Connecting the enterprise

With nine offices and 800 attorneys, Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker LLP runs a sophisticated array of local and wide area networks designed to keep all employees in the loop. The firm's Los Angeles headquarters is the nerve center, housing an Ethernet-based LAN comprising Cisco networking equipment and Dell servers. Also on the network are approximately 270 Dell PowerEdge 6350 servers (60 of which are dedicated solely to running SQL-based applications). The Captaris voice mail and unified messaging systems and Microsoft Exchange run on Dell PowerEdge 6350 and 6450 servers.

Connecting the nine offices is a wide area network run by managed service provider FiberLink Communications Corp., with redundant T1 lines funneled through FiberLink's virtual private network to allow for interoffice communications. The VPN uses Nortel Networks connectivity equipment (Paul Hastings declined to provide specifics, citing security concerns) for secure tunneling at each location such that each site is directly connected to each other. Employees gain remote access from the outside using a Nortel VPN client to securely connect to the network.

Each location houses a Captaris server running on either a Dell PowerEdge 6350 or 6450 server, which is directly connected to the LAN and connected to other Captaris servers--one at each of the firm's locations--via the WAN. Each Captaris server communicates with each office's Nortel Meridian PBX system, completing the cycle of unified messaging.