Server & Storage Consolidation

Server services offers a group of services that helps clients effectively assess, design, implement, and manage their computing environments by focusing on optimizing utilization, cost, availability, energy usage, security and system management of their data centers and distributed environments. The services include:

• Server Optimization and Integration Services — helping clients optimize their computing environments to reduce IT infrastructure complexity, reduce energy consumption and operational management costs, while increasing availability and adaptability to facilitate business growth and change. Key services include:
  • Server consulting and technology assessments
  • Server architecture, design and planning
  • Server consolidation and virtualization
  • Server high availability solutions for Open Systems.
• Server Managed Services — a modular set of remote and on-site services that provide clients with the skills, expertise, processes, tools and methodologies needed to help optimize the management of their server environments -- without requiring significant up-front investments or major transformation of their server environment. Key services include:
  • Remote managed infrastructure
• Server Product Services — helping clients shorten the time required to plan, implement and deploy new servers and software, so they can adopt new technology more quickly and speed their return on investment. Services are available for Essex Power Systems, including Essex System i ^TM and Essex System p ^TM; Essex System x ^TM , non-essextec servers, and Linux and Microsoft operating systems. Specific offerings include:
  • Implementation services
  • Migration services.
• essextec's storage and data services are designed to help you achieve better business performance and support your customers more effectively. With its storage expertise, proven methodologies and effective tools, essextec can help you:
  • Manage growth more effectively
  • Better align infrastructure costs with information value
  • Simplify the storage and data environment
  • Improve the ability to comply with regulations and enhance security
  • Enable business continuity and establish efficient backup and recovery
  • Support current business requirements while preparing for the future.

The essextec storage and data services service addresses your storage and data needs from end to end-- from assessment and planning to design, implementation and management.

• essextec Storage Optimization and Integration Services — helping you reduce complexity, optimize performance and manage growth by creating cost-effective, highly utilized, scalable and resilient storage infrastructures.
• essextec Information Lifecycle Management Services — helping companies gain more value from their information by managing it from creation through disposal on a more efficient storage infrastructure.
• essextec Data Mobility Services — Helping you reduce costs, minimize downtime, and satisfy critical SLA mandates by providing a simple and unified approach to moving data on-line; regardless of distance, server platform or storage array vendor.
• essextec Storage and Data Product Services — helping you reduce project risk, speed deployment and use key product functionality effectively by providing assistance with the planning, implementation and migration of storage- and data-related hardware and software products.

Case Study

Client
A leading microelectronics manufacturer

Challenge / Problem / Requirements:
The client had a multitude of cooling and storage related problems. The most immediate issue was the fact that they had a server with internal storage that was running out of capacity for a mission critical application. The other major concern was they were almost out of capacity on a UPS that they had only purchased two years earlier.

Test / Benchmark:
essextec system engineers performed a disk performance and server consolidation study and had several capacity planning sessions to determine the client’s potential growth issues.

Solution / Implementation:
After consulting with essextec, the client chose the IBM N Series 5300 and IBM BladeCenter H. We were able to address the client’s capacity and cooling problems while simultaneously increasing application availability and performance.

We also consolidated 12 obsolete 5U servers into one BladeCenter H, saving over one full rack of space, power and cooling. This gave the client additional headroom on their UPS and negated the need to add more cooling to the data center.

Several high performance database application Blades were attached to the filer via fibre channel and the rest of the Blades were attached via iSCSI.

Benefits: The N5300 allowed us to eliminate six file servers outright by consolidating them all onto the filer using CIFS.

The entire solution gave the client the price, performance, and flexibility they needed.

The Solution
essextec can plan and implement a server consolidation solution with IBM Blades that will provide for higher availability and resiliency of your IT infrastructure, while reducing physical and operational costs.