Melbourne City Mission Taps blueAPACHE to Build MPLS WAN

Australian managed network, cloud and IT provider blueAPACHE has announced that it has deployed its emPOWER Wide Area Networking solution at the Melbourne City Mission.

The network connects MCM’s 32 sites across the Melbourne area using MPLS. MPLS uses more direct routing than typical Internet connectivity, offering faster performance.

“We are delighted to assist much-needed organizations like MCM improve their technology platform. Our deep NFP experience proffers valuable insight to deliver the best return on investment – ensuring MCM can focus funding on the services that help those most in need,” blueAPACHE managing director Chris Marshall said.

The move is part of the charity’s plan to modernize its IT infrastructure.

“A change in the leadership of MCM ICT Services in August 2014 brought with it a change to the manner in which core ICT services were scoped, resourced and delivered,” MCM IT manager Louise Segafredo said. “This deployment is indicative of MCM making a move to manage the enterprise as a whole, as opposed to the component parts.”

emPOWER not only connects MCM’s offices, but also connecting them to the National Broadband Network (News - Alert) and internationally to New Zealand and Singapore.

The charity, which helps the region’s most vulnerable people, was looking to size its WAN to suit its current and future business objectives. It also wanted to build more redundancy into its data network, as well as improve its data protocols and security. They also wanted one contractor to handle everything.

While high-powered data centers might seem better candidates for technologies like MPLS, other organizations need good connectivity as well. MCM has been operating since 1854. With the large number of sites across the Melbourne area, its WAN needs are about as complex as any other enterprise.

Not-for-profits at the same time have less money to work with and fewer specialized IT staff, which makes software-defined managed services like the kind blueAPACHE offers very attractive.