CUSTOMER TESTIMONIAL

Baloise Insurance

Name

Baloise Group

Sector

Financial services

Branches

130

Employees

7600

Website

baloise.ch

Customer since

2000

Strategic Account Manager

Michael Huber,

michael.huber@upc.ch

Initial situation

The Baloise Group is the third-largest Swiss general insurance provider for private persons and companies. The corporation includes Basler Versicherungen, the investment company Baloise Fund Invest, the Baloise Bank SoBa, and various branches in Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg. In 2019 the business volume was around CHF 9.5 billion.


The cooperation with UPC Business started in 2000. Back then, the management of Communication Services was looking for a new service provider for the company network. Baloise always pursued the strategy of generously equipping the company network with bandwidth so that the latest business demands could be achieved quickly. After reviewing a variety of offers, a decision was made for UPC Business, which offered an innovative solution and the best value for money. Within just three months, 119 locations in Switzerland were migrated to the UPC Business network. After a pilot stage and meticulous planning, the migration went off without a hitch. The service interruption lasted less than ten minutes at all locations.

Solution

Over the course of the 20-year cooperation, a variety of solutions were employed. Today all locations in Switzerland are connected to the UPC Business fiber optic cable network with 1 Gbit/s. For the company network, Business Ethernet (EoMPLS) with at least 100 Mbit/s per location is used. The encrypted layer-3 VPN is managed by Baloise itself. The data centers in Basel and Rümlang are additionally connected with a redundant DWDM solution. Ports with Gigabit Ethernet (1/10/100 Gbit/s) and Fiber Channel (2.5/8/16 Gbit/s) are available for the data transport on this route. In 2016 Baloise was one of the first customers to order a 100 gigabit connection from UPC Business.


The international locations were integrated in the company network with leased lines.


The Internet service is realized in redundant form with Business IP Transit (5 Gbit/s each in both data centers). Baloise has UPC Business manage its own autonomous system (AS). With an additional DDoS protection service, UPC Business protects the IP transit from cyber attacks.

Extra mile

During the long-standing cooperation UPC Business made every effort to implement the customer’s wishes creatively and promptly. One example of this effort was the move of an agency to French-speaking Switzerland. In May 2019 the customer asked UPC Business whether Business Ethernet with 100 Mbit/s could be activated at the new location as of 1 July. The new address was not yet connected to the fiber optic network, and in such a short time it would not have been possible to create a fiber optic connection. In order to make the desired service available on the date planned, the product management and technical service of UPC Business developed a solution based on BBCS-VDSL technology.


And so it was possible to put Business Ethernet into operation as desired. The fiber optic connection was pushed ahead during this time as well.


Correct as of: March 2021

«We have been working with UPC Business for more than 20 years. During this period the demands on the company network and Internet communication have increased massively. Today we are glad that we chose UPC Business back then. They are the right partner for the digital transformation.»

François Ryffel,
Data Center Services, Group IT

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