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Applied Inovation SS.Indd APPLIED INNOVATION INC. CUSTOMER SUCCESS STORY Applied Innovation Uses VMware Software for Efficient, High Performance Virtual IT Infrastructure VMware Workstation, ESX Server, P2V Assistant, VirtualCenter and VMotion provide cost savings, fast server deployment and resource optimization The Need for Server Consolidation Implementing VMware Workstation RESULTS to Reduce Costs and Administrative and VMware ESX Server Burden At about the same time, the company was evaluat- Applied Innovation Inc. (AI), provides network man- ing VMware Workstation™ for its engineers. The • Ease of implementation and use agement solutions that simplify and enhance the engineers were using multiple computers to • Consolidation ratio of 15:1 operation of distributed voice and data networks. develop on Red Hat Linux while accessing the Building on a deep knowledge of network archi- corporate information systems on Windows 2000 • Improved CPU utilization and tecture, elements and management, AI delivers Professional. AI engineers tested their environ- memory sharing unique hardware, software and service solutions ments on VMware Workstation, and after seeing the • Minimal downtime and high that provide greater connectivity, visibility and software in action, the company rolled it out to 40 availability of servers control of network elements and the systems that users. With VMware Workstation, engineers could do support them. Understanding the importance of all their work on one system, running the develop- • Reduced deployment times for creating a strong IT infrastructure, the IT department ment environment on the host Red Hat Linux oper- server deployment from days ating system and accessing corporate systems on a to hours was doubly determined to provide an efficient and flexible infrastructure to support the company’s Windows 2000 Professional guest operating system. • VMware ESX Server and the business. During the Workstation rollout in March 2003, Jarvis associated hardware paid for itself in less than 12 months When Intel-architecture server proliferation started and his team chose to evaluate ESX Server as a to become a maintenance burden, AI sought a server consolidation solution. ESX Server allows • Reduced maintenance and server server consolidation solution to lower maintenance, system administrators to isolate operating systems purchase costs administration and IT training costs. The company and applications in multiple virtual machines that • Lowered power consumption also wanted to reduce resource usage, including reside on a single piece of hardware. Using VMware space and power, and increase server CPU and ESX Server, the team set up a test environment for • Effective disaster recovery memory utilization. infrastructure servers – WINS, DNS and DHCP servers solution – on an IBM server and a Dell server. “We were AI first looked at VMware software for server consoli- pleased with the results. We were able to do every- dation in November 2002, when the company was thing in a virtual environment that we could do with evaluating storage area network (SAN) solutions. physical machines,” says Jarvis. One SAN vendor demonstrated its solution with VMware® ESX Server™ which intrigued AI IT Director About two months later, after the success of the Phil Jarvis and his team. “We took over the conversa- test phase, AI moved its backend infrastructure tion and started talking about VMware more than systems onto virtual machines. It kept some the SAN,” Jarvis says. “We were thinking about how it physical machines on the network for a period of could help us optimize our server management.” time, and then did a phased migration starting “VMware ESX Server is the underlying infrastructure within our company; everything is running on it and everyone uses it daily. We can set up test environments and scenarios much more quickly to resolve problems, and can roll out servers quickly. VMware VirtualCenter and VMotion also enable us to share resources in our server pool. The result is optimized administration and little or no downtime. ” Phil Jarvis IT Director, Applied Innovation Inc. APPLIED INNOVATION INC. CUSTOMER SUCCESS STORY with non-critical applications, followed by critical • Improved CPU and Memory Utilization. AI’s applications, and finally, deployed VMware Virtual servers were underused, at 10% CPU utilization SMP™ to migrate dual-processor applications. Virtual and 20% RAM utilization per physical server. “Now, VMWARE WORKSTATION, SMP allows a single virtual machine to span multiple with ESX Server and VirtualCenter, we can better ESX SERVER, physical processors. Allowing multiple processors utilize the CPUs and take advantage of memory VIRTUALCENTER to work in parallel while using only a single guest sharing,” Jarvis