Downloads | Esprit Goes Virtual with Tecala
Case Study
Esprit adheres to a hardware refresh cycle every five years as a prudent measure to minimise performance and reliability problems, and to ensure up-to-date systems.
In 2010, with six of the company’s 14 servers due for replacement, Chris Anderson, Esprit’s IT Operations Manager decided it was an opportune time to investigate server virtualisation. He issued a tender outlining Esprit’s requirements which focused on the role that the servers played in managing and delivering essential business applications. It also highlighted the critical importance of ensuring reliable services to the stores.
“Virtualisation brings centralised monitoring and maintenance, and it also makes economic sense. When you look at the total cost of ownership over the five-year period of the servers virtualisation comes out at the same price or a little cheaper,†says Anderson.
After reviewing the tender responses Anderson appointed Tecala. He says, “Tecala came across as being well-versed in the technology we were looking at. They spent a lot of time learning our business requirements and they worked very closely with me to achieve what we needed on a technical as well as budgetary level.â€
Switching Over
One of the first activities was to create a multi-tier centralised storage capability. Anderson explains, “This is where Tecala’s skills really came in. They configured the system so that we have different levels of disk performance according to need. On tier one we have faster-performing and more expensive disks and this is where you put operating systems or perhaps databases. Tier two is a little less high performance and less costly, while tier three offers slower performing but significant cost savings. This is where you’d put something like the archives. It’s a question of balancing out cost versus performance.
Another requirement was to move the Lotus Notes email application over to the virtualised environment. “One of our biggest questions was whether we could successfully virtualise email. Tecala did some investigation and it was deemed feasible so the application was moved over to the new environment along with everything else.â€
Back up software was replaced and new procedures introduced. For hardware, Esprit selected IBM servers and an IBM storage area network. All up, deployment took just one month. “It was an extremely smooth transition,†Anderson says. “The process of virtualisation was nondestructive. We managed it all without our users missing a beat.â€
Cost savings
As a result of the virtualisation project Esprit has reduced its 14 physical servers to one virtualised environment of three host servers, a management server and a SAN. IT licence fees and maintenance costs have been reduced. Uptime has increased, and managing the infrastructure has become easier.
The maintenance benefits that Anderson had hoped for have also been achieved. Esprit recently initiated an upgrade of its Lotus Notes server, moving from a 32-bit to a 64-bit platform. “We could successfully and easily do this in the virtualised environment without having to purchase new hardware,†Anderson smiles.
“The service from Tecala exceeded expectations and we’ve achieved our goals one hundred percent. There’s not been one issue and to be quite honest, that is due to the guys at Tecala. Their biggest strengths are their professional approach, their attention to detail is impeccable and they have a good sense of humour. For example, the cabling has never looked so good in our server room! Due to the good work that they’ve done on this project, we are now employing them to work on other things. It’s the basis for an ongoing relationship,†Anderson concludes.
About Esprit
Esprit is one of the world’s best known youth lifestyle clothing companies. Its clothes offer the enticing promise of affordable luxury and style. In Australia and New Zealand the company owns approximately 160 retail outlets, half of which are free-standing stores in major shopping precincts, and half of which are located within Myer department stores.
