Given the charitable nature of St. John Ambulance Alberta Council (SJA) and the size and scope of the territory it serves, fiscal responsibility and superior communications are priorities.

When the Alberta Council of SJA began to outgrow its provincial headquarters moving from a two−storey building to a much more spacious, three-floor facility an opportunity arose to change much more than just an address.

Preparations for the move highlighted the fact that the organization's existing communications environment consisted of an unwieldy combination of legacy IT systems, united by an extremely hard-to manage network backbone.

"A fairly large business commitment was required to deliver our services to the community. And the business processes needed to rely on our IT infrastructure," says Joe Zasada, Manager of Technical Services with St. John Ambulance in Alberta. "From basic telephone usage for customer communications to coordinating our community services, the network is the core."

Finding new ways to provide secure, reliable and cost effective communications was top priority for Zasada's team.

With these objectives, SJA searched for an innovative solution that would provide not only ‘single-point’ management to assist with the diagnosis and resolution of issues, but also the flexibility and scalability for future growth, and the stability and security required to support a modern organization.

"The physical network − that is, the switches and underlying infrastructure - is the most important piece of any IT environment. It doesn't matter what kind of servers or applications you run − it all relies on the network. Just like cars − you need a good paved highway, not an old dirt road - in order to see any benefit," says Zasada.

Service was also critical. For SJA, the unbeatable lifetime hardware warranty that ProCurve Networking by HP offers was a key factor.

"It's nice to know that if something fails − I can get a replacement without any difficulty," says Zasada.

The solution recommended for the job was an HP ProCurve 5300xl Series switch for the core. This switch is based on the ProCurve Adaptive EDGE Architecture™, which recognizes the importance of the network's "edge" in maintaining the connections necessary for networking applications.

The 5300xl also provides easy configuration of the switch from any web browser on the network, as well as automatic routing switch failover, and the flexibility needed to support future growth.

With Layer 3 controls, in which information "packets" sent over SJA's local area network (LAN) are processed seamlessly, and with unmatched speed and agility, ProCurve products provided the right combination of performance, cost effectiveness, flexibility and reliability, both in the office and for remote users.

The ProCurve Switch 5300xl also includes a recent firmware upgrade adding "Virus Throttling" to SJA's network. This capability allows for additional protection for network users in case of a virus infection.

To further increase network connectivity for users, SJA employs a combination of ProCurve Switch 2600−PWR Series switches for IP Telephony users, and ProCurve Switch 2800 Series Gigabit switches for desktop users. This solution, used in tandem with ProCurve Manager software, enables management and control of both the local switches at the new provincial headquarters, and the older remote switches in the branch offices.

SJA's move also allowed the roll−out of a new phone system to enhance its communications infrastructure. After researching various options, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) was chosen. Now, the telephone handsets use SJA's ProCurve network for voice traffic. HP's ProCurve Switches effortlessly handle both data and telephone traffic simultaneously.

The branch office telephones are now connected to the system at the provincial headquarters using a common Wide Area Network (WAN) for telephone calls. SJA now has the ability to transfer calls between branches without incurring long distance charges.

SJA chose Mitel as the VoIP system provider with a Mitel 3300 ICP (Integrated Communications Platform) as the telephone system platform (with Ethernet interfaces) and Mitel IP telephone sets.

To facilitate the deployment of IP telephony, SJA again turned to ProCurve Networking by HP, this time with ProCurve Switch 2626-PWR switches. These switches provide direct current (DC) power through Ethernet cable directly to the VoIP telephone handsets, enabling reliable operation of each telephone without the need for external power adapters. As well, these switches provide for the addition of Redundant Power Supplies which provide continuous operation in case of internal power supply failure on the switches.

"HP provides free firmware updates, enabling us to use older ProCurve switches alongside the new ones with our IP Telephony deployments, and it all works seamlessly," says Zasada.

This solution supports converged data and voice networks with minimal configuration needs, and provides easy, 'plug−and−play' deployment. Coupled with high−speed performance and superior scalability, SJA was able to satisfy all of its additional performance and scalability demands at an accessible price.

"With these ProCurve switches, we were able to affordably add industry standard Power−over−Ethernet (PoE) to the wiring closets without having to buy additional technology we didn't need, or sacrifice the ability to expand as our organization grows," said Zasada. "ProCurve was a great choice for us."

SJA is well positioned to reap the benefits of its new network backbone with a fully integrated voice and data system leveraging a single network and combining ProCurve's Adaptive EDGE Architecture™ and Mitel's advanced product line of IP phones and applications.

SJA has been able to address its long−held need for resource−light management, enhanced security through powerful virus protection and other authentication features, and improved reliability by increasing bandwidth, power and availability. An added benefit was that significant communications network performance improvement was made possible using a powerful combination of low−cost, scalable technologies.

"With ProCurve, we've made a solid investment in our future," said Zasada. "We have a great network that supports the critical applications we use every day and the advanced applications we anticipate incorporating in the future. Excellent service, along with good value is exactly what ProCurve Networking by HP delivered."

When you are ready to explore the benefits a ProCurve Networking solution can offer you, call HP at 1-800-975-7682.

To learn more about ProCurve Networking's Adaptive EDGE Architecture™ solutions, visit our home page.

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