Stones Solicitors
- Solution: Virtualisation Solution
- Sector: Professional Services
- Year: 2011
- Contact: Andy Fisher
- Job title: IT Manager
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Overview
Reduction of physical servers using virtualisation technology
Solution
Stones Solicitors LLP are listed as a Top 200 Law Firm and are recognised by the two leading independent directories, Chambers and the Legal 500, as a Leading Practice providing first class advice to both businesses and individuals in the South West, as well as providing niche services to clients on a national basis.
Nexus and Stones Solicitors have worked closely together for nearly 15 years, over which time several key projects have been undertaken and successfully delivered. Computer systems virtualisation was the next strategic project for the business and Nexus once again provided exceptional consultation, design, installation and support services to ensure all of the key objectives were met for Stones Solicitors.
Significant milestones for the project included:
- Network analysis and production of a virtualisation capacity plan.
- Installation and configuration of two Dell PowerEdge R610 servers to host a vSphere 5 cluster.
- Installation and configuration of a Dell EqualLogic Storage Area Network (SAN).
- Conversion of eight physical servers running most critical software applications and services to virtual servers utilising vSphere 5 P2V conversion tools.
- Optimised virtual machine configuration and resource allocation across the environment.
- Implementation of Symantec VMware backup agents to leverage the vStorage API for improved backup performance.
- Deployment and installation through Pre-planned Retained Technical Services (RTS).
- Project completion with full hand-over training and documentation.
Using virtualisation software from VMware and hardware from Dell, Nexus engineers helped Stones Solicitors to benefit from the creation of a dynamic, flexible and robust network architecture, resulting in the reduction of physical hardware, management overhead and capital expense, with increased resilience and energy efficiency.