Overview
Systal Italia partnered with a leading European financial services organisation to deliver a major infrastructure transformation programme, migrating critical workloads to multiple new physical data centres. Each site required high availability, robust security, and full PCI DSS compliance.
Challenge
The customer sought a scalable, resilient network architecture that could support stringent financial-sector standards while enabling future growth. The environment’s complexity was heightened by the need to interconnect four data centres using advanced technologies and to ensure seamless orchestration and monitoring across them all.
Our Approach
Systal Italia designed and deployed a sophisticated multisite network leveraging industry-leading technologies including Cisco Nexus switches, Check Point Maestro and Fortigate firewalls, and F5 BIG-IP load balancers.
To optimise inter-data-centre connectivity, the team implemented VXLAN EVPN Multisite, managed and automated via Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller (NDFC), providing unified visibility, lifecycle management, and streamlined operations across LAN, SAN, and IPFM environments.
Building for Success: Lab-First Validation
Recognising the complexity of this deployment, Systal Italia built a dedicated lab environment to replicate two full data centre sites. This non-production setup included spines, border leaves, and access leaves, with simulated Nexus switches created using PNETLab and Nexus 9000v.
The lab allowed engineers to test real-world scenarios including:
- Trunk and access interface configurations
- PortChannel and vPC connectivity
- VRF-based routing and route redistribution
- Multisite gateway and redundancy designs
This intensive preparation involved dozens of engineering hours, high-performance physical servers, and meticulous resource planning, ensuring readiness long before production rollout.
Outcome
Following extensive validation and testing, Systal Italia completed the initial configuration of the first two production data centres within days, achieving a smooth, secure, and confident transition with minimal risk or disruption.
This success demonstrated that while formal training is valuable, hands-on lab validation is essential for mastering complex architectures like VXLAN EVPN Multisite and delivering robust, compliant network transformations.
Ready to Transform Your Network?
Speak to Systal about how our team can support your next data centre migration or network transformation project.
