Case Study: CPA improves speed and redundancy for national payment network with an MPLS backbone

"Have had 100% availability to date for this critical national network."

Canadians conduct millions of financial transactions every day—at bank machines, online, by pre-authorized payment, with debit cards and cheques, and in many other forms. In 2010, these transactions reached a daily average of $170 billion dollars. Needless to say, the speed, reliability, capacity and security of the networks that enable these transactions is critically important, not only to the individuals and institutions that use them, but to the well-being of the entire Canadian economy. Created by parliamentary mandate to oversee and manage all aspects of these systems’ operation, the CPA needed to upgrade the CPA Services Network (CSN) to be faster and more resilient, and to better handle the ever-increasing volume and complexity of transactions. At the same time, it wanted expanded network redundancy and availability to ensure continuous uptime. To accomplish this, it decided to implement two completely distinct, segregated MPLS networks, and it wanted them built and implemented by two different companies.

Company

The Canadian Payments Association (CPA) establishes, operates and maintains systems for the clearing and settlement of payments among member financial institutions on behalf of their clients, which include individuals, businesses and governments.

Challenge

The CPA needed to upgrade to faster, more resilient systems to meet the ever-increasing number and complexity of daily transactions and to meet expanded network redundancy requirements.

Outcomes

• Realized significant savings by migrating to MPLS technology
• Have had 100% availability to date for this critical national network
• Now consolidating all aspects of its legacy networks into the MPLS network
• Implemented the scalability needed for future improvements and expansion
• Direct access to network data required for reporting