The new corporate network delivers unprecedented speeds and security between two of Spectrum’s sites in the US and the UK and enables the company to easily access important geophysical survey information at their seismic data processing centre in Houston. Exponential-e’s local presence in the US allowed the service provider to deliver the solution cost-effectively.
Spectrum provides high-quality seismic data services to the oil and gas industry. The company conducts seismic services for oil and gas exploration companies to help them better determine the exploration potential of certain regions. The company moves substantial quantities of 2D and 3D images and geophysical data between its site in Woking in the UK and Houston in the US.
Spectrum was using an Internet-based IP VPN to transport significant volumes of data between Houston, US and their UK site in Woking, but they found this to be slow and unreliable. Exponential-e were able to connect Spectrum into their next generation network using local network nodes in each country to deliver significantly higher levels of speed and security. Connectivity between the two sites is no longer reliant on the Internet with all critical data transported on a highly-secure dedicated private network. A unique networking approach based on switching, rather than routing, in the core has reduced the round trip latency between the two sites to as little as 114ms.
State of the art Ethernet technology effectively supports both sites on an international WAN. This wide area network behaves, and is managed, as if it’s a LAN.
Spectrum’s Executive Vice President of IT, John Lyons commented: “Seismic data processing and 3D imaging are bandwidth-intensive by their nature. Exponential-e was able to provide high-levels of bandwidth cost-effectively and at the speeds we needed over two continents”. John added: “Our ability to move huge quantities of seismic data from Houston to a client in our UK office in as little as 57 milliseconds is mind-blowing. We also have the extra peace of mind that our data is now supported on a private network”.
Spectrum also selected Exponential-e’s premium business Internet service to provide the high-performance reliability and speed they required. A key feature of the Internet service is its use of a sophisticated Route 1™ sampling algorithm which constantly monitors a plethora of routes across the Internet for the best available. Spectrum are making the most efficient use of the bandwidth they have available by employing Exponential-e’s “Intelligent Quality of service” feature which allows the main data service, responsible for transporting business critical services, to burst into the bandwidth allocated to the Internet service when it is available.
Cost savings related to infrastructure consolidation and therefore a lower support overhead is now possible. Both services are delivered to Spectrum over a single powerful connection at each site with each service securely insulated and delivered to the customer as physically different cables. A simple Ethernet interface allows each service to be plugged directly into the LAN.