Hahnfeld Hoffer Stanford Customer profile improves RPO 7-fold with solutions Company Hahnfeld Hoffer Stanford Industry Services (Architecture and Interior Design) Country United States Employees 42 Web site hahnfeld.com

Challenge

With file shares filling up and an aging server infrastructure, Hahnfeld Hoffer Stanford needed to refresh its systems to improve performance, availability and scalability while keeping costs down.

Solution The firm decided to use technology to differentiate itself from the competition, and engaged local Dell Partner Consuro to help deploy a virtualized server infrastructure based on Dell PowerEdge™ servers, Dell EqualLogic™ iSCSI storage arrays and Microsoft® Hyper-V®. A Dell KACE™ Management Appliance allows a single IT employee to manage all client systems from a single Web-based interface.

Benefits • 50% cost savings vs. physical server refresh • 40% less IT staff time spent managing servers • 50-60% decrease in planned downtime • 4,000 productivity hours reclaimed annually for architects • 7-fold improvement in recovery point objective/RPO (24 hours vs. 1 week) “One of our goals is to leverage technology • Recovery time objective/RTO reduced from days to hours to keep us at the forefront of architecture • Off-host backups run non-disruptively during firms in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Dell and the day Consuro are helping to make this possible.” Application areas • Disaster Recovery Jason M. Adams, Director of Information Technology, • End User Computing Hahnfeld Hoffer Stanford • Intelligent Data Management • Networking • System Management • Virtualization In professional services industries such as architecture and design, technology has been the great leveler. Armed with the same applications and tools as larger firms, small and midsize businesses are able to capture a larger share of the market.

But investing in new technology can be a difficult sell to business managers who Technology at work must watch the bottom line carefully. “No Solutions matter what business you’re in, it can be Dell KACE™ K1000 challenging to convince management Management Appliance that spending a little more now on the right systems can increase productivity Services and better position the business for Dell Support Services “Lag time in saving the future,” observes Jason M. Adams, - Dell ProSupport™ with Next Director of Information Technology at Business Day onsite service Revit files was Hahnfeld Hoffer Stanford, a Fort Worth- virtually eliminated based architecture and interior design Hardware firm. “It’s a universal IT challenge.” Dell EqualLogic™ PS4000E when we deployed iSCSI SANs Luckily, having started his career in Dell OptiPlex™ 755 and 765 Dell EqualLogic architecture before moving into desktop PCs storage. Our users IT, Adams is uniquely qualified to Dell PowerConnect™ 5424, 3548P understand how technology can best and 2748 switches support the business. “Keeping our are each getting Dell PowerEdge™ R610 servers with technology current gives us an edge over ® Xeon® processors back an hour of competitors—even companies much Dell PowerVault™ TL2000 larger than we are,” he observes. design time every tape library working day.” Jumping on board with virtualization ™ T5500 and T5400 tower workstations Hahnfeld Hoffer Stanford standardized on Dell PowerEdge servers in the late Jason M. Adams, 1990s, keeping the equipment for as Director of Information Adobe® Photoshop® long as six years before replacing Technology, Autodesk® Building Design Suite Hahnfeld Hoffer Stanford it. “I’ve never had a major part such as a motherboard fail since we started Premium 2012 buying Dell servers nearly 15 years ago,” Axium ajeraComplete says Adams. “From both a performance Dell EqualLogic Host Integration and a management standpoint, they’re Tools Microsoft Edition great machines.” For its networking Dell EqualLogic SAN HeadQuarters infrastructure, the firm uses Dell (SAN HQ) PowerConnect 5424, 3548P and ® 2748 switches. Microsoft Data Protection Manager Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 Until recently, the firm had no Microsoft System Center centralized storage aside from the Management Suite Enterprise internal disks within the four Dell Newforma® Project Center and servers that supported Microsoft Info Exchange Exchange Server and Active Directory®, ® file shares, Newforma Project Center Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise with Hyper-V® and Newforma Info Exchange. “File shares were filling up, and I was wary of Windows Server 2008 Standard keeping Exchange on a six-year-old box,

2 no matter how good the build quality,” effective given the bundled replication says Adams. “I also wanted to be able to functionality, SAN HQ management keep critical services on their own server, software and the ability to integrate instead of being in a situation where the with Microsoft Data Protection Manager Exchange server was also the domain via EqualLogic Host Integration Tools controller, for example.” Microsoft Edition.”

