Clari reimagines its office network with cloud-first design, moving past legacy architectures

The Challenge

Clari recently started hosting large-scale, in-person events at its California headquarters. The first of which was a 250-person engineering meeting that put the existing Meraki network to the test. The expectations were sky-high, especially in terms of fostering a level of connectivity that would satisfy the team. The network buckled. Attendees faced significant performance glitches that not only ruined their experience but disrupted the program as a whole. With the next major company event in just three weeks, the Clari IT team was under pressure to either fix or replace the unstable network.

• Unstable legacy network with serious performance issues
• No internal network engineering team to replace aged, failing network
• Tight timeline to implement new solution with rapidly approaching high-level company meeting

The Solution

The Clari IT team knew that making patchwork fixes to an outdated network wouldn’t deliver the flawless experience that was expected, not just at the next corporate event, but at all events moving forward. They decided to implement a revolutionary way of networking, the Nile Access Service. Powered by cloud software, Nile’s next-gen wired and wireless LAN enabled guaranteed performance for coverage, capacity and availability, along with new levels of automation for the day-0 to day-N operations.

• Large in-person meetings at Clari headquarters fully supported by Nile Access Service
• Secure wired and wireless network delivered in two weeks from demo to deployment
• Completely separate guest network that delivers security and ease of access
• The remainder of Clari HQ building being transitioned to Nile

The Results

Nile saved the day, deploying a completely new network for Clari in record time. Within a matter of days, the Nile network was up and running with the secure capacity and availability to support not only the 250 users at the Clari event, but all connectivity needs moving forward.

• As-a-service model enabled rapid network roll out without the upfront capital expenditure
• IT team free to focus on business-critical initiatives
• Monthly billing made deployment possible on a limited budget

I feel like I’m Nile’s greatest champion … I love the architecture, the vision behind the product and where it’s going.”

Marcus Chan
IT Operations Manager, Clari

The clock is ticking

Clari’s IT operations manager, Marcus Chan, was facing a seemingly impossible deadline to fix the network problems before the next corporate event, which was a well-attended and critical meeting to discuss a strategic acquisition. So, he reached out to colleagues for advice. What he got back was less suggestion and more imperative: Nile was the only solution to his problem.

“My former colleague uses Nile to support his company offices globally and he couldn’t recommend it highly enough,” he recalls. “Once I saw the demo and dug into the Nile architecture, it was a no brainer for me.’”

Clari was impressed with the Nile demo and, within a few days, requirements were established, a design was agreed on and equipment was ordered and shipped. The actual install took only a few days and Nile delivered an entirely new network before the Clari event.

“The deployment was amazing – quick, simple and easy,” says Chan. “The whole experience was hugely positive. In fact, the head of procurement said they wished all of our vendors were as easy to do business with as Nile.”

Working smarter, not harder

With no existing network team within Clari, Nile’s as-a-service model was the ideal solution.

“We have a lot to manage day to day and we’re also pushing more strategic, larger initiatives for the company,” Chan explains.

In addition to deploying the network, Nile took on the tasks of monitoring, troubleshooting and management, resulting in significant productivity and efficiency boosts. Chan also plans to start leveraging Nile for ticketing, saving time for IT and improving responsiveness to users. All of those hours saved are being put to good use elsewhere – enabling Clari’s success through critical automations and workflows.

“Moving to Nile has made a huge difference for our entire IT team,” says Chan. “It’s white glove service, they’re so responsive.”

Be our guest

With a reliable network in place, it was time to address two important issues surrounding Clari’s corporate events: security and the end-user experience.

“When people are joining your network, it’s always a balance between ease of use for the end user and secure access,” says Chan. “The way Nile approaches it, the guest network is completely separate from the main corporate network. That makes it so much easier for us to secure it and for our users to access it.”

Separating guest traffic onto its own network is a security win, but building a guest network is a massive undertaking, one that Chan’s IT organization simply didn’t have the in-house resources for. Nile Guest Service, an optional add-on capability to the Nile Access Service, took the guest network off of Chan’s plate, delivering the highest level of security, control and visibility for Clari’s large-scale meetings.

Moving to Nile has made a huge difference for our entire IT team. It’s white glove service.”

Marcus Chan
IT Operations Manager, Clari

Dollars and Sense

Clearly continuing to use its Meraki network was not an option for Clari, but finding the budget to make the change was a major issue. Because Nile’s Access Service is delivered as a subscription, Clari was able to avoid a major capital expense up front, spreading the cost over predictable monthly payments.

“Nile’s Opex instead of Capex model was key to us being able to move forward with the deployment from a budget standpoint,” Chan recalls. “And, ongoing, we’re covered for upgrades, refreshes and infrastructure changes.”

In addition, Nile was able to cover a fractional footprint within the building in order to stay within Clari’s budget constraints. That meant focussing the deployment on the side of the building where the company meeting was being held. Chan is currently working with Nile to cover the remaining 17,000 square feet of the Clari headquarters building.

“I feel like I’m Nile’s greatest champion, I’ve been so impressed with the product,” he says. “I love the architecture, the vision behind the product and where it’s going.”