STEP LOGIC and Huawei Have Laid IT Foundation for OKO Tower

Moscow, 8 July 2019. STEP LOGIC and Huawei have announced the completion of the project to deploy server and network infrastructures for the OKO skyscraper in the territory of the Moscow City, Moscow International Business Centre. As a result, a highly reliable technological foundation was laid on 24 floors of the building with a total area of 50,000 sq. metres for daily work of about 4,500 employees of the executive authorities of the city of Moscow.

At the end of 2018, the offices of the following executive bodies of Moscow moved to the OKO skyscraper: Department of Transport and Development of Road Transport Infrastructure, Department of Urban Property, Department of Trade and Services, Department of Information Technology, Department of Investment and Industrial Policy, and Tourism Committee. The purpose of the move was to reduce costs by reducing the area of the premises used. A high-performance and reliable ICT infrastructure was required to support the daily work of employees and ensure business continuity and high availability of IT services. The task of creating such an infrastructure was entrusted to STEP LOGIC. The deployment of server and network infrastructures, as well as network security solutions for this project, was carried out using Huawei technologies.

Huawei equipment is used to solve a wide range of tasks at the facility: virtualisation, wired and wireless networks, information and network security, applied information technologies, multimedia systems, etc. Thus, the solutions by this vendor play an important role in creating an information technology system for the central server room based on 84 FusionServer RH1288 V3 servers. And the Huawei virtualisation system is the basis for all the subsystems of the integrated ICT infrastructure at this facility.

In addition, wired and wireless network infrastructures were built using Huawei solutions to deploy a unified data transmission environment and provide users with communication and information services in the OKO building. The LAN was deployed throughout the building; it covers more than 4,400 workstations and provides over 10,000 ports for connecting user equipment in the offices of the executive authorities. When implementing the system, a hierarchical (modular) approach to the network topology was used, which simplifies the operation and scaling of the LAN. A high level of fault tolerance is provided by hot redundancy. Modern modular switches Huawei S12700 are used for the LAN core. Huawei S5700 and S2700 access level switches, as well as Huawei NE20E high-performance multi-service routers are also used in the project. 802.11ac wireless network provides full seamless coverage of all zones and office premises of the customer.

The network security system created by STEP LOGIC is also based on Huawei products: there are two types of firewalls (for the core and for the perimeter), as well as 7 security servers. Huawei USG 6680 firewalls in hot standby mode are used to protect the LAN core. Virtual systems (firewalls) on the basis of a fault-tolerant pair of USG 6680 servers are used to separate the traffic at the core level of the LAN for various executive authorities, as well as to separate the permissions to administer IS policies. The Huawei USG 6650 fault-tolerant configuration is used to protect the perimeter of the LAN. Solutions include security services designed to detect and prevent intrusions, ensure network anti-virus protection, filter DDoS attacks, and monitor applications. These services are integrated with the user directory, thus allowing defining security policies based on domain attributes. The Huawei USG 6650 and 6680 equipment was certified by FSTEC and can be used by enterprises subject to special requirements from the regulator.

In addition, this project included the deployment of Huawei eSight, a centralised equipment management system that provides convenient tools to monitor the performance of network infrastructure, firewalls, and information security policies.

“Huawei is one of our long-time partners. We have implemented many joint projects and know firsthand all the advantages of the solutions of this vendor. First of all, they provide the best price/quality ratio. Many of our customers prefer Huawei equipment for this very reason. As a result of the implementation of our project at OKO, the executive authorities of Moscow received new working areas and workstations; they also were able to significantly reduce the costs of interaction between the structural units, as well as consolidate information services. At the same time, the newly created infrastructure can significantly reduce the cost of its use, while providing the widest possible functionality with the possibility of further expansion," commented Eugenia Fedotova, Business Development Director at STEP LOGIC.

"We are very pleased to participate in a project to optimise the activities of the executive authorities of Moscow with the help of the latest information technologies by Huawei, as well as to continue to contribute to the digital transformation of the Russian economy in general. Our solutions have received the necessary certificates and meet the highest requirements of both commercial and state organisations," said Wang Chen, Huawei Enterprise Sales Director in Russia. "Partners traditionally play a key role in Huawei's business. STEP LOGIC, one of our oldest and most reliable partners, understands all the features and requirements of each customer, and also has all the necessary technological competences, which made it possible to implement dozens of unique joint projects based on Huawei's advanced technological solutions."