Microsoft Volume Licensing Customer Solution Case Study

TV Production Company Finds Flexibility in Virtualization and Volume Licensing

Overview “We have to ramp up and ramp down quickly to reflect the Country or Region: Norway dynamic nature of TV production, and with the Open Value Industry: Media and entertainment Subscription agreement, we only have to pay for the licenses Customer Profile Mastiff, in Oslo, is one of Norway's we use.” largest and most versatile TV production Marius Borge, Head of Technical Operation, Mastiff Norway companies. It produces hundreds of hours of programming and has 30 full- As one of Norway’s largest television production companies, time employees and up to 100 Mastiff employs from 30 to 130 people, depending on project freelancers. volume. Having eliminated a news production operation in 2009, Business Situation the company needed to clear its computer network of Its IT infrastructure was outdated and included unneeded data. The company unnecessary data. To affordably upgrade its server infrastructure, wanted to install a new server Mastiff deployed a new virtual environment based on Windows environment and upgrade its desktop computers to Windows 7. Server 2008 R2 Enterprise with Hyper-V technology. It also deployed the Windows 7 operating system on new desktop Solution Working with OfficeTeam, Mastiff hardware to enhance client performance, reliability, and security. deployed a virtual environment on With HyperV, the company improved network performance, Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise with Hyper-V technology and upgraded to expedited server deployment, and saved hardware and energy Windows 7, which it added to its Open costs. By acquiring software licenses through the Microsoft Value Subscription licensing agreement. Open Value Subscription agreement, Mastiff gained the Benefits flexibility to adjust license volume to variable staffing needs, as Saved hardware and energy costs Increased performance well as upgrade rights and streamlined license maintenance. Expedited deployment Streamlined license maintenance Gained licensing flexibility and value Situation One of Norway’s largest TV production The company’s IT infrastructure ran on the companies, Mastiff develops and produces Windows Server 2003 R2 operating system, many of its own program concepts. It also and it used Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 has access to many other television formats and Microsoft SQL Server 2005 data such as “Beyond Boundaries”, “Fort management software. Both Mastiff Boyard”, “Paradise Hotel”, “Sing If You Can”, freelance and full-time staffers managed and “Parenti Talenti” from around the world projects and performed administrative through its parent company, Zodiak tasks on workstations and portable Entertainment. Mastiff is best known for its computers running the Windows XP fact-based journalistic formats and for operating system and either Microsoft producing Norway’s most successful and Office Professional 2003 or 2007. In longest running consumer magazine series. addition, the TV production staff used a lot of special software, including Avid Media Mastiff already had an office in Sweden in Composer, to edit programs on those same 1995 when it opened another location in PCs or on dedicated editing machines in Oslo, Norway, to produce entertainment the edit suites. shows. In 2000, Mastiff Norway set up a subsidiary focused entirely on producing “Everything needs to work together. For news for TVNORGE, a channel in the example, sometimes we take a laptop out ProSiebenSat1 Group. TVNORGE is the in the field to capture video and transfer it second largest commercial broadcaster in back to the home office, and then publish it Norway. In 2009, the news production live through the website,” says Borge. operation was closed, and the company went back to focusing mainly on producing By late 2009, much of the production entertainment shows and factual company’s server hardware was getting old journalistic magazines. and needed to be replaced to support new capabilities and improve performance. In The nature of TV production requires a addition, Borge wanted to replace the workforce that can rapidly adjust to meet existing domain because it included a lot of staffing requirements for a constantly out-of-date data and folders from the changing list of independent productions. inactive news production business. “The As a result, Mastiff uses a lot of freelance system was old and unstable,” says Borge. contractors. “We have a base of workers “It was important to not just upgrade a who work full time in our office, and when little bit. It was going to be easier to build a we sell TV projects to the broadcasters, we new domain from scratch and move the hire a lot of freelance crews in the Oslo relevant data over, rather than try to clean area, and in the districts, to produce the up the old system.” Borge also wanted to shows,” says Marius Borge, Head of replace its workstations with new hardware Technical Operation for Mastiff Norway. and upgrade to the Windows 7 operating “Sometimes, we’re very small with maybe system, but was concerned about the time only 30 people; sometimes, we grow to up and cost. to 130 people.”

