as well as to create a conducive environment for the research, development and commercialisation of biotechnology.

In 2006, the agency's rapid growth created a need to build a flexible and scalable networking system. Following an open tender, BiotechCorp selected ProCurve Networking to deliver a wired and wireless network based on its adaptive network vision.

Security was a high priority and the agency looked for a solution that would provide for control of users' access rights while at the same time provide an easy to use interface that would make day-to-day security tasks easy-to manage. BiotechCorp's network was completed in four months.

Mr. Malick Aboobakar, Vice President for IT, BiotechCorp said: "In partnership with ProCurve Networking, BiotechCorp has delivered a scalable networking system which is geared towards providing greater support to our stakeholders and industry participants. This is in-line with our ongoing effort in contributing to the national biotechnology agenda."

The proposed network solution for BiotechCorp was designed to enable BiotechCorp to easily integrate new applications, technologies and add capabilities at any time. The network backbone is based on the 10GbE, which can cater to today's needs and future requirements of BiotechCorp where it adapts to the user, application and organisation needs.

BiotechCorp opted for the cost-effective and scalable ProCurve 5412zl Intelligent Wired Switch for the core switches and ProCurve 5406zl Intelligent Wired Switch to be positioned at the access area. Both the core and access switches utilise the same code base, enabling smooth inventory and software management. The two switches also share components like power supplies and interface modules, thus reducing cost of deployment and management of the network. The solution now gave BiotechCorp granular control of network user access and the ability to implement a security policy to protect its information assets.

With high availability features such as meshing, OSPF-ECMP trunking, VRRP and redundant power supply/removable management module (for chassis-based switch), the network is designed for minimum downtime. BiotechCorp has the flexibility to scale the network through chassis choice, media choice as well as integrated Gigabit PoE.

BiotechCorp added a ProCurve 5304xl Intelligent Wireless Edge switch with ProCurve Radio Port 210 to improve operational efficiency, functionality and security across the networks. With the architecture in place, deploying converged and mobility applications became faster and more cost effective.

In addition to controlling access, BiotechCorp also wanted to prioritise key functions. The IT team chose an easy-touse interface that made it simple to manage day-to-day security operations while providing real-time network information.

For unified management of wired and wireless infrastructure, BiotechCorp used the ProCurve Manager Plus, which provided alerts and troubleshooting with detailed information on the problem, down to specific ports. It allowed the administrator to configure, update, monitor and troubleshoot the network devices centrally.

The ProCurve Identity Driven Manager (IDM) is designed to synchronise ondemand with an authentication database which also produces in-depth network analysis. For the centralised user authentication management to access the network, the IDM is a plug-in to the ProCurve Manager Plus which can dynamically configure access rights, performance setting based on user, device, location, time and client system state. With an integrated traffic monitor, it can now identify high network users and traffic levels. Together, these enhance policy management making for a more secure network.

BiotechCorp's new network based on ProCurve Networking's Adaptive EDGE Architecture was up and running in four months. The network offered control at the edge and command at the centre enabling BiotechCorp users to be authenticated with a single sign-on from any endpoint.

The overall network architecture was definitely designed to meet the necessary requirements, which include scalability, redundancy, security, performance and manageability.