Helix Core Has the Power and Support ECI Telecom Needs

ECI Telecom Connects Globally

ECI Telecom delivers network solutions for the telecommunications industry. They pioneered optical packet networks, and inspired the next generation in telecommunications. Headquartered in Israel with offices around the globe, their customers include British Telecom, Bharti Airtel, China Power, Deutsche Telekom, France Telecom, Tata, Vimpelcom, and Vodafone. ECI Telecom also supplies solutions to energy, government, defense, and transportation companies.

Powerful Systems Choose Helix Core

To determine a version management solution, ECI Telecom examined their complex and diverse development environment. Some important factors included:

• Varied needs of 300+ developers spread over three countries
• Developing in several programming languages, .Net, C++, C #, and Java
• Products contained 2 – 4 GB of data with millions of source code files
• Total repository exceeded 100GB

ECI Telecom’s previous system, installed in 2006, had reached end of life. Slow performance meant it took an average of 17 minutes for file synchronization. This complex and inflexible system was also expensive to maintain. They were looking to invest in a product that did not require internal code customization to fit into their software environment. “We require a version management system that provides consistent high performance across multiple teams, platforms, and workflows. Helix meets that need,” Ravid Brown.

International Teams Unsupported with SVN and Git

Before deciding on Helix Core, ECI Telecom evaluated the market. Other systems were dismissed because of cost, complexity, or inability to effectively support C++ and Java. Open source tools such as Subversion (SVN) and Git did not support the demands of an international company. A Ravid Brown says, “Our work is mission-critical. Our products are used in national internet networks, so we need a reliable commercial system with robust support.”

The decision was clear. Helix Core provided:

• Dramatically improved performance: file synchronization took 2 - 3 minutes
• Total control over the VM environment while enabling automation
• Less complexity than the previous system
• Customization and extensibility options
• Value for money – Helix Core was a fraction of the cost of the previous system

“While cost is important, it is the technical benefits that sold Helix to me. For instance, performance gains aren’t just about speed — they enabled us to improve productivity in lots of other ways,” says Ravid Brown.

Helix Core Performs

It took just six weeks with only three full-time ECI Telecom staff to install Helix Core. 300+ developers and 100 non-technical staff at ECI now have more automation across functions within the development environment, improved traceability and audit trials, and improved version management.

Since installation, ECI has observed Helix Core’s impact:

• Full return on investment by the end of year two
• Consolidated version management on one server with room to grow
• Less time spent managing version control translates to increased productivity

“Feedback from users has been very positive. The only thing is that synching file versions takes just a couple of minutes compared to 17, so there is less reason to take a coffee break!”

Moving Forward

ECI Telecom is looking at moving to Jira for bug-tracking and Jenkins for continuous integration. This is part of the ALM team's strategy to use more off-the-shelf, enterprise-grade software tools that require less manual intervention or writing code in house.