News and Events

2004

PETROLEUM GEO-SERVICES CHOOSES FORCE10 E-SERIES SWITCH/ROUTER AND GAINS SIX-FOLD INCREASE IN NETWORK PERFORMANCE

MILPITAS, Calif., February 2, 2004 — Force10 Networks today announced that Petroleum Geo-Services (PGS), an oilfield services company with headquarters in Norway and Houston, Texas, has deployed the E-Series to increase performance and reliability in its UK data center. With the Force10 E600 as the backbone of its network, PGS is running existing applications up to six times faster, significantly reducing the time it takes to process comprehensive data analysis.

“Over the next year we expect to double the size of our computing cluster as we design more advanced algorithms to process seismic data, and we need an interconnecting network that can deliver greater performance both today and as we continue to expand,” said Mike Turff, global DP systems manager for PGS. “With Force10’s E-Series, applications that took more than 30 hours to run prior to the data center upgrade now take less than five, bringing to our business an efficiency that allows us to better serve our customers.”

PGS collects and analyzes marine seismic data, enabling oil companies to locate new fields and discover better ways of extracting oil from existing ones. Deployed and serviced by Prime Business Solutions in the U.K., the Force10 E-Series provides PGS with a reliable and scalable network that enables the company to process seismic data using more advanced algorithms, more efficiently run applications and expand its network according to demand.

The Force10 E600 forms the hub of the PGS data center, interconnecting PGS’ storage facilities with its high performance cluster network. With line-rate Gigabit Ethernet ports, regardless of traffic conditions or network configuration, the Force10 E-Series ensures that the Teraflops of processing power and Terabytes of data storage are used efficiently and effectively, dramatically increasing the speed with which PGS does business.

“PGS operates in a rapidly expanding field that leverages new technology to acquire, process and prepare massive amounts of data that are vital to sustaining the world’s oil driven economy,” said Michael Augustine, Force10’s United Kingdom country manager. “The Force10 E-Series brings to PGS the scalability and reliability that ensure predictable performance, transforming the network into a true business asset by increasing efficiency and reducing costs.”

The Force10 E-Series combines unmatched scalability with best-in-class resiliency to give commercial organizations like PGS a new level of network and application predictability. Fully distributed hardware and modular software deliver line-rate Gigabit and 10 Gigabit throughput across all ports regardless of traffic conditions while built-in hardware redundancy guarantees performance continuity.

Prime Business Solutions, a U.K.-based systems integrator, provided network integration and technical support for the deployment. Delivering innovative solutions to enterprise and public sector customers, Prime Business Solutions also provides a full spectrum of life cycle services from consultancy and design to installation, support and managed services.

PGS operates more than 12 seismic vessels, has four floating production systems and maintains eight seismic data processing centers to provide marine seismic data, onshore surveying, and oil and gas production services. Leveraging its cluster computing and storage resources, PGS processes 3-D and 4-D seismic data, 4-D reservoir imaging and reservoir characterization studies to better explore the world’s oil resources.

Contact:
Peter Ruzicka
Force10 Networks Inc.
408-965-5151
pruzicka@force10networks.com

Contact:
Jennifer Arculeo
Force10 Networks Inc.
408-965-5194
jarculeo@force10networks.com

About Force10 Networks
Force10 Networks is the pioneer in building and securing high performance networks. Based on a revolutionary system architecture that delivers best-in-class resiliency and massive scalability, Force10’s TeraScale E-Series switch/routers ensure predictable application performance, increase network availability, and reduce operating costs. Today, many of the world’s largest Gigabit Ethernet and 10 Gigabit Ethernet networks depend on Force10 Networks. For additional information, please visit www.force10networks.com.

Force10 Networks and E-Series are registered trademarks, and P-Series, S-Series, TeraScale and FTOS are trademarks of Force10 Networks, Inc. All other company names are trademarks of their respective holders.