says. AND VMOTION AT operating system image makes Virtual SMP ideal for WORK the most resource-intensive applications. • Minimal Downtime. Using VMotion, AI can move servers around so that underlying hardware and • 175 people using applications In January 2004, AI selected VMware VirtualCenter™ storage can be serviced without disrupting user on ESX Server, 40 people using and VMotion™ to create a virtual infrastructure for sessions. “We have high availability with VMotion,” Workstation optimal server management. With the software, Jarvis explains. “It eliminates the need for down- • ESX Server running on three Dell AI can manage its servers from a central location, time for maintenance windows on the VMware PowerEdge 6600s, each with 4 including being able to instantly provision new ESX servers.” CPUs, 8 GB RAM. Two are 1.9 GHz servers and move virtual machines while they’re Pentium IV Xeons, one 2.4 GHz running in production to different physical servers • Reduced Development/Deployment Times for Pentium IV Xeon. Nine NICs on to manage resources most effectively. New Servers and Applications. “It’s significantly each, gigabit cards for internal net- faster to clone or create virtual machines than to work: 10/100 BaseT cards for DMZs Multiple Benefits From Using VMware provision new servers,” Jarvis says. “We can also and Console OS easily add disk to a machine. It’s helped us reduce AI uses VMware virtual machines in a wide variety wasted disk space on our SAN.” • Guest operating systems: Windows of roles, from production staging, including OS NT 4.0, Win2K Server, Win2K service packs and IT development projects, to • Lowered Costs. Jarvis says VMware and the Pofessional, Red Hat Linux 8.0 production deployment, including IT development associated hardware paid for itself in less than 12 • Applications in virtual machines projects. It also uses VMware software for test months by reducing or eliminating maintenance include domain controllers, DNS, and development. For example, AI will be using costs and server purchase costs. “We bought three DHCP, Web/FTP, HRIS, Payroll, EDI, VMware to test and plan its Active Directory migra- new servers to run ESX Server, but would have had ERP, e-mail, anti-virus, engineering tion and testing viruses. to buy many more otherwise, since it was time to source code control and IT devel- refresh our existing servers and we required addi- opment and network manage- Building a virtual infrastructure with VMware tional servers for new initiatives,” he says. ment servers software has resulted in many benefits, including: • Effective Disaster Recovery. AI is able to save • Ease of Use. “VMware ESX Server is awesome VMware snapshot images of the virtual machines – easy to install and easy to use, and it requires and the console OS in addition to traditionally minimal maintenance,” says Jarvis. backing up the guest OS file system in case of a disaster. • Server Consolidation. AI migrated everything from 37 physical servers onto virtual machines • Higher End, High Powered Servers. AI has more on three physical servers, and added extra test confidence using VMware ESX Server because it servers in virtual machines. Now, it has 45 virtual is able to host applications on higher end, high- machines on three physical servers for a 15:1 con- powered servers, instead of hosting them on a solidation ratio. larger number of smaller servers. “It was good tim- ing,” Jarvis says. “We were at the point where we had servers that were about to fall off their main- tenance contracts, and we’d have to refresh or purchase more servers. The new servers are higher- end, higher-powered. It saved us the pain of buy- ing servers, buying maintenance, and upgrading more servers. APPLIED INNOVATION INC. CUSTOMER SOLUTIONS • Better Use of Resources. With VMware software, “VMware ESX Server is the underlying infrastructure AI is able to use space and resources more effi- within our company; everything is running on it and ciently. For example, the software has lowered everyone uses it daily,” Jarvis says. “We can set up test power consumption and space requirements by environments and scenarios much more quickly to reducing the number of servers. ESX Server’s NIC resolve problems, and can roll out servers quickly. bonding feature also utilizes NIC cards more effi- VMware VirtualCenter and VMotion also enable us to ciently. share resources in our server pool. The result is opti- mized administration and little or no downtime.” • Increased Flexibility. With ESX Server, VirtualCenter and VMotion, Jarvis says it is easy Jarvis also said he recommends virtualization to change hardware configuration of virtual technology to other companies to simplify server machines. For example, he can adjust memory, management, cut costs and save
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