Careers South West
- Solution: VMware Virtualisation Project
- Sector: Non-Profit
- Year: 2007
- Contact: Ian Crabb
- Job title: IT Manager
- visit website
Overview
In order to support its business activities, Careers South West Ltd commissioned Nexus to investigate a virtualisation solution to improve ICT management, improve efficiency and lower business costs.
Solution
Based in its head office in Launceston, Careers South West provide a service for all young people, giving 13-19 year olds information, advice, guidance and practical help in preparing for adult and working life. Their purpose is to help young people engage in learning and work.
Nexus were asked to produce a detailed capacity plan for the organisation that would identify the return on investment (ROI) if they utilised virtualisation software to replace key servers.
The selected servers were monitored for six weeks for utilisation and performance statistics. This analysis then formed the basis of an accurate specification for a VMware hosted infrastructure for server consolidation and resilience using the VMware Enterprise Suite software and tools.
Nexus staff assisted Careers South West with the VMware installation and deployment. The project included the following key elements:
- Project planning, management and implementation
- Supplied, installed and configured VMware ESX server utilising Vmotion (for live virtual machine migrations)
- Configured the VMware DRS (Distributed Resource Scheduler) and HA (High Availability) software tools enabling Careers South West to benefit from automated management of computing resources
- Project hand-over documentation
- Ongoing support services through Nexus Telephone Helpdesk and Retained Technical Services (RTS)
Ian Crabb, IT Manager, comments "I am very happy with the work that Nexus undertook. The engineer was highly knowledgeable and offered us plenty of advice on the best utilisation of VMware for our environment. We have been able to consolidate servers and a SAN into a virtual infrastructure and will continue to work with Nexus to optimise this investment."