US LEC Corp a full-service provider of IP, data and voice solutions to businesses and enterprise organizations throughout the Eastern United States, today announced Florida Rock Industries, Inc has chosen the company as its communications partner to implement a combined data networking and disaster recovery solution. 
 
Florida Rock is one of the nation’s leading producers of construction aggregates; a major provider of ready-mixed concrete and concrete products in the Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic states; and a significant supplier of cement in Florida and Georgia. The company will utilize several US LEC services for secure and streamlined communications between 120 of its field locations, a centralized data center and its Jacksonville, Fla. Headquarters. 
 
"We needed a reliable and economical solution that allowed us to benefit from the newest technologies," said Roger Ferenbaugh, CIO for Florida Rock. "US LEC offered Florida Rock all of the elements we needed for superior, disaster-resistant performance -- large, scalable bandwidth, next-generation IP-based networking services and a dedicated team assigned to service our account." 
 
US LEC’s MPLS VPN provides Florida Rock a "meshed" network design, offering improved reliability over traditional "hub and spoke" designs. Meshing eliminates network dependence on a central or "hub" location, improving network performance and viability. Additionally, Florida Rock can prioritize traffic traveling over its MPLS VPN network allowing the most important applications such as its Producerware system and traffic between its data centers priority over other traffic such as Internet use.
 
Florida Rock will also co-locate their DR (Disaster Recovery) site at a US LEC data center. It will include a set of fail-over ready systems repeatedly updated from their primary site via the US LEC MPLS backbone. This will improve the Florida Rock business continuation capability should a catastrophe befall its primary data center. The step to put the DR site in a US LEC facility avoids connectivity risks with other scenarios and is the most economical way to provide sustained WAN and Internet access. 
 
Finally, the company’s remote workers will have dial-in access to Florida Rock’s MPLS VPN network. This will provide traveling workers with a safe, secure and reliable connection to the company’s critical data and applications, improving productivity and worker availability.