Sanderson Weatherall upgrades network investing in Foundry’s FastIron LAN switches

•   New switches support VoIP infrastructure across two locations

LONDON – 23 June 2008 – Foundry Networks, Inc., a performance and total solutions leader for end-to-end switching and routing, today announces that Sanderson Weatherall, a leading independent practice of chartered surveyors and property consultants, has deployed its FastIron SX 1600 and FastIron GS684 PoE switches as part of LAN upgrade at the company’s two locations in the North East of England.

Sanderson Weatherall is a national firm of chartered surveyors and property consultants, serving both the private and public sector throughout the UK.  With over 25 years of experience, the company has one of the largest dedicated teams of surveyors and valuers in the UK who advise clients, like Google and Royal Mail, on a range of services from corporate real estate to property management, asset management, landlord and tenancy management as well as providing building consultancy services such as project management, architecture and construction monitoring. Surveying over £500 million worth of properties a year, Sanderson Weatherall has been recognised as the Property Advisor of the Year for the North East and Yorkshire for three years running by Estates Gazette magazine.

Sanderson Weatherall has over 270 staff members based in offices across the UK, including London, Leeds, Manchester and Teeside. With just over a third of its workforce split between the Newcastle and Teeside offices, the company was looking to replace its existing, out-of-date LAN switches which provide over 100 members of staff with access to all of the company’s IT infrastructure and Internet, including Windows Exchange Server and various business applications.

Adrian Rich, Sanderson Weatherall’s head of IT, said, “We needed to replace our LAN switches in Newcastle and Tyneside where the majority of our employees work. We chose to work with Foundry because of its straightforward ‘does-what-it-says-on-the-switch’ attitude towards networking. We had already introduced VoIP technology into the organisation, so it was important to us that the LAN switches deployed were able to provide us with QoS for voice and data as well as being resilient enough to handle a high volume of network traffic.”

Sanderson Weatherall purchased  Foundry’s FastIron SX 1600 and FastIron GS family of switches given they are specifically designed to provide networks with the ability to deploy VoIP technology and high-performance data onto a common network and enable to the switch infrastructure  to be consolidated into one data cabinet. In addition to providing QoS, the FastIron switches also provide Sanderson Weatherall with an added layer of resilience through Power over Ethernet which protects the network against any unscheduled downtime.

The introduction of new LAN switches has meant greater reliability for staff members accessing the company’s IT resources which ultimately filters back to the customer. Rich explains, “The new LAN now has ample capacity to meet the demands of a high-performance commercial environment where a large number of users need continuous access to applications, files and the Internet.  The upgrade has resulted in applications running faster, resulting in greater efficiencies for staff leading in turn to a better service for our customers.”
Bob Schiff, VP and general manager for Foundry's Enterprise Business Unit, commented, “We’re excited to be working with one of the UK’s premier commercial property companies as it  continues to deliver award winning services to its broad range of customers. We are happy that Foundry is at the very core of Sanderson Weatherall’s network allowing employees to quickly access the IT tools that enable them to excel in their jobs.”