Sun Fire X4200 Server with Solaris 10 and VMware Replaces 10 Intel Machines, Pays for Itself in Under Three Months
Global System Services Corporation(GSS) is a consulting and professional services firm, as well as an independent software developer and vendor based in the Silicon Valley area of northern California. GSS provides services and migration tools software for messaging and collaboration solutions including Sun Java Enterprise System (JES) and Microsoft Exchange.
Customer Challenges
Reduce cost and complexity of building and operating test systems
Support Solaris, Linux and Windows environments
Increase responsiveness of systems
Maximize use of existing servers and facilities
Solution
GSS purchased a Sun Fire X4200 server and installed VMware. The combination replaced 10 Intel servers. Now GSS is experiencing higher productivity, increased server utilization and a rapid return on investment.
Business Results
Full payback on investment in less than three months
Avoided $25,000 annual lease expense for additional lab space
Reduced time to deploy new test environment from three weeks to 15 minutes
Reduced labor costs for new environment by 92%, from three hours to 15 minutes
Reduced time to recover corrupted server from two days to 10 minutes
Consolidated 10 servers to a single Sun Fire X4200, which costs at least 50 percent less than the equivalent Intel-based single-processor machines
Increased server utilization from less than 5% to 33%
Reduced air conditioning and power costs by $5,000 in the first year, and $2,000 per year in subsequent years
When you're a small company in a world of giants, you have to be nimble and efficient. Global System Services Corporation (GSS) knows all about it. This software and consulting firm works for some of the largest global enterprises-for example, GE Capital, Motorola and Hearst Corporation-helping them to upgrade and maintain their messaging infrastructures. GSS has expertise in migrating clients from other messaging and collaboration platforms to Sun Java System Messaging Server, Sun Java System Calendar Server, Sun Java System Directory Server and other components of the Sun Java Enterprise System.
Recently, GSS took a hard look at its own infrastructure, in particular, its main testing lab. The number of servers had grown to the point where cooling had become a problem. Now the company's expanding business required two new quality assurance (QA) environments, potentially adding 12 new systems using the "one application, one server" model. To keep growing, GSS had to choose between leasing additional space and purchasing a dozen new servers-or consolidating and virtualizing its server population.
It chose the latter. GSS already had been using VMware in a limited way in its training environment. Its virtualization capabilities provided the right software environment for consolidation, allowing GSS to run multiple applications on a single server without fear of interfering with each other.
“
Running VMware on the Sun Fire X4200 platform has fundamentally changed our business processes for the better, and saved us a great deal of money in the process.
”
— Ron Herardian, Chief Systems Architect, Global System Services Corporation
However, GSS' a single-processor Intel platform lacked the necessary horsepower. The company evaluated a number of systems, including some based on Intel dual-core processors, before deciding on the Sun Fire X4200 server.
Powered by two dual-core AMD Opteron processors, the Sun Fire X4200 server running Solaris 10 OS and VMware proved to be the ideal platform for GSS. This server has taken the place of 10 Intel single-processor boxes, a ten-to-one consolidation ratio. GSS no longer needs additional space, and has consequently avoided additional costs of $25,000 per year. Air conditioning and power costs are lower, too, by $5,000 in the first year, with continuing savings of $2,000 per year in subsequent years. GSS is running at a much higher rate of server utilization, at 33 percent versus less than 5 percent previously.
But the biggest difference is enhanced productivity. Where it once took an average of three weeks to get a new QA environment up and running-ordering the server, setting it up, configuring and testing-now it takes a mere 15 minutes to designate a new virtual machine on the X4200 using VMware. Labor costs are down, too, from three hours to 15 minutes, a 92 percent decrease.
Once GSS gets a virtual server configured and working properly, it can store a "snapshot" of that environment. Should the virtual server become corrupted, the technician can simply restore the snapshot-essentially rolling back to a known good state-in under ten minutes, not the two days it used to take. GSS uses the Sun N1 Service Provisioning System to deploy new servers rapidly.
When all the cost savings are taken into account, GSS estimates that the X4200 paid for itself in less than three months. The combination of the Sun Fire X4200 server and VMware helps GSS remain competitive and continue to offer a high level of service to its customers.
