WestJet’s William Lee helps keep fares low by using an intelligent application delivery appliance for WAN traffic by an MPLS network. Growth is good, but WestJet airlines found that growing was beginning to threaten its low fares-based business model. Faced with a costly upgrade for its WAN services enterprise-wide, the airline’s manager of technical infrastructure had a hunch there must be a better, more cost-effective alternative. He was right.

WestJet is a Canadian low-cost airline offering scheduled service all through its 47-city North American and Caribbean network. Named Canada’s most admired corporate culture in 2005,2006 and 2007, WestJet pioneered low-cost flying in Canada.

The airline has grown rapidly since 1996 when it commenced flight operations with 220 employees and three planes serving three destinations. WestJet now has more than 7,000 employees, and operates a fleet of 74 next-generation Boeing 737s that serve 47 destinations in Canada, the United States and the Bahamas.

By beginning its operations on

a small scale, WestJet was able to control costs all through the company, and the IT branch was no exception. For its first full decade in business, the airline was able to employ a cost-effective Frame Relay network service to link its input center with the growing number of hubs and terminals.

“When I heard about systems that offered intelligent bandwidth management resulting in superior application performance and an extraordinarily high return on investment. I was more than a little skeptical,” says WestJet’s William Lee.

In 2006, William Lee, WestJet’s manager of technical infrastructure, recognized the need to manage WAN bandwidth more effectively. “The Frame Relay network served our needs quite well for quite a while,” he says. “But as we grew and added a redundant details center, the network became too complex and costly.”

Which is why Lee decided to replace the company’s Frame Relay network with a multiprotocol layer…

Orginal post by Mike

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