Case Study: VP Buildings
Solution OverviewCustomer ProfileVP Buildings, headquartered in Memphis, Tennessee, is a world leader in developing, manufacturing, and distributing versatile, energy-efficient, pre-engineered steel building systems. It employs 200 people at several manufacturing facilities throughout the United States. Business SituationThe company needed a reliable, cost-effective alternative to general-purpose servers for storing builders' drawings for current projects. SolutionVP Buildings chose Windows Powered Iomega NAS for its affordable cost of ownership, hot-swappable drives, and ease of deployment and management. Benefits
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Company Overview
If you've ever driven by a large warehouse, shopped in a multistore retail complex, or worked in a suburban office park, chances are you've encountered a building manufactured by Varco-Pruden (VP) Buildings. VP Buildings, headquartered in Memphis, Tennessee, is a world leader in developing, manufacturing, and distributing versatile, energy-efficient, pre-engineered steel building systems. It employs 2,000 people at several manufacturing facilities throughout the United States.
Business Challenge
VP Authorized Builders use the company's Microsoft Windows-based VP Command design, engineering, estimating, and ordering software to design their buildings. Builders then submit their designs to one of the VP Buildings manufacturing facilities for final design work. VP Buildings engineers finish the design—ensuring that it meets or exceeds local building code specifications—print out the drawings, and send the design to manufacturing. When manufacturing of the framing, roofing, and metal outer skin is complete, all components are shipped to the building site.
The computer-aided design (CAD) drawings range from 6 MB to 12 MB compressed and are stored on local servers at each manufacturing location. VP Buildings had been storing the files on general-purpose servers using a SCSI array, but the cost became prohibitive as the company's storage requirements increased. As a result, Joe Petrie, VP Buildings Network and Systems Administration Manager, decided to look for a network-attached storage (NAS) solution that:
| • | Offers a low cost of ownership. |
| • | Runs on the Windows operating system platform. |
| • | Features high reliability so that no data would be lost if a disk drive went down. |
Reliability was a big issue because if a hard disk drive went down, designers could lose anywhere from a couple hours' to a whole day's worth of data. "That meant having to rework drawings that were already completed and delaying the manufacturing process," Petrie says.
When he became aware of the Windows Powered Iomega NAS servers, they appeared to match his requirements, so he called a representative from Marketlink Technologies and requested a test unit for evaluation.
Most user and group files for Continental's 4,000 corporate users are stored on the network, so availability is critical to ensuring an efficient operation. Continental's IT group had previously set up 14 file servers running either the Microsoft Windows NT® Server 4.0 or Windows 2000 Server operating system. However, as the number of servers grew and performance slowed, the IT group decided that a system tuned specifically for file sharing would improve speed and capacity for users while reducing the number of servers required.
"The need for storage just grows and grows," explains Eric Craig, Continental's Director of Network and Systems Engineering. "We needed to add a lot of file space to the network, but in addition to just increasing capacity, we wanted to consolidate file servers, simplify our management burden, and increase the performance of network file access."
Solution
Petrie put a Windows Powered Iomega NAS P405m test unit through a series of tests, basically to see whether he could break it. He put it up on the bench, configured it for the network, and then loaded data and started unplugging drives. "Everything kept working with no data loss," Petrie says. "The way they've installed the operating system across the drives, you can remove any of the drives, and it will still run. The hot-swappable drives and the flash operating system were the determining factors in our purchasing the Windows Powered Iomega NAS."
After testing the Iomega NAS to his satisfaction, Petrie installed a Windows Powered Iomega NAS P400m device at each of two locations. Each P400m features 160 gigabytes (GB) of RAID 5 storage across four hot-swappable hard disks and Windows Powered NAS—an optimized version of the Microsoft Windows 2000 operating system, which integrates seamlessly with the Active Directory® directory service, and includes a Web-based user interface, Persistent Storage Manager, and storage management software. In addition, each server provides dual network interface cards (NICs) and value-added software features, such as Iomega management utilities and back-up software. The NAS servers are backed up to tape daily.
Setup took less than 15 minutes. The system administrator at each location just took the NAS unit out of the box and plugged it into the network. The seamless integration of Active Directory into Windows Powered NAS enables the Windows Powered Iomega NAS to easily plug into the company's Active Directory-based infrastructure. This enables administrators to set permissions so that only authorized users can view and access confidential information.
To ensure that users have access to the storage they need, system administrators use the storage management software included in Windows Powered NAS to allocate storage space quotas for each user.
Over the next year or so, all of VP Buildings' manufacturing locations will be equipped with either the 160-GB Windows Powered Iomega NAS P400m or the P405m servers, which feature 320 GB of RAID 5 storage. All of the NAS devices will store building drawings for current projects at each location, as well as human resources forms and files. As buildings are completed, the project drawings on the NAS are offloaded to the company's centralized storage system in Memphis.
Business Benefits
Increased Reliability Helps Build Revenue
The RAID 5 storage across four hot-swappable disk drives provided by the Windows Powered Iomega NAS virtually eliminates downtime from disk failure and helps prevent data loss. If the system administrator does need to replace a disk, it can be done while users continue to access data on the other three disk drives. "The Windows Powered Iomega NAS rebuilds the RAID set in a matter of minutes, and we're ready to go," Petrie says. "So even if we do have to replace a drive, users can still access their data."
Because time and volume are key factors in profitability, ensuring that the system stays up translates into a better return for VP Buildings. "Getting those drawings out and to the manufacturing plant as quick as we can increases our volume, which makes more money for us," Petrie says.
Distributed File Services Optimizes File Sharing
The nature of VP Buildings' business requires that the company be able to collaborate on projects, while protecting files from unauthorized access or inadvertent changes. The Distributed File Services (DFS) capability in Windows Powered NAS makes it easier for users to find drawings and related files without knowing what physical server those files are stored on.
"The ability to set granular file access permissions in Windows Powered NAS enables me to more effectively meet our user's needs, balancing access and security," Petrie says.
The company uses the Revision Control Engine from DuraSoft GmbH, which enables builders and VP Buildings employees to check files in and out as well as track changes as the project evolves.
Easy Deployment and Management Help Lower Cost of Ownership
The Windows Powered Iomega NAS also met Petrie's primary requirement for low cost. "Cost was a big factor in choosing the Iomega NAS," Petrie says. "The Windows Powered Iomega NAS units are very cost-effective in terms of the licensing costs and purchase price, as well as requiring less time to deploy, manage, and maintain than a general-purpose server."
Because the Windows Powered Iomega NAS is ready to go, out of the box, and includes seamless integration with Active Directory, it was quickly configured and deployed in the company's Active Directory environment to take advantage of the wide array of Windows 2000 Server-based integrated service components. "It was pretty automatic once we registered the Windows Powered Iomega NAS servers and set up an account in Active Directory," Petrie says."
Another major factor in keeping down the cost of ownership for VP Buildings is that the Iomega NAS is based on the Windows platform. "Our administrators can manage Windows Powered Iomega NAS servers with the same Windows-based management tools and use the same Windows-based antivirus software as for the rest of the enterprise," Petrie says. "That saves the cost of investing in new software tools and training."
