France: SPIE overhauls the network infrastructure at the CEA Marcoule centre

Malakoff, 8 January 2023 – SPIE ICS, a French digital services company and subsidiary of SPIE, the independent European leader in multi-technical services in the areas of energy and communications, is supporting the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission's (CEA) Marcoule centre in the overhaul of its LAN infrastructure (IT network). Following the upgrade, which will make it more reliable, agile and secure, the new network, developed using the Extreme Networks solution, should guarantee high availability and support future changes at the CEA Marcoule centre.

Dialogue and co-design to accurately address the challenges at CEA Marcoule 

Created in 1955, CEA Marcoule is a key player in the energy challenges of the 21st century thanks to the work it does on the circular economy and environmental conservation. In order to better meet the needs of its 1500 employees and over 5000 users, the CEA has used the UGAP's (France's central public contracting body) LAN network solutions market to develop its network. 

SPIE ICS, a subsidiary of SPIE France, won this new contract in July 2022 by offering the solution most compatible with the centre's needs. 

The Extreme Networks solution was the best fit for the customer's essential criteria: the need to deploy a long-term, innovative and secure solution that addresses the centre's economic and ecological challenges. For the latter, SPIE ICS calculated the energy footprint of using this new network. 

A scalable, long-term solution 

The migration of the IT network took place between October 2022 and March 2023. This required significant agility from the SPIE ICS teams, as the centre's activities had to continue uninterrupted. What's more, SPIE ICS was also able to meet the deadlines despite the shortage of components currently faced by the sector. 

By using the latest technology and software from Extreme Networks, this new, more reliable network now offers maximum resilience and availability for users of the CEA Marcoule centre. And that's not all: it also allows for the addition of security services between resources and users. 

The SPIE ICS teams will continue to work with those at CEA Marcoule to transfer the skills needed to use and manage this new network. 

"The SPIE ICS teams were thrilled by this opportunity to use their technical expertise to enable the transition to a network more suitable to the challenges faced by the centre," explains Benjamin Derégnieaux, Head Business Engineer at SPIE ICS.