Case Study: Skilled Group achieves efficient, low-cost EMC/VMware data replication and rapid disaster recovery with Extreme Networks

Skilled Group Virtualised Environment Relies on Extreme Networks Open Fabric Solution

Skilled Group, the leading staffing provider across Australia and New Zealand, faced growing network congestion and latency in a heavily virtualised VMware environment that handles about 100TB of data and replicates 7–10TB daily. Seeking 10 Gigabit Ethernet over copper to support EMC/VMware replication and disaster recovery, Skilled Group selected Extreme Networks and deployed Summit X650 top-of-rack and Summit X450 core-class switches running the ExtremeXOS network operating system.

Extreme Networks implemented an Open Fabric solution with Summit switches, Data Centre Bridging and FCoE to optimise EMC/VMware replication. The deployment cut costs to roughly half of competing options, reduced the Recovery Point Objective to minutes (moving close to synchronous replication), enabled single‑button disaster recovery reconfiguration in ~20 seconds, required zero hardware maintenance in the first 18 months, and substantially simplified configuration and management.

Skilled Group

Geoff Berry

Infrastructure Manager