27 Solution suggested that Mastiff add Windows 7 to Mastiff selected OfficeTeam, a Microsoft its Microsoft Open Value Subscription Gold Certified Partner, both for its agreement. Mastiff had acquired client proposed solution and for its ability to access licenses for Microsoft server handle the production company’s variable software and for Microsoft Office through IT administration workload. an Open Value Subscription agreement since 2006. This agreement provides a “Instead of hiring two or three people in discount on licensing costs, a fixed annual our office, we just outsourced the IT cost per desktop, and the ability to track all management and support to OfficeTeam,” licenses on a single agreement. In addition, says Borge. “That gives us the flexibility to the agreement gives Mastiff the flexibility have the support we need as our staffing to increase or decrease licenses and pay needs change.“ annually for the number of licenses they are using on the renewal date. . After meeting with Mastiff to get a clear picture of what it expected from its new Mastiff had removed the Windows network environment, OfficeTeam operating system upgrade from its Open recommended that the company deploy Value agreement for budgetary reasons in Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise and 2008. But with the completely renovated take advantage of the included Hyper-V network environment, Borge decided that technology to virtualize its environment. adding it back into the agreement provided “We recommended virtualization because it the most economical way to license would reduce the number of physical Windows going forward. “With our new servers they needed to purchase and network infrastructure, it was very manage, and would also help to reduce important to move to Windows 7 to take energy costs,” says David Eriksson, full advantage of new security and Technical Consultant for OfficeTeam. “We management capabilities, but we needed to recommended Hyper-V because it delivers minimize the cost,” says Borge. the power and performance they need along with lower licensing costs than Because Software Assurance coverage is VMware.” With Hyper-V, Mastiff can run included with the Open Value Subscription, one instance of Windows Server on the Mastiff could upgrade to the latest physical server and up to four instances in software versions when they became the virtual operating system environment, available, with the cost already figured into all for less than the cost of running the annual cost per desktop established by Windows Server on four physical servers. the three-year agreement. So by adding the Windows desktop operating system to Upgrading the Volume Licensing the agreement, Mastiff gained upgrade Agreement rights to Windows 7 and future desktop Knowing that the company also wanted to operating system upgrades that occur upgrade its PCs to Windows 7 to take during the agreement period. advantage of the enhanced performance, security, and reliability, OfficeTeam

37 By adding Windows 7 to the agreement, The new infrastructure consists of two HP Mastiff was also able to choose the single server computers, each hosting four virtual platform option, which allows the company servers on Hyper-V. “We upgraded one of to license Windows 7, Microsoft Office, and their existing HP server computers and client access licenses for core server bought one new server,” says Eriksson. “The products at a single cost per desktop. That new environment looks very much like the price provided an additional savings old one but with new domain names and compared to acquiring those licenses new applications and upgraded hardware separately. and software.” The virtual servers are used for all services, including file and print, web, Deploying the Entire System at Once domain controller, and Microsoft Exchange OfficeTeam deployed the new domain, Server 2010. The two HP-servers and upgraded the desktops, and migrated users Hyper-V technology are doing the same to the new system all at the same time. job as the previous setup of eight physical First, the OfficeTeam project engineer servers. removed the unneeded information from the old servers and used Microsoft Mastiff plans to use the deployment server Deployment Toolkit 2010 and the Windows to upgrade to Microsoft Office 2010. Since Deployment Services feature in Windows the Open Value Subscription includes Server 2008 to prepare the new servers Software Assurance, there will be no before bringing them to the Mastiff office. additional licensing cost for the upgrade. Using these tools, the OfficeTeam engineer OfficeTeam will provide small group created a desktop image that included training sessions to provide company- Windows 7 and Microsoft Office specific training on the new software, and Professional 2007 and standardized it on how to use the e-Learning modules also across the entire organization by deploying available through Software Assurance. it to all 40 new workstations simultaneously from the network image server. Mastiff also is considering deploying Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 and The actual migration from the old system Microsoft Dynamics CRM to manage all to the new system took place over a aspects of its TV production projects from weekend. When everyone came back in the planning to budget control. Through the office on Monday morning, they had new Open Value Subscription the company can PCs, and all the new domains and servers evaluate those applications before were ready to go. “It was a very smooth acquiring licenses and take advantage of migration for our employees,” says Borge. volume licensing discounts when it decides “Our staff came in and entered their to deploy by adding them to its agreement. credentials, and they were online in the new system with access to all their old files Benefits and mail messages. We got a lot of positive By implementing a new server domain feedback from all the users who said this based on Windows Server 2008 R2 was incredibly smooth.” Enterprise and installing virtual servers with Hyper-V technology, Mastiff saved

