Capital Project Network Upgrade

BACKGROUND TO THIS OPPORTUNITY CORE SWITCH The Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust is currently in the process of upgrading its core network switching infrastructure. We currently have two Cisco 6509 model switches, one installed in Data Centre 1 (DC1) and the other in Computer Room 2 (CR2) both now end of life and software support from December 2012. We are looking to replace these switches with newer, higher capacity switches, able to support higher bandwidth connections and futureproofing the trusts network. DATA CENTRE ENVIRONMENT The Trust is also looking to make some improvement to the data centre environment. In the core we currently have two Cisco 6509 model switches, one installed in Data Centre 1 (DC1) and the other in Computer Room 2 (CR2) both about to be upgraded as part of another project. The data centre switches are connected in DC1 and consist of 6 Cisco x 4948E model switches. The second data centre is installed in Computer Room 3 (CR3) and consists of 4 x Cisco4948E’s. We are looking to keep these switches and install a new aggregation layer between our core switches and the old data centre 4948e’s with newer, higher switching capacity switches, able to support higher bandwidth connections, to move the routing from the core switches to the new aggregation layer and to futureproof the trusts network. WIRELESS To facilitate this change, the current core wireless controllers that are currently connected in the core switches, will need to be renewed.