While ORION quietly completed a major upgrade of its core network infrastructure, the information technology industry was taking notice and is now drawing lessons on how a small organization with limited resources approached a "high-risk" and highly complex feat of engineering.

IDC, a leading information technology market intelligence and advisory firm, commissioned a comprehensive case study of ORION's intricate network upgrade, including the process and strategies in tackling the challenges involved, with advice on how organizations can learn from ORANO's approach in their own projects.

ORION's recently completed network upgrade involved the delicate reconfiguration of the core network's topology and the installation of new, state-of-the-art Juniper M120 routers at the core, and shifting ORION's existing Cisco 7600 routers to the distribution level at ORION's PoP locations.

The work was undertaken as ORION also installed new JDSU WaveReady DWDM optical gear and implementing a new Nortel ROADM transport system, all to provide ORION with the ability to provide its members with a more stable network infrastructure and more advanced IP-based services and capabilities.

"ORANO's network upgrade process is an excellent learning opportunity and illustrates lessons for buyers and vendors," says the report, Enabling Advanced IP Services on ORION's High-Performance Network (IDC #CA9IH8, December 2008), which includes findings on how ORANO's approach ensured the seamless integration of equipment and technologies from different vendors.

For Alejandro Pares, Research Analyst, Network Equipment for IDC Canada, who helped research and author the report, what makes the ORANO case unique is the relatively small size of the organization, and its reliance on limited resources.

IDC commissioned the case study in part because of ORION's decision to implement a major update to the network's core routing infrastructure, without interrupting services. "We believe this was a high risk procedure in a network running services for high end 'members'," says Pares.

"It is interesting to see how ORANO made the changes with a minimal impact to it members," he says. "Also, it is interesting to see how the new trends in applications can 'force' deep topology changes in a network," he adds.

The case study looks at the upgrade from the perspective of the various challenges faced in implementing such a radical enhancement to the network platform, including a limited budget, regional expansion and service outages, growing traffic, the need for more network intelligence, and greater customized IP services to members.

The report draws conclusions and offers advice to organizations attempting a similar upgrade while maintaining services without disruptions to users. It also addresses some of the issues that ORION's engineering team dealt with, including the challenge of technology compatibility and interconnecting different vendor products and systems.

"From day one, our approach has always been to manage and operate a network within the specifications of a world-class telecommunication infrastructure," says ORION Senior Director of Engineering and Operations, Sam Mokbel.

"The IDC Canada report certainly confirms that," he says. "We are very proud of our achievement and it is nice to know that the industry is taking notice and sharing the lessons we've learned throughout this process."

"I can't say enough about the hard work and commitment of the entire ORION engineering team and the great relationship we developed with our PoP host institutions, and our vendors and suppliers," he says. "We could not have achieved this without this close working partnership, every step of the way."

IDC anticipates the findings of the case study will be of interest to vendors of several technologies, including network equipment, telephony, unified communications, service providers and research institutions.

IDC Canada provides market intelligence and advisory services to information technology, telecommunications, and consumer technology markets. The ORION Buyers Case Study can be obtained, for a fee, at www.idc.com.