KEMP Technologies has helped Deltion College, one of the leading universities in the Netherlands, to implement the first Software-Defined Network in Europe. With over 15,000 students and 1,200 employees, the Dutch university Deltion College has always been a pioneer in adopting new technologies and is now at the forefront of Software-Defined Networking (SDN).Deltion College has just implemented the first European Software-Defined Networking (SDN) network, based on HP's Virtual Application Network (VAN) Controller and KEMP Technologies' adaptive load balancing technology for SDN.
The college decided to replace its Cisco network with a new SDN environment to provide Microsoft SharePoint, Lync, and Exchange services, ensuring high availability for its educational programs, from vocational training and pre-university courses to adult education and corporate training.
For Deltion's IT team, the idea of decoupling control of their physical infrastructure through software would allow them to deploy a multi-vendor infrastructure and respond more quickly to new needs as they arose. "By definition, an SDN network is less complex, easier to manage, more robust, and more dynamic and scalable," says Robert Vos, Director of I&A at Deltion College. "And while it is an upfront investment, we're going to save on hardware and aren't tied to any one vendor, so the return on investment has been compelling."
One of the key features of SDN for Deltion is the ability to dynamically configure its bandwidth and network servers, as well as automate activities such as application updates and backups, and provide better protection against potential hacker and denial-of-service attacks.
When selecting vendors to deploy its pioneering SDN, the Deltion team carefully studied the market and selected HP's VAN Controller. The HP VAN Controller is based on OpenFlow, a standard communication protocol defined by the Open Networking Foundation (ONF), which provides access and communication between the control and infrastructure layers of SDN.
Deltion also recognized that load balancing would play a significant role in the efficiency and performance of its SDN, as well as in dynamic application delivery and QoS. The university was already using load balancers from KEMP Technologies, so when they saw that KEMP had a product with an SDN solution that worked and interacted with the HP VAN Controller, it was the natural choice.
“Our experience with KEMP technology and their excellent support led us to choose KEMP to replace our Microsoft load balancer for managing traffic through the SDN controller,” says Hans Hoeven, Security Officer at Deltion College. KEMP dynamically uses Layer 2 information from the SDN controller, such as network and server congestion, to enrich its Layer 4 and Layer 7 load balancing policies. This enables smarter forwarding decisions and improves application delivery, user experience, and service levels.
“We quickly realized the benefits of SDN and encouraged our development teams to implement innovative technology that would help us realize the full potential of SDN deployments, working with leading players in the market, such as HP,” says Michael Worlund, Technical Director, Emerging Technologies at KEMP Technologies. “Our patent-pending KEMP SDN Adaptive technology and advanced scheduling methods are able to access critical flow patterns from the SDN controller to route applications to the best server via the best available paths in the switching infrastructure.”
Deltion retained two LoadMaster™ KEMP 2600s they were already using and purchased two new KEMP LoadMaster 5400s to route traffic to approximately 250 Microsoft Hyper-V servers. Load balancing for Lync in the new SDN environment was implemented in late February, with SharePoint and Exchange planned for next phase.
Deltion is also using KEMP’s Edge Security Pack (ESP) to replace Microsoft’s Forefront Threat Management Gateway (TMG), which is no longer sold or supported by Microsoft.
ESP provides a secure way to publish internet-dependent applications, such as SharePoint, Lync, and Exchange, and includes features like perimeter security, single sign-on (SSO), application integration, and flexible authentication options to deliver an optimal user experience while protecting information in compliance with security policies.
“Network protection and adaptability are critical to providing our students and faculty with 24/7 service and security, so KEMP ESP is a valuable addition to our load balancing solutions,” says Hans Hoeven. “We also made the decision to configure our network in a hybrid fashion, allowing switches to revert to the previous switching state in case of failure. This gives us an extra layer of adaptability.”
Deltion’s IT innovation is reflected in its approach to students, following the “learn by doing” principle and the values of what they call “social return.” “We want our students to be able to learn and adopt the latest technologies based on their own experience and work environment,” says Robert Vos. “Therefore, we will use the SDN implementation to help students in our IT courses learn about the new networking technologies they will encounter in their future jobs.”
“We are already seeing the benefits of the automated, open-standards framework that SDN promises,” adds Hans Hoeven. “Kemp’s innovative technology and excellent support have played a vital role in getting us to where we are today. The price-performance ratio of their LoadMaster products has also been a key factor in our relationship. We look forward to continuing this journey together.”
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