For many Internet Service Providers (ISPs), finding the right DWDM deployment or network partner is a tricky Goldilocks-esque scenario. Network solutions that are too small and simple are restrictive and don’t leave room for innovation, but overly complex deployments with too many bells and whistles leave teams over-encumbered and resources overextended. For smaller, more rural ISPs like Scatter Creek Infonet, off-the-shelf options from many DWDM specialists were making network investment challenging and keeping rural communities in the digital dark — until XKL came along.
Scatter Creek and XKL’s DWDM Does Good
Leveraging XKL’s right-sized strategy, advanced optical networking solutions and high-touch customer service, Scatter Creek now boasts a strategically enhanced network that offers improved operational simplicity and cost efficiencies. Not to mention, paving the way for this DWDM deployment ensures end users and subscribers are equipped with the reliable, rich connectivity they need for their own futures.
Scatter Creek had experienced a significant increase in demand that far exceeded the bandwidth of the equipment it had in place, requiring an advanced, cost-efficient solution to expand capabilities while eliminating outage and downtime issues. Wanting to keep the project local for ease, Scatter Creek took an immediate shine to XKL’s unique, tailor-made approach to the requirements at hand.
Why Customizing DWDM Matters
While others promoted a one-size-fits-all ROADM approach, XKL’s FOADM (Fixed Optical Add Drop Multiplexer) solution offered previously untapped opportunities. With FOADM, Scatter Creek could simplify its network management without stretching internal resources beyond their breaking point — all while reducing expenses with a greenfield DWDM network investment. XKL delivered a DWDM network solution complete with 100G/400G transport capabilities, offering reliable connectivity across surrounding rural communities, delivering flexibility for capacity expansion and providing optimized performance and reliability.
In today’s business climate, balancing cost-efficiency and technical excellence is a priority. However, many commonly offered solutions don’t allow customers to find creative cost efficiencies. To help customers get the truly revolutionary technical benefits and business advantages they need, XKL prioritizes hands-on support. The team takes the time to explain, build and deploy network solutions that offer exactly what a customer requires — no more, no less. By cutting out extraneous network capabilities, XKL delivers the best DWDM results on time and on budget with no licensing fees ever. In fact, this dedication to delivering ‘DWDM made easy’ with a user-friendly network allowed Scatter Creek to manage its own backhaul, creating further financial and operational efficiencies.
Financial and Operational Results
“As a smaller, rural ISP, we found that many commonly offered network solutions just didn’t suit our architecture. XKL really took the time to listen to our goals and draw on their expertise to show us a different way of proceeding,” notes Brian Van Mondfrans, IT Manager at Scatter Creek. “The end result of our collaboration with XKL is that we don’t need to pay for additional software or GUIs with unneeded features and associated subscription fees, and we weren’t pushed to add more ports or interface cards than we needed. This DWDM solution is ideally sized for our use case, has a simple management interface that supports SNMP, was delivered with a seamless plug-and-play approach and offers superior technical results. We couldn’t have asked for a better outcome.”
“This all comes down to delivering digital opportunities to our rural customers, and with XKL’s network expertise, we were able to cut our operational costs by 40%. By reducing operational complexity and averting huge network expenses, we’re more agile and flexible for our customers’ futures and have the capacity to support other regional ISPs and partners as we build this connectivity fabric,” states Rick Vitzthum, CFO of Scatter Creek. “With other network providers, we struggled to find the size of solution we needed, and some would have made us pay tens of thousands annually for just a graphic user interface. XKL’s creative networking and customer-first approach has worked wonders for both us and our subscribers.”