To add capacity, improve the firm’s The firm now runs six virtual machines data recovery objectives and provide on the two Dell PowerEdge hosts, along higher availability for critical services with four legacy servers. “Virtualization and file shares, Adams recommended gives us the flexibility to use a separate to management that the firm virtualize virtual server for any application,” says “For 15 years, we its servers and centralize data storage Adams. “Now we have physical and virtual on a storage area network (SAN). After domain controllers, and separate servers have turned to Dell explaining the many benefits that server for Microsoft Data Protection Manager for server, desktop, virtualization could bring to the firm, and System Center, which we didn’t Adams got the green light. “Virtualization have before. And we saved 50 percent notebook, storage is the way the industry is moving, so we compared to scaling the traditional way jumped on it,” says Adams. “We wanted and just buying more hardware. On top and infrastructure to leverage the competitive advantages of that, I’m spending 40 percent less time solutions. It as soon as possible, beginning with managing servers, and planned downtime our servers, with the goal of eventually has been reduced by 50 to 60 percent has been the virtualizing desktops as well.” because we can easily move virtual machines between the physical hosts.” right choice, as Saving 50% over a physical Dell provides server refresh Reclaiming 4,000 hours a year Adams engaged Consuro, a local Dell Performance has improved for Autodesk consistently reliable Certified Partner, for assistance with Revit® Architecture, the firm’s primary the virtualization deployment. Also design application. Twenty-nine and efficient a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, registered architects, interior designers, products for our Consuro recommended deploying a and architectural interns run Revit on two-node cluster of Dell PowerEdge Dell Precision workstations as well as employees, which R610 servers with Intel Xeon processors Dell OptiPlex desktop PCs, working with running Windows Server 2008 R2 architectural models that are stored on a in turn keeps our Enterprise, which includes Hyper-V central virtual server. firm productive.” virtualization software. To provide centralized storage for the virtual “These Revit models can be upwards machines (VMs) over a standard of 200 megabytes or more,” Adams Eric Hahnfeld, Ethernet network, the firm selected explains. “They’re fairly large files. Before, President/Principal, a Dell EqualLogic PS4000E iSCSI I had complaints all the time because Hahnfeld Hoffer Stanford storage system. users had to wait five to seven minutes for the file to save to the central server “Through two different seminars, one before they could begin working with of which Consuro held, we were the model again—and the typical user introduced to the Dell EqualLogic saves to central about once an hour. Lag product, which became the saving time in saving Revit files was virtually grace to this entire problem all in one eliminated when we deployed Dell solution,” says Adams. “Consuro showed EqualLogic storage. Our users are each us how we could use EqualLogic to do getting back an hour of design time everything we wanted. It was very cost- every working day.”

3 With 16 architects working 50 weeks a The KACE K1000 discovers installed Architecting the future year, that’s 4,000 reclaimed productivity software on machines, allowing the The firm’s next IT goal is to retire the hours annually.1 “We’ve seen a significant associated licenses to be tracked against desktop-class machines employees are improvement in overall productivity,” the number of installations for more currently using for Autodesk Building Adams notes. effective asset management and Design Suite and replace them with license compliance. Hyper-V virtual desktops. “We’ll just Improving RPO 7-fold add another EqualLogic array, probably The built-in auto-replication “Being the sole IT person for a 42-person one with faster disks, and add more functionality of Dell EqualLogic storage firm, keeping client systems patched Dell host servers to serve those virtual is allowing Hahnfeld Hoffer Stanford to and deploying software to individual workstations exclusively,” says Adams. greatly improve its recovery objectives machines was an ongoing challenge,” “That’s another great thing about for critical data such as email and file says Adams. “Most software upgrades EqualLogic—every time you add a unit, shares. “We’re replicating to a second and deployments had to be done on you’re not only adding capacity, you’re Dell EqualLogic PS4000E SAN that nights and weekends. I attended a demo also adding throughput and I/O. To me, is hosted by Consuro’s data center and saw firsthand the many benefits of it scales forever, and you can manage all hosting arm, Enterhost,” Adams the KACE K1000 appliance. Not only the arrays from a single interface.” explains. “Consuro used EqualLogic did it solve my patch management Host Integration Tools to integrate our and software deployment problems The Dell and Microsoft infrastructure Microsoft Data Protection Manager by allowing me to patch systems and is helping Hahnfeld Hoffer Stanford backups with Dell EqualLogic Auto- deploy software remotely from a Web- be more productive and efficient, and Replication. The backups are off-host, based management console, but it also therefore more competitive. “One of so we can run them during the day with consolidated our asset management our goals is to continue to leverage no disruption to services.” and help desk solutions. We now have technology to keep us at the forefront a single appliance that takes care of all of architecture firms in the Dallas-Fort The firm’s new disaster recovery these needs.” Worth area, and help us compete with strategy has improved its recovery larger firms,” Adams explains. “Dell point objective sevenfold. “We used Fast response from a trusted, and Consuro are helping to make to send tapes off site weekly, but now local partner this possible.” we’re replicating block-level changes to The ability to work with a local services Consuro every 24 hours,” says Adams. provider with deep expertise in both Adds Eric Hahnfeld, President/Principal, “We’ve also improved our recovery time Microsoft virtualization solutions and Hahnfeld Hoffer Stanford: “For 15 objective on the server infrastructure Dell EqualLogic storage ensured a years, we have turned to Dell for side from a few days to a few hours.” smooth implementation. “It was a server, desktop, notebook, storage pleasure working with Consuro on the and infrastructure solutions. It has Individual files, even large Revit models, deployment,” says Adams. “They are very been the right choice, as Dell provides can now be recovered from disk in professional and attentive to our needs. consistently reliable and efficient minutes, compared with hours using If I call them with a question, I’d be products for our employees, which in tape. The firm is also using 90 percent surprised if it takes an hour to get a call turn keeps our firm productive.” less tape for backups, reducing media back. They have really exceeded and management costs. “Now we’re our expectations.” just using our Dell PowerVault TL2000 tape library as an overflow for Data Hahnfeld Hoffer Stanford relies on Dell 1. 1 hour/day * 5 working days per Protection Manager when we need it,” ProSupport for fast delivery of parts week * 50 working weeks per year says Adams. should anything go wrong with the * 16 architects = 4,000 productivity hardware. “We haven’t had to interact hours reclaimed annually Simplified client management with Dell ProSupport much because The firm also deployed a Dell KACE the Dell equipment has always been so K1000 Management Appliance for asset reliable,” says Adams. “But there’s peace management and inventory, software of mind in knowing it’s there.” distribution and patch management.

View all Dell case studies at dell.com/casestudies

Availability and terms of Dell Services vary by region. For more information, visit dell.com/servicedescriptions 4 © December 2011. Intel and Intel Xeon are registered trademarks of Intel Corporation in the United States or other countries. Microsoft, Active Directory, Hyper-V and Windows Server are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. This case study is for informational purposes only. Dell makes no warranties - express or implied - in this case study. Reference number 10009958