http://canadablog.cisco.com/2014/06/17/how-to...oires-cto/
Fibrenoire garners Canada’s first Carrier
Ethernet 2.0 Services certification with
complete Cisco Carrier Ethernet System.
Challenge
Fibrenoire is a Canadian service provider offering Internet and private network services
over an optical fiber network in Quebec and Ontario. The company deploys and operates
its own network of more than 2820 fiber route miles in the metropolitan areas of Toronto,
Ottawa, Montreal, and Quebec City. Fibrenoire’s portfolio of services includes Internet,
Ethernet, private, and managed IP Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS), custom-built
dark fiber, and wavelength transport services. The company serves more than 1200
companies of all sizes, including several international carriers and Canadian Internet
Service Providers (ISPs).
Since its founding in 2007, Fibrenoire has experienced over 80 percent revenue growth
year over year. The company now competes with both smaller network service providers
as well as Canada’s largest carriers. Small service providers often compete on price, while
larger competitors are typically well-known brands, but they tend to deliver “one-size-fitsall”
solutions.
To differentiate itself, Fibrenoire needed to deploy an industry-best edge infrastructure
from the ground up—one that would support flexibility, fast solution customization, and
superb customer support. The infrastructure needed to cost-effectively scale to support
the company’s rapid growth.
Another key requirement and competitive difference is the ability to support networkenabled
IP-based applications such as online collaboration, videoconferencing, and
VPNs as the demand arises. Fibrenoire must be able to deliver these discrete services
without making extensive investments in new equipment or needlessly increasing
operational expenses.
• Customer Name: Fibrenoire
• Industry: Service Provider
• Location: Montreal, Quebec, Canada
• Number of Employees: 50
• Website: www.fibrenoire.ca
Challenge
• Fueling growth while maintaining
lean staff
• Delivering custom, highperformance
fiber networking
solutions to customers faster and
at less expense than competitors
• Establishing state-of-the-art
infrastructure to differentiate services
Solution
• Deployed Cisco ASR 9000 Series
Aggregation Services Router in
complete Cisco infrastructure to
scale for rapid growth and provide
high-performance services
Results
• Grew business from 3 to 50
employees in seven years and
continued to sustain expansion
• Accelerated delivery of tailored
solutions for customers to gain
competitive advantage
• Successfully won against small
and large competitors; expanded
customer base to 1200 companies
Executive Summary
Fiber Communications Company Gains Competitive
Edge through Speed and Innovation
2 © 2014 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
“Cisco allows us to
continuously update
our infrastructure while
increasing our return on
investment.”
— Jean-François Lévesque
Chief Technology Officer
Fibrenoire
“In choosing a strategic partner to help us build our infrastructure, we were looking for an
industry leader that would provide responsive technical support and lend credibility to what
was, seven years ago, a startup business,” says Jean-François Lévesque, chief technology
officer for Fibrenoire. “It was very important for us to have a strong, trustworthy relationship
as well as solutions capable of supporting advanced IP applications.”
Solution
In 2007, Fibrenoire aligned with Cisco and built an infrastructure based on Cisco technology.
Then in 2011, the company completed implementation of an end-to-end Cisco® Carrier
Ethernet System covering the Quebec City, Montreal, and Toronto regions. The Cisco
solution supplies Fibrenoire with a massive scale, end-to-end packet optical architecture and
flexible 1G to 10G service delivery.
The entire Cisco Carrier Ethernet System is pre-tested and documented to minimize the
time and technical resources required to test and validate network performance. This result
is an end-to-end Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF)-certified system, allowing Fibrenoire to offer
advanced IP-based services to any customer, without sacrificing performance.
As part of the Carrier Ethernet System, Fibrenoire chose the Cisco Evolved Programmable
Network (EPN) architecture to deliver services because it is purpose-built for nextgeneration
Internet and IP/MPLS services. In 2011, Fibrenoire was the first in Canada to
receive Cisco ME 3600X Series Ethernet Access Switches. The ME 3600X Series extends
10G MPLS services to the edge of the network, while allowing an exclusive MPLS VPN
differentiated service.
The network customers tap into is based on Cisco ASR 9000 Series Aggregation Services
Routers, enabling high-performance and exceptional quality of service and capabilities for
Fibrenoire’s customers. The Cisco ASR 9000 Series is purpose-built for next-generation
Internet scale to 100GE.
Support from the Cisco Technical Assistant Center (TAC) is a major component of the
comprehensive service quality offered by Fibrenoire. Aggressive service-level agreements
(SLAs) to Fibrenoire’s customers are possible because of the proven response time from
Cisco TAC.
Results
The Cisco products are crucial to Fibrenoire’s ability to boost profitability and increase
customer loyalty though an advanced edge infrastructure. The Cisco infrastructure can be
continuously updated and scaled efficiently.
“The Cisco ASR 9000 Series offers easy network virtualization technology to grow the
number of ports on the chassis with ease,” says Lévesque. “We will reach 352 GE access
ports in the near future on a single access node —without deploying new routers.”
With Cisco solutions, Fibrenoire wins through its ability to offer customers rich, serviceenabling
IP features such as quality of service (QoS), and MPLS VPNs—without sacrificing
performance or limiting the number of features or customers supported. Today, Fibrenoire
can offer these high-end features and fast GE interfaces and meet stringent SLAs to
boost customer satisfaction. The key is Fibrenoire’s advanced Cisco edge infrastructure
Fibrenoire garners Canada’s first Carrier
Ethernet 2.0 Services certification with
complete Cisco Carrier Ethernet System.
