Infinet Wireless solutions chosen for backing up important data by Muscat Overseas Group

Muscat Overseas Group was established in the 1970s to actively support and promote the Sultanate of Oman’s economic activities. The group  operates in different vertical markets, such as Dealership and Distribution, Investments, Mining and Minerals, Oil and Gas, Construction and Landscaping, Media and Communications, Travel and Tourism, and Real Estate. Muscat Overseas Group’s mission is to take on new challenges, and achieve world-class standards utilizing the strength of human resource, business acumen, financial prudence and good corporate governance. Being a trusted partner and a valuable contributor, Muscat Overseas Group is focused  on attaining perfect results and meeting its customers’ needs and expectations.

Mission

Muscat Overseas Group has its own data center in Muscat, the capital of Oman, with several additional locations connected to this building. Most of those branches are linked with the data center via Internet, with site-to-site VPN which is usually used for uniting additional points to the head office, providing connectivity between separate networks.

Some of the aforementioned locales are not that close, but there is a line-of-sight (LOS) propagation, so the connectivity is supposed to be stable and constant. When Muscat Overseas Group engineers responsible for this matter realized that the bandwidth was not sufficient for the everyday operations, they came to the conclusion that a dedicated Internet connection was needed, which was fixed and could  be used exclusively by the owner. The throughput should be provided at long distance, and not shared.  They faced definite issues, such as the slow working system, which meant  customers were always waiting for transactions to be performed faster, which of course required a reliable system.

Solution

Muscat Overseas Group specialists asked their trusted partner HTC, with whom the client had quite a long history of cooperation, for advice. Previously the group had utilized laser-based solutions which are pricey and, compared to modern products, have less flexibility. Infinet Wireless solutions on the other hand are cost-effective and provide better bandwidth compared to competitors, for a reasonable price.

The solution was InfinLINK XG, a new generation system for crucial tasks. It was chosen to connect one of the offices to the data center in line-of-sight conditions. The plan was to replicate and back up a large quantity  of data - all the documents had to be provided to the data center in real time. To achieve this, another high-priced special solution could have been implemented but it appeared that Infinet Wireless products would be a perfect fit. Importantly, no one could wait and so the solution needed to be implemented in real time.

The installation was completed in just one day to Muscat Overseas Group’s great surprise. Generally everyone involved had had everyday issues with cables and settings, whereas  Infinet Wireless solutions were easily deployed. The only small issue was the internal routing of data transferred. As Muscat Overseas Group specialists did it for the first time after switching to wireless products from cable solutions, it took a little longer. They chose to dedicate some time to finetune the software later, and the link was up and running within a few hours. Moreover, the Muscat Overseas Group engineers did everything themselves, without needing to consult the Infinet Wireless’ support team. As Mr. Nishad K A from Muscat Overseas Group, being a technical specialist himself, explained, “Infinet Wireless solutions are easy to configure, so they didn’t need to escalate the process and contact company’s representatives.”

Benefits

After starting deploying two links with four InfinLINK XG units, Muscat Overseas Group professionals noticed visible improvements, such as follows:

1. User experience was improved, as previously they had been some lagging because of the limited connectivity, which completely changed after the implementation of Infinet Wireless solutions;
2. They managed to do a back-up (replication) of data and, although it happened a little later, the gap was minimal.

After having Infinet Wireless solutions deployed and observing its operation for some time, the client saw all the benefits. First and foremost, Infinet solutions are very simple to implement; this is the most crucial advantage they noticed at Muscat Overseas Group. What is more, they also require very little effort to maintain. One may always change the hardware, and all that is needed to adapt it to the specific location.

Muscat Overseas Group professionals plan on extending LAN connection and subsequently, data transmission. As at the moment they have two locations connected, which they decided to divide by functionality, using one of them for regular LAN access, and another for storing data important for the business.

Although currently they have only two sites with the line-of-sight propagation, Muscat Overseas Group plans to implement Infinet Wireless solutions into other exciting projects.

“Price, support from the local partner and quality — there are three main points for any product selection”, comments Nishad K A, IT Manager at Muscat Overseas Group. “Every Infinet product is a ‘fix-and-forget’ kind of a solution, having impressive technical characteristics. We’re completely comfortable with this product; we knew it, and just went for it”, he concludes.

We’re extremely proud to have such a strong business relationship with Muscat Overseas Group”, says Mithilesh Singh, Information Communication Technology Director at HTC. “And we are happy to have introduced Infinet Wireless solutions to this client, as we see the huge impact of the first project already, and the prospective future is very bright. We’re looking forward to it!” he comments.