Challenge
Client wanted to reduce costs by consolidating two data centers and set an IT infrastructure strategy to support scale and agility for its future business growth.
Client relied on over 175 physical servers at multiple locations for the core of its business operations. Client conducted a risk analysis and business impact study, and concluded that it could make substantial improvements to both its cost structure and network performance by consolidating and migrating servers to a single, virtualized environment. OnX was one of the first partners to implement the Virtual Computing Environment (VCE) solution, which created a robust virtual environment with reliable backup and recovery capabilities. Utilizing the VCE solution and ONX’ managed services for the virtual environment, the customer saved more than $1 million in operational costs through server virtualization, hardware consolidation, and data center consolidation.
Solution
OnX provided the following services to help the customer achieve its goals and exceed its expectation of cost reductions.
Solidify the Solution
OnX analyzed and tested a variety of products by different vendors to solidify the cutting-edge VCE solution adopted by the customer. In this process, OnX offered unmatched experience, expertise, and flexibility to support the consortium, comprised of leading vendors delivering the best-of-breed solution.
OnX had extensive experience with the products provided by the vendors in this project, including Cisco, EMC, VMware, and EM7. Specifically, OnX provided first-hand user experience of the new EM7 virtual environment monitoring software, which is used in our Enterprise Network Operations Center (ENOC). We also hold the following prestigious Cisco certifications for implementing its Unified Computing System (UCS):
- Data Center Unified Computing Authorized Partner Program
- Vblock 1 Qualified Partner Program for VCE
- Data Center Network Infrastructure (DCNI) Program
- Data Center Storage Network (DCSN) Program
Deployment
As a certified implementer of the VCE components, ONX helped deploy Cisco’s UCS, EMC SAN and VMware technologies. Cisco’s UCS technology was new when the customer decided to adopt it. OnX engineers worked with the technical specialists from Cisco, EMC, and the customer’s IT team to deploy the advanced technology, ensuring that the process went as smoothly as possible.
Data Migration and Virtualization
Our virtualization specialists helped migrate and virtualize the customer’s data and servers. Using Double-Take software, the engineers replicated a copy of the customer’s data and server configurations to the Cisco UCS servers and created a virtual computing environment. The virtualized servers and the customer’s original physical servers were kept in synchronization until the conversion window opened. The original servers were then automatically shut down by the replication software as the virtualized servers became operational, practically instantaneously.
Managed Services
The customer also contracts OnX to provide managed services for the customer’s servers and networks in the virtual environment. Through our state-of-the-art ENOC, our engineers provide primary monitoring of the customer’s network performance . The ENOC provides the first level of support in the event of a network or system problem and can perform high-level problem diagnosis.
Another managed service team of Tier II/III engineers provides the management of the networks, the virtual servers, the Cisco UCS hardware platform, and data backup. When a problem is detected, the team will perform trouble shooting or request the equipment vendor to fix the issue if needed. The customer’s operations will not be affected.
Results
OnX was one of the first partners to implement the Virtual Computing Environment (VCE) solution, which created a robust virtual environment with reliable backup and recovery capabilities. Utilizing the VCE solution and ONX’ managed services for the virtual environment, the customer saved more than $1 million in operational costs through server virtualization, hardware consolidation, and data center consolidation.
- The customer was able to consolidate more than 175 physical servers into fewer than 40 Cisco UCS blade servers in a robust virtualized environment. This helped the customer dramatically reduce space, power consumption, and overall management costs, which generated $1 million in operational savings.
- By utilizing Cisco’s high speed, high performance UCS servers and virtualization technologies, the customer’s operational performance has greatly improved. The customer expects to process customer transactions up to twice as fast, as well as generate reports more efficiently from its single, global ERP system.
- Managed services allow the customer to focus on business process instead of the system that runs the process. It frees the customer’s IT staff from managing the environment so that customer can focus on its core business and value-add services.