47 hardware and energy costs, increased percent. “My job is to produce TV network performance, and expedited server programs, so I outsource as much of the IT and workstation deployment. Because the management as possible to OfficeTeam,” company acquired Microsoft software says Borge. “The reduced IT management through the Open Value Subscription requirements of our new system make that agreement, it also benefited from flexible outsourcing much more cost effective.” volume purchasing and significantly reduced license-management time. Increased Performance By introducing new hardware, software, and Saved Hardware and Energy Costs Hyper-V virtualization technology, Mastiff OfficeTeam estimates that Mastiff saved has seen definite improvements in approximately 70,000 kr. (U.S.$10,772) just performance, both at the network and the on hardware acquisition costs by desktop level. “We are very pleased with consolidating from eight to two physical the system performance of Hyper-V servers and being able to upgrade and technology,” says Borge. “For example, now reuse one of its original servers. “If we we see much better performance and a hadn’t deployed Hyper-V virtualization more user-friendly interface compared to technology, Mastiff would have had to the old hardware with the old software. purchase at least three or four new servers, Plus, our editing applications run perfectly which would have cost 105,000 kr [U.S. on Windows 7 and even help editors work $16,168] compared to 35,000 kr [U.S. faster and with more precision thanks to $5,389] that it cost for the hardware better multitasking capabilities than changes we made,” says Eriksson. The two before.” host servers still have plenty of room to accommodate more virtual servers because Expedited Server and Workstation currently only about one-third of each Deployment server’s capacity is being used. The ability to set up a virtual server in less than an hour will aid Mastiff in testing new “The Hyper-V functionality was very software and in deploying it into the important to us because it meant that we production environment. “It’s easy to install could go from having a whole rack full of new servers with Hyper-V. If we need to servers, to two servers that cover test something, we can just create a virtual everything and still have room for growth,” server on one of our hosts in one hour and says Borge. then either convert it to a production server or remove it when we’re done testing,” says Having fewer servers is projected to reduce Borge. “This will make it faster and easier the company’s electricity costs for power for us to test and implement new solutions and cooling by about 7,200 kr. (U.S.$1,109) that we’re considering such as SharePoint annually. Mastiff also estimates that the Server 2010 and Microsoft Dynamics CRM.” new streamlined domain and management capabilities and the increased reliability of Mastiff also has expedited desktop Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise will deployment by using Windows reduce IT management time by about 30 Deployment Services to deploy a single

57 desktop image simultaneously to multiple of TV production, and with the Open Value workstations. “If we had OEM [original Subscription agreement, we only have to equipment manufacturer] licensing for pay for the licenses we use,” says Borge. Windows 7, we could not deploy it from a “We just count licenses on our renewal date central deployment server,” says Borge. “It’s and pay for that number.” important for us to have the flexibility to roll out 10, 15, or 20 machines very quickly, Mastiff also saved licensing costs with the and with Open Value Subscription Up to Date credit for its existing desktop licensing, we can do that. We probably save operating system assets and gained added two hours per desktop by having just one value from the Software Assurance benefits image that we can send out immediately to included in the agreement. Through as many desktops as we need.” Software Assurance, Mastiff can upgrade to new versions of software at no extra Streamlined License Maintenance charge, access e-Learning training, and test With the Open Value Subscription, Mastiff software applications before acquiring needs only one license key for all of its licenses. “With Software Assurance, we can desktop software, which cuts license set up a test system to try out new software management time and eliminates the without buying licenses for it until we disruption of having to search for license decide to put it into production,” says keys for each software program for each Borge. “That way, we can determine the workstation. “With Open Value value of a new application before Subscription, we don’t need to enter 40 addressing budget issues.” separate license keys for the operating system and for Microsoft Office; we have only one license key for the desktop image,” says Borge.

In addition, Mastiff can download software, access volume license keys, and track and manage licenses and Software Assurance benefits online through the Microsoft Volume Licensing Service Center. This saves set-up time for new computers and makes it easy to see quickly what is deployed and where.

Gained Licensing Flexibility and Value The tremendous fluctuations in Mastiff’s workforce made the Open Value Subscription an ideal way for the company to license Microsoft software. “In our business, we have to ramp up and ramp down quickly to reflect the dynamic nature

67 Microsoft Volume Licensing Microsoft Volume Licensing offers customized programs that are designed to meet the needs of your business. Tailored for companies of different sizes and purchasing preferences, these Volume Licensing programs provide simple, flexible, and affordable solutions that can help you manage your licenses with ease. Whether you have five or thousands of desktop PCs, Microsoft Volume Licensing has the right program for you.

To acquire the latest Microsoft technology at a significant cost savings through Microsoft Volume Licensing, contact your Microsoft Partner or local reseller.

To learn more about Microsoft Volume Licensing, visit: www.microsoft.com/licensing

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