Case Studies

Costco Wholesale Corporation is a major international wholesale distributor with revenues approaching U.S.$70 billion. By 2006, Costco realised that it needed to control the proliferation of servers in the data center. Following an initial investment in Microsoft Virtual Server 2005, Costco consolidated servers and enabled its application groups to more easily perform testing and validation before rolling out new software solutions. Costco began using virtualisation technology in 2006 and has expanded its investment to include Windows Server 2008 Enterprise with Hyper-V and Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008. With these tools, Costco can control IT spending, increase IT flexibility, and manage its virtualised server assets more efficiently.

Banque de Luxembourg is one of that country’s leading private banks, serving private investors across the continent. To uphold its tradition of innovation and demonstrate its commitment to environmental responsibility, the bank decided to consolidate its data centers through virtualisation technology. Using Windows Server 2008 Datacenter with Hyper-V technology and Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager, the bank implemented 50 virtual machines in a high-availability configuration running on 7 physical servers. Now, it is expediting the deployment of new hardware and software, delivering line-of-business applications to users one week faster than before, boosting application availability, and simplifying data-center management. It also will reduce the need for computer hardware, power and cooling, and office space, for a more cost-effective, environmentally sound operation.

Based in New Hampshire, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC) began using server virtualisation three years ago to curb server proliferation and rising electrical costs. The hospital and teaching facility initially used Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2 to trim 75 servers but wanted to move even more applications to virtual machines. DHMC decided to move its virtualisation infrastructure to the Windows Server 2008 operating system with Hyper-V technology, using Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 to manage its server landscape. DHMC expects to reduce total server holdings by 75 percent and save U.S.$4,300 per server in hardware, maintenance, electrical, and real-estate costs. It can now virtualise its most demanding applications and expects to improve service levels, save 30 hours each month in server management, and create a more dynamic IT environment.

The CSU Chancellor’s Office, which supports 75 applications for 600 desktops, faced several critical application management challenges: Time-consuming deployments and updates, difficult desktop security, and no support for multiple versions on the desktop. They implemented Microsoft Application Virtualisation. The results:

• Simplified and reduced application deployment from several days to just hours
• Cut upgrade time for key applications by hundreds of hours
• Improved desktop security by minimising the need for local administrator access for applications
• Enabled multiple application versions to run on the same computer, easing IT support for training labs, migrations and software

University of Canberra is a single-campus university located in the Australian Capital Territory. It has approximately 10,000 students and approximately 1,200 staff. The University of Canberra Information technology (IT) staff spent almost all their time maintaining their network, rather than developing new IT services or finding ways to deliver better support for staff and students. Microsoft Gold Certified Partner Dimension Data helped the university implemented Windows Server 2008. Technology staff at the University of Canberra gained immediate benefits from the Windows Server 2008 environment. Deploying new servers was faster and easier and systems became more secure. In addition, the university started to make efficiency savings from increasing the number of virtualised servers.

Headquartered in Australia, WorleyParsons provides professional services to the energy, resource, and complex process industries. WorleyParsons has grown revenue from AU$0.5 billion to $3.5 billion (U.S.$0.48 billion to $3.3 billion) over the past five years. The company relies on an agile and flexible IT infrastructure to deliver the expanding business applications required for sustaining growth, and it is deploying Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V to help reduce the growing costs associated with rapid global expansion. Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager will help simplify server management and the physical to virtual server conversion as WorleyParsons converts 50 percent of its physical servers to virtual servers. This conversion is expected to reduce hardware costs and space requirements, improve server management, and facilitate faster deployment of applications.

INA is a Croatian oil company. Its IT staff did not have efficient tools for testing and upgrading software, which slowed deployment to the production environment. Staff also had problems accessing information from an aging file server. INA deployed Windows Server® 2008 Hyper-V™ and automated its test environment to ensure timely application upgrades. It virtualised the file server to provide high availability, ensuring consistent information access.

The SOK Group is Russia’s largest automotive components manufacturer and second-largest automobile producer. With more than a dozen industrial enterprises, including joint international projects with other manufacturers and distributors, SOK needs a highly reliable and accessible IT infrastructure. The company saw that it could enhance the reliability and flexibility of its IT infrastructure by using Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V technology to virtualise workloads and consolidate servers. Since deploying Hyper-V and Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008, SOK has not only enhanced the reliability, scalability, and flexibility of its technology infrastructure, but also significantly reduced costs. The company now has the agility it needs to respond rapidly to constantly changing business opportunities.

