Until recently, ad agency Cole & Weber's network hadn't changed much since it was profiled in our August 1994 Centerfold: There were SynOptics hubs to the desktops and a Grand Junction 10/100 switch for big jobs, and the agency's Interactive Group ran on a separate network.
But with the advertising industry's entry into to the Internet age, the Interactive Group had begun to expand from print and broadcast media and marketing into Web site development for agency clients, and the Seattle-based company needed to get with the program. "It was a testament to the original design that it lasted six years, but now we are stepping back and doing it the way it needs to be done," says Brian Albright, who joined the company as IT director earlier this year.
Albright's initial mission was to bring Cole & Weber's network up to date with an internal switched-IP infrastructure--and he did so with a staff of just three, and a budget of about $200,000. Another of his first steps was to integrate the Interactive Group's Microsoft Windows NT Server-based network with the company's Novell NetWare servers. "The Interactive Group has driven us toward more Internet technology," Albright says, and the new technology gives the agency the flexibility to expand its business overall.
More change is coming later this year. Cole & Weber's servers will all go Windows 2000, and the company will run a VPN instead of a dedicated connection to parent company Ogilvy and Mather's New York site. Albright says it's not cost-effective to go with a VPN to the company's Portland, Ore., satellite office because that would require a more expensive high-speed connection because of the heavy file traffic between Portland and Seattle. "We are concerned that a VPN connection there would bog down and leave us open to unpredictable Internet conditions," he says.
REPORTS
Analyize In-Line NAC strategies and products.
ANALYTICS Plan and design your enterprise blade server deployments
InformationWeek U.S. IT Salary Survey 2008
Salaries for business technology professionals are falling. Here's what you need to know in order to make good hiring decisions and personal career choices. Download Today
REPORTS
ANALYTICS
Follow 