Challenge
Fibrenoire is a Canadian service provider offering Internet and private network services
over an optical fiber network in Quebec and Ontario. The company deploys and operates
its own network of more than 2820 fiber route miles in the metropolitan areas of Toronto,
Ottawa, Montreal, and Quebec City. Fibrenoire’s portfolio of services includes Internet,
Ethernet, private, and managed IP Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS), custom-built
dark fiber, and wavelength transport services. The company serves more than 1200
companies of all sizes, including several international carriers and Canadian Internet
Service Providers (ISPs).
Since its founding in 2007, Fibrenoire has experienced over 80 percent revenue growth
year over year. The company now competes with both smaller network service providers
as well as Canada’s largest carriers. Small service providers often compete on price, while
larger competitors are typically well-known brands, but they tend to deliver “one-size-fitsall”
solutions.
To differentiate itself, Fibrenoire needed to deploy an industry-best edge infrastructure
from the ground up—one that would support flexibility, fast solution customization, and
superb customer support. The infrastructure needed to cost-effectively scale to support
the company’s rapid growth.
Another key requirement and competitive difference is the ability to support networkenabled
IP-based applications such as online collaboration, videoconferencing, and
VPNs as the demand arises. Fibrenoire must be able to deliver these discrete services
without making extensive investments in new equipment or needlessly increasing
operational expenses.
• Customer Name: Fibrenoire
• Industry: Service Provider
• Location: Montreal, Quebec, Canada
• Number of Employees: 50
• Website: www.fibrenoire.ca
Challenge
• Fueling growth while maintaining
lean staff
• Delivering custom, highperformance
fiber networking
solutions to customers faster and
at less expense than competitors
• Establishing state-of-the-art
infrastructure to differentiate services
Solution
• Deployed Cisco ASR 9000 Series
Aggregation Services Router in
complete Cisco infrastructure to
scale for rapid growth and provide
high-performance services
Results
• Grew business from 3 to 50
employees in seven years and
continued to sustain expansion
• Accelerated delivery of tailored
solutions for customers to gain
competitive advantage
• Successfully won against small
and large competitors; expanded
customer base to 1200 companies
Executive Summary
Fiber Communications Company Gains Competitive
Edge through Speed and Innovation
2 © 2014 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
“Cisco allows us to
continuously update
our infrastructure while
increasing our return on
investment.”
— Jean-François Lévesque
Chief Technology Officer
Fibrenoire
“In choosing a strategic partner to help us build our infrastructure, we were looking for an
industry leader that would provide responsive technical support and lend credibility to what
was, seven years ago, a startup business,” says Jean-François Lévesque, chief technology
officer for Fibrenoire. “It was very important for us to have a strong, trustworthy relationship
as well as solutions capable of supporting advanced IP applications.”
Solution
In 2007, Fibrenoire aligned with Cisco and built an infrastructure based on Cisco technology.
Then in 2011, the company completed implementation of an end-to-end Cisco® Carrier
Ethernet System covering the Quebec City, Montreal, and Toronto regions. The Cisco
solution supplies Fibrenoire with a massive scale, end-to-end packet optical architecture and
flexible 1G to 10G service delivery.
The entire Cisco Carrier Ethernet System is pre-tested and documented to minimize the
time and technical resources required to test and validate network performance. This result
is an end-to-end Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF)-certified system, allowing Fibrenoire to offer
advanced IP-based services to any customer, without sacrificing performance.
As part of the Carrier Ethernet System, Fibrenoire chose the Cisco Evolved Programmable
Network (EPN) architecture to deliver services because it is purpose-built for nextgeneration
Internet and IP/MPLS services. In 2011, Fibrenoire was the first in Canada to
receive Cisco ME 3600X Series Ethernet Access Switches. The ME 3600X Series extends
10G MPLS services to the edge of the network, while allowing an exclusive MPLS VPN
differentiated service.
The network customers tap into is based on Cisco ASR 9000 Series Aggregation Services
Routers, enabling high-performance and exceptional quality of service and capabilities for
Fibrenoire’s customers. The Cisco ASR 9000 Series is purpose-built for next-generation
Internet scale to 100GE.
Support from the Cisco Technical Assistant Center (TAC) is a major component of the
comprehensive service quality offered by Fibrenoire. Aggressive service-level agreements
(SLAs) to Fibrenoire’s customers are possible because of the proven response time from
Cisco TAC.
Results
The Cisco products are crucial to Fibrenoire’s ability to boost profitability and increase
customer loyalty though an advanced edge infrastructure. The Cisco infrastructure can be
continuously updated and scaled efficiently.
“The Cisco ASR 9000 Series offers easy network virtualization technology to grow the
number of ports on the chassis with ease,” says Lévesque. “We will reach 352 GE access
ports in the near future on a single access node —without deploying new routers.”
With Cisco solutions, Fibrenoire wins through its ability to offer customers rich, serviceenabling
IP features such as quality of service (QoS), and MPLS VPNs—without sacrificing
performance or limiting the number of features or customers supported. Today, Fibrenoire
can offer these high-end features and fast GE interfaces and meet stringent SLAs to
boost customer satisfaction. The key is Fibrenoire’s advanced Cisco edge infrastructure
