Profile:
Financial-services firm with $2.5B in revenue, Greater Atlanta
Need:
Computing, storage, and networking resource for new office space.
Solution:
Next-generation, hyperconverged infrastructure running on Dell/VMware vSAN platform.
Outcomes:
Low cost, right-sized, simple administration, rapid deployment, expansion potential.
Every office buildout involves infrastructure decisions. After outgrowing its previous space and leasing several floors in a new building, this Edge Solutions client needed to provide robust computing and networking services for a diverse mix of sales, marketing, and developer groups. Beyond immediate needs, the firm also wanted to stay ahead of its rapid growth curve—a doubling of sales by 2021. The quicker the move, the sooner the teams could be fully productive.
A discouraging start. When the job went out to bid, most proposals called for a traditional, dedicated computer room, with additional climate and power-conditioning requirements. This option involved a major investment in rack space and ongoing operational costs. In addition, the proposed 90-day installation timeline, which included hardware ordering and receipt, made infrastructure the gating factor in the move, long after other buildout tasks were complete. Too massive, too costly, and too slow.
But bigger isn’t always better. Drawing on its history with other other successful clients in the financial sector as well as its technical expertise in next-generation data centers, Edge knew that it could meet the client’s requirements within an abbreviated timeline. Its Design Your Edge™ process started with the client’s strategic business goals, which then guided the recommended architecture. In this case, the client required high availability, flexible expansion, automated backup, and no-IT administration—all within the smallest possible footprint.
So Edge proposed something dramatically different. An ultra-compact data center built on Dell EMC’s HyperConverged Infrastructure (HCI) platform delivered the targeted performance at a radically lower price. How compact? The new data center, even with capacity enhancements for 2021’s planned growth, would fit in just one of the office’s wiring closets, with no supplemental environmental conditioning. Because the client trusted Edge to make sophisticated recommendations that align with corporate priorities while mitigating risk, it opted to go with a solution that sounded almost too good to be true.
Winning virtually. A hyperconverged architecture uses software to “virtualize” every element of a traditional hardware-oriented system. Instead of residing on dedicated devices, all computing, storage, and networking services are “abstracted,” implemented, and administered purely in software. Another plus: A hyperconverged architecture allows the use of commodity components rather than specialized equipment, which translates directly into major cost savings, both initially and down the road.
No-compromise resilience. Redundancy is built in. If a component fails, the system automatically moves its tasks elsewhere within the system without losing functionality. It’s an ultra-efficient data center architecture that lets businesses focus on their business objectives rather than technology. It’s something Edge Solutions has introduced to hundreds of clients.
The installation took just five days. After the Design Your Edge™ process, Edge determined that it could install the entire data center in a total of 14 rack units and be operational in less than a week. Rather than delaying the customer’s staff move, the new system was up and running sooner than the balance of the buildout.
One-quarter the footprint, one-quarter the TCO. By leveraging the potential of a hyperconverged infrastructure, Edge’s deployment frees up office space. This immediately makes the real estate lease more valuable, and it dramatically cuts the total cost of ownership (TCO) by shrinking both the initial capital outlay and ongoing operating expenses. Its overall lack of complexity boosts system robustness while it simplifies administrative support. The new system was delivered for one-fourth the price of competitors’ bids. Not only that, but monthly energy consumption was proportionally lower.
Back to business. With Dell EMC’s HCI system in place along with Edge’s affordable managed-services support, the client could return its focus to growing the business—instead of worrying about data center headaches.
That’s the Edge Solutions advantage.
Technical specifications for this Edge implementation:
vSAN deployment
4-node modular Dell FX2 server
Rack redundant deployment