Hyperconverged Solution Saves Risk Management Provider Millions during Data Center Refresh

Challenge:

A global provider of risk management solutions who excels at helping others avoid risk knew its aging data center would not support future business growth. With plans to develop new applications and add more employees to the hundreds already working in dozens of offices around the world, legacy hardware put them on the wrong side of the “risk vs. reward” equation.

When the customer contacted SHI, they wanted to accomplish two things: evaluate their traditional infrastructure (server blades and SAN) against a more modern approach, and explore alternatives to a hypervisor solution currently featuring high operational costs.

Solution:

A global provider of risk management solutions who excels at helping others avoid risk knew its aging data center would not support future business growth. With plans to develop new applications and add more employees to the hundreds already working in dozens of offices around the world, legacy hardware put them on the wrong side of the “risk vs. reward” equation.

When the customer contacted SHI, they wanted to accomplish two things: evaluate their traditional infrastructure (server blades and SAN) against a more modern approach, and explore alternatives to a hypervisor solution currently featuring high operational costs.

Solution:

SHI began by running a Dell Performance Analysis Collection Kit (DPACK) which gathered performance and storage metrics on the existing data center. Using the data from DPACK, SHI presented the customer with several options for both traditional and hyperconverged solutions that could easily handle current workloads while supporting future growth. Since the customer favored Dell Support Services, they ultimately decided on a hybrid Dell-Nutanix solution that provided the “cloud-like” platform they wanted, while giving them access to the Nutanix Acropolis hypervisor.

The final solution consisted of (in quantities of 42):

• Dell servers
• Nutanix XD730xd nodes
• Nutanix storage controller (one per node)

This combined solution allowed the customer to get away from their current and expensive infrastructure and move toward a modern setup, providing agility, speed and flexibility, while enabling simplicity and ease of management for supporting future growth.

The combined solution expanded computing power while significantly lowering the merged company’s overall data center footprint. It ensured business continuity, aligned with future growth projection and enabled the customer to emerge as a leader in the uber-competitive cyber security market.

The deal took three months to complete, and (by utilizing available Dell and Nutanix programs), SHI helped save the customer approximately $2 million.

SHI is currently working with the customer on improving their AWS environment worldwide.