When an international foodservice equipment manufacturer was exploring backup Internet Service Providers to meet their throughput and technical needs, Independents Fiber Network provided the high-speed connectivity they were looking for.
About
Headquartered in Eaton, Ohio, Henny Penny designs, develops, and manufactures premium foodservice equipment known for reliability, ease of use and low operating costs.
Challenge
In September 2016, Henny Penny had begun investigating alternatives for backup Internet Service Providers (ISPs) due to several reasons.
At the time, they had primary Internet service (200 Mbps) through a major telecommunications company that serves 30+ states in the U.S. and a backup Internet service (10 Mbps) with a national cable television company. Both Internet service paths were identical, following the same physical path in Eaton.
“We had recently upgraded primary service through our primary service provider, but we had an inadequate backup link incapable of supporting the needed amount of throughput,” said Ben Warner, the IT infrastructure manager at Henny Penny.
Additionally, Henny Penny had experienced an outage related to service due to a storm when a tree fell on aerial fiber carrying both primary and backup traffic.
Furthermore, Henny Penny was in the midst of implementing newer conferencing technologies such as live webcasting (primarily for products training) that would require additional bandwidth and assured reliability.
Solution
Independents Fiber Network and Henny Penny started communicating that September regarding Henny Penny’s telecommunications needs and how Independents could meet them through their fiber-optic connectivity services.
“There were three factors that led to our decision,” Warner stated. “First, Independents Fiber Network assured us that the pathway for our Internet service would follow a completely independent route and was mostly underground.”
“Second, the pricing was highly competitive against similar providers,” he continued.
“Finally, Independents Fiber Network was also planning to continue to build south toward Cincinnati, where we had colocation facilities for disaster recovery,” Warner said.
Results
After beginning work with Independents Fiber Network, Henny Penny was able to switch to 1 Gbps to accommodate their bandwidth needs.
They also changed Independents Fiber Network to their primary Internet service provider and switched the original telecommunications company they were working with to their secondary provider.
“We experienced no issues with our backup circuit, and Independents has been very easy to work with when needed,” Warner explained. “The service has been great, and Independents is very easy to contact – especially at the NOC (network operations center) level.”
Moreover, Henny Penny has benefited from the ease of doing business and from having a direct access to support resources who can immediately troubleshoot an issue or make a configuration change.