Since 1987, DGC One has grown from a leading Swedish PC manufacturer into a major network operator and hosting company. To maintain that success, DGC continuously looks for ways to enhance the value, performance, and security of its hosting services. In early 2007, the company decided to test Windows Server 2008 to determine how the new capabilities could improve its internal operations and enhance its hosting services. Initial results indicate that, with Windows Server 2008, DGC will be able to more effectively protect its network from noncompliant client computers, consolidate servers by a 3:1 ratio, and reduce management time by approximately 30 percent. As a result, DGC expects to more fully use its server hardware and serve more customers without adding staff or data center space.

Jackson Energy Authority (JEA) is a utility provider in Tennessee. JEA wanted to virtualise more servers and improve application availability so employees weren’t disrupted while serving customers. When Jackson Energy Authority heard about the Microsoft Virtualisation Rapid Deployment Program (RDP), staff in the 20-member IT department staff jumped at the opportunity to participate. The JEA team worked with technology partner ATA Technologies, a Microsoft Certified Partner, to determine a business plan for the RDP. They focused on deploying Terminal Services in a Hyper-V environment so that they could retire the existing solution and improve business application availability. They are saving more than U.S.$35,000 in licensing and hardware costs and gaining a high-availability solution to ensure reliable business applications and good customer service.

Telstra Business Systems, an Australian provider of IT integration and management solutions, needed to improve the performance of its own enterprise network. Because of increased business from new customers, government agencies, and business partners, the performance of the network was reduced. To resolve this, Telstra Business Systems upgraded its server software to Windows Server® 2008 and used features such as Read-Only Domain Controllers and Hyper-V™ server virtualisation. Since the upgrade, the company has significantly improved network performance to continue its excellent customer service levels to customers. It has also reduced costs by consolidating servers. In addition, IT administrators spend less time on routine maintenance and more time improving the system and responding to customer calls.

Hostbasket is a Belgian hosting company that strives to keep its services fresh, innovative, and price-competitive. With success and growth, the company acquired a burgeoning number of servers, which required significant staff time to deploy and maintain. Hostbasket turned to virtualisation to reduce its servers and server management workload. Using the Windows Server 2008 operating system with Hyper-V technology, Hostbasket plans to create 300 virtual machines and retire 60 physical servers. More importantly, Hostbasket can quickly create new offerings, giving customers more options and greater control over their hosted applications. Hostbasket uses Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 to simplify server setup and management. Because Hostbasket can better utilise its servers, it earns higher margins from virtual machines and increases customer application uptime.

Based in Louisville, Kentucky, MaximumASP is a Web-hosting company that prides itself on its innovative offerings and outstanding customer service. The company’s growth, however, led to a proliferation of servers that took increasing amounts of time to provision and manage, pulling staff away from researching new services and hurting business agility. MaximumASP is now using the Windows Server 2008 operating system with Hyper-V technology to consolidate servers and offer more flexible and competitive products, such as high-availability clusters and self-service server provisioning. The company anticipates saving U.S.$350,000 in hardware costs by virtualising 200 servers, in addition to saving on power and IT management costs. MaximumASP is also using Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 to streamline server deployment and management.

Santa Barbara Web Hosting (SBWH) provides enterprise-class managed services to nearly 4,000 small and medium-sized customers. Like many hosting providers, SBWH was challenged with rising power costs, limited resources, and long build times. The company, which was in danger of having to turn away new customers, or losing existing contracts, because it couldn’t access enough affordable power fast enough, sought an efficient way to manage servers for a growing customer base while ensuring reliable, cost-effective offerings. Using Microsoft solutions, including Windows Server 2008 Datacenter with Hyper-V and Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager, the company is now realising an average annual operational savings of U.S.$315,000, and can offer customers more expansive services at a lower monthly fee, ensure high availability, and provision new servers in just minutes.

The City of Zurich is optimising its IT infrastructure by bringing its 15,000 PCs and notebooks spread across 60 service departments in line with one common standard. Previously, the various service departments decided for themselves which operating system and applications to install. As part of the city’s new IT strategy, hardware and software are now procured collectively by the centralised IT service department (OIZ). After conducting a thorough evaluation, the OIZ decided to standardise on Windows Vista and the 2007 Microsoft Office system. The engineers involved are using Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 not only to install Windows Vista and the 2007 Microsoft Office system, but also for subsequent central configuration and maintenance. The City will also realise faster deployment, easier provisioning, and better management with the Microsoft Desktop Optimisation Pack (MDOP). This solution’s technologies support accelerated provision of Windows Vista while also making it easier to manage.