Pannone was running over 50 physical servers and wanted to investigate and potentially implement server virtualisation. Their aims were to reduce the ongoing power and cooling costs as well as reduce the amount of space required by the servers. They wished to look at the migration of their existing physical Windows servers into a virtualised infrastructure.

"We were recommended to work with ComputerLand but as a matter of professionalism we spoke to a number of other potential partners in order to thoroughly analyse the marketplace. However ComputerLand's enthusiasm matched our own and understanding of virtualisation technology as well as their technical ability made them the obvious choice. We knew we could trust them to deliver," comments Chris Styles, Senior Manager - IT at Pannone.

ComputerLand implemented the project following PRINCE 2 methodologies and initially undertook a review of the current environment comprising of 50 servers in total. The aim of the review was to gain an understanding of the potential consolidation ratio as well as identify the current hardware and the environment it occupied. The project was split into three key areas; server virtualisation, storage and back up. The following was implemented:

Server virtualisation

ComputerLand proposed that the Windows based servers within the Pannone organization were virtualised through a VMware Virtual Infrastructure implementation. Pannone looked long and hard at all the competing software vendors but it quickly became clear VMware was the best of breed. ComputerLand implemented the Enterprise Edition of the Virtual Infrastructure product to allow Pannone to take advantage of all VMware ESX Server's features. ComputerLand's proposal enabled Pannone to move from 50 servers down to only seven as follows:

Five VMWare ESX servers (in the same blade enclosure) One Virtual Centre server One Backup server. Pannone LLP – Server virtualisation for reduced costs, greater flexibility and higher availability

Realising that much of the current hardware would be redundant, ComputerLand recommended that two of the existing HP ProLiant servers were re-utilized as the Virtual Centre server and the Virtual machine backup.

Five HP ProLiant BL460 C-Class blades were recommended and deployed in a C7000 enclosure. Whilst the initial investment required for the C-Class blade solution was higher, Pannone could expect to see power and cooling savings of up to 30% per annum, compared to the same number of HP's latest DL380 G5 servers.

Throughout the design and implementation process, ComputerLand engineers worked with Pannone's internal IT team. Chris Styles of Pannone highlights, "The implementation was more of a collaboration project. It was important that we knew how everything was bolted together and brought online as we wanted to be able to complete further implementations ourselves, as well as manage the estate moving forward."

Since the initial implementation, Pannone has installed further virtualized servers to maintain flexibility as well as provide for the businesses continually expanding requirements.

Storage

ComputerLand recommended and deployed for Pannone a NetApp SAN (Storage Area Network). Chris Styles comments, "We had been using a different storage solution but looking at NetApp we were bowled over by its flexibility, expandability and its ease of management."

Backup

ComputerLand's proposed method for backup was fully supported by VMware and our chosen backup software vendor, Symantec. It took advantage of the Virtual Consolidated Backup software included with the Enterprise Edition of Virtual Infrastructure.

The backup solution used a Windows 2003 Backup Proxy server, on which both VMware VCB and Symantec Backup Exec Server for Windows were deployed.

The solution required a dedicated server for the Backup Proxy, and so ComputerLand re-instated an existing server freed up through virtualisation for this purpose.

"The ComputerLand engineers were very knowledgeable and very good at training our people on the technology. To an extent it was a no risk implementation as long as the set up was completed correctly. We worked well with ComputerLand and the project went very well. Even after the project was completed ComputerLand engineers were happy to answer any questions we had and were forthcoming with suggestions and ideas," continues Chris Styles of Pannone, "ComputerLand’s recommendation of VMware on HP Blades with NetApp storage seemed like and is an excellent solution. NetApp and VMware are very supportive, as are ComputerLand; queries are listened to and responses are always positive."

Pannone now manages and runs the virtualised estate. More storage and servers have been added as the business has grown. "Because everything was specified correctly initially, we now have great flexibility in the system and adding additional hardware has been made easy; it’s almost a case of plug it in and away we go," stated Chris Styles.

Looking to the future, Chris Styles and his team are already expanding their disaster recovery provision as well as looking at a virtual desktop infrastructure for additional flexibility. ComputerLand is a key partner in these developments.