Sydney, 15 September, 2009 – Bendigo and Adelaide Bank has selected AAPT’s new IPVPN to connect nearly 400 of the Bank’s sites nationally, in a deal worth approximately $9m over two years.

The decision will see AAPT upgrading the Bank’s existing frame relay network via its industry-leading multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) network.

The new IPVPN integrates nearly all of the Bendigo and Adelaide Bank sites onto a single IP platform, increasing speeds at the Bank’s data centres from approximately 50mbps to 300mbps and upgrading bandwidth at sites to a minimum of 512kpbs.

In addition, the new IPVPN management and reporting capability enables other partners of the Bank to benefit from direct access to the new infrastructure.

The long-term partnership between AAPT and the local franchise of the Bank’s community telco initiative, Bendigo Community Telco, sees them accessing AAPT’s IPVPN capability via their Network Operations Centre to manage the Bank’s national wide area network.

The migration of the Bank’s 395 sites to a national tier-1 MPLS network is a critical move in the Bank’s technology strategy and is essential in enabling BCT to support the Bank’s ongoing needs.

AAPT CEO Paul Broad said the partnership would leverage AAPT’s significant investment in its best-of-breed MPLS network and provides the Bendigo and Adelaide Bank with a simplified pricing model to ensure regional communities were not penalised due to location.

“AAPT has enjoyed a long-standing relationship with Bendigo Bank and we’re thrilled the Bank has selected our solution as the right fit for its technologically and geographically varied operational needs.

“Our national MPLS network is second-to-none and, as recognised in the recent Gartner report, our ability to provide the Bank with performance-graded access services as standard will assist them in optimising their network costs.”

The deal also provides the Bank with a consolidated contract, reducing rolling end dates at differing sites.