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Westmoreland Intermediate Unit (WIU), a regional educational service agency in Pennsylvania, was faced with a vexing problem. Their legacy IT environment could no longer handle their growing VMs, and were quickly running out of capacity for optimal operations and data protection. The WIU had two Promise Arrays, totaling 4TB of storage, attached to two Intel Modular Server chassis, each containing 14 internal disks with 6TB of internal storage. Their entire environment had about 12TB worth of storage, but the WIU quickly discovered that it was no longer sufficient. The decreasing capacity was growing to be more than an initial annoyance and had the predicted consequence of forcing them to reduce the number of backups in order to conserve their lessening storage capacity. Their key mission-critical application, a 2TB Microsoft Exchange server supplying over 3000 mailboxes to users in the numerous school districts, were using Veeam backups to send data to the TwinStrata CloudArray with Amazon S3. While the WIU was backing up their applications daily with five restore points, some larger VMs, such as Exchange, could undergo only one restore point due to capacity restraints. The WIU also faced additional frustrations with extremely long backup times of up to eight hours using Veeam, and then only being able to retain those backups for a week. When backing up to cloud, the process took even longer, usually upwards of 48 hours to migrate everything.

The Worcester County Sheriff’s Office had been operating on an outdated DIY IT infrastructure. The IT team was running all of its operations on a 16-server, legacy HP infrastructure with a complex, expensive SAN and storage. The small team in IT was forced to cope with a large data center footprint that was complex to scale and manage and had no automated backup and DR capability whatsoever. In addition to dealing with the outdated, cumbersome legacy infrastructure, the IT team was operating under the constant threat of major data loss. With no service level agreements implemented for RPOs and RTOs within its infrastructure, the office’s mission critical applications were always at risk.

Altamaha Bank and Trust, a Georgia financial institution with approximately $150M in assets, was facing challenges with its legacy IT infrastructure. The existing system, a mix of Dell and other servers with internal storage scattered across four branches, had become too costly, complex, and risky to maintain and scale. Expanding capacity or introducing new applications meant deploying additional physical servers—an inefficient and time-consuming prospect. Moreover, the bank was constrained by an ineffective data backup solution that relied on removable media. Hardware failures or application mishaps had the potential to disrupt business for hours or even days while systems were recovered.

Altrecht, a leading Dutch mental healthcare provider, was facing challenges with its legacy IT environment—a mix of Dell servers and EMC Clariion storage systems—which was running out of capacity and approaching end-of-life. The provider was seeking innovative ways to reduce IT expenses in light of shrinking budgets and growing government regulations. They needed a solution that would ensure high performance and resiliency for their critical applications, while significantly reducing equipment and operations expenses.

The IT team at the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees (AUPE) was in search of a Storage Area Network (SAN) solution that would meet their needs for storage consolidation, efficient tier-1 backups, and disaster recovery. This need became especially clear when the AUPE’s main building was flooded during an icy Alberta winter, causing significant damage to their data center. The team spent over 18 months meeting with various vendors and suppliers and conducting audits of AUPE’s requirements. They eventually realized that a SAN purchase alone would not meet all of AUPE’s needs. In addition to storage consolidation, they needed a solution that could handle their backup, replication, and remote office management challenges. They were also facing servers and computers that needed to be refreshed and found it difficult to predict growth and expand storage.

The Alberta Union of Provincial Employees was in the process of a capacity purchase/upgrade of their existing infrastructure. This led to an overall platform review. Prior to deploying HPE SimpliVity Hyperconverged Infrastructure, the organization found the management of multiple solutions and vendors to be a non-issue. However, they decided to move forward with the HPE SimpliVity Hyperconverged Infrastructure for data center consolidation and infrastructure modernization.

BICS, a medium-sized enterprise in the telecommunications services industry, was facing challenges due to the centralization of management for remote/branch office infrastructure. The management of multiple solutions and vendors was not an issue for them. However, they were in need of a solution that could modernize their infrastructure, provide a technology refresh, and support their remote/branch offices, Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI), and production applications.

Blundstone’s aging IT systems were becoming increasingly inefficient, risky and costly. The retailer’s legacy IT infrastructure included virtualized legacy servers with iSCSI storage systems, running a variety of business applications. The IT team relied on several distinct backup and replication tools including Symantec Backup Exec and Veeam for data protection and recovery. Deploying new workloads–allocating compute and storage resources, configuring data protection policies–could take weeks using the company’s legacy tools. Worse still, disasters or equipment failures had the potential to impair IT services and disrupt business; restoring applications could take hours or even days using the disjointed data protection solutions.

Brigham Young University was facing significant challenges in managing multiple solutions and vendors. The management burden was high and the university had a mandate to implement Disaster Recovery (DR) and improve backup/recovery. The existing infrastructure was not efficient and was causing delays in deploying new workloads.

Burgmann Anglican’s multivendor IT environment had become too costly and cumbersome to maintain and scale. The school’s legacy IT infrastructure included Dell® PowerEdge rack servers, Dell EqualLogic and QNAP NAS devices, and Veeam and IBM® Tivoli® data backup and recovery solutions. Administering the fragmented environment was a complex undertaking involving multiple devices and management interfaces. The school often had to call in outside IT consultants to assist with routine system planning, administration and maintenance. Joel Anderson, Head of Operations for Burgmann Anglican, initiated a data center modernization program to simplify operations and improve the economics and performance of the school’s IT systems.

Capitol Anesthesiology Association was facing challenges in managing multiple solutions and vendors. The management was manageable but not ideal. They were looking for a solution to implement Disaster Recovery (DR) and improve backup/recovery. The company decided to evaluate and ultimately select HPE SimpliVity Hyperconverged Infrastructure to address these challenges.

The emergency communications center for a large U.S. county was facing challenges with its legacy Dell IT infrastructure. The disjointed IT environment, a collection of standalone servers and storage platforms deployed in a single data center, was becoming increasingly expensive, complex, and risky to operate and scale. The county needed to improve the reliability, economics, and agility of the region’s critical emergency communications infrastructure.

Dieseko Corporation, a Netherlands-based company specializing in the development and manufacturing of hydraulic vibratory equipment, was facing challenges with its existing data center. The company was growing rapidly, and the existing data center was unable to keep up with the increasing amount of data being produced. The existing system was three years old, and the data center couldn't expand to support the amount of data being produced. They were quickly running out of storage. The previous system employed Nimble for storage, along with SSD memory to improve performance. Other pieces of Dieseko’s infrastructure, like network switches, also needed an upgrade. The company needed a solution that would not only address these issues but also simplify the data center and provide an easy-to-install system.

Etablissement Francais du Sang, a healthcare provider based in France, was facing challenges with their existing infrastructure. They had to manage multiple solutions and vendors, which was manageable but not ideal. The need for a capacity purchase and upgrade of their existing infrastructure led to an overall platform review. This prompted them to consider HPE SimpliVity Hyperconverged Infrastructure.

Eubelius, a law firm based in Belgium, was facing challenges with its outdated IT infrastructure. The firm's legacy infrastructure and storage arrays were running out of capacity, and the organization was also constrained by an antiquated tape-based data protection solution. Data backup and recovery procedures were inefficient, consuming a lot of storage capacity and taking hours to complete. The firm was in the process of implementing a VMware Horizon VDI initiative and needed to refresh its aging IT infrastructure as part of this initiative.

The financial services company was dealing with a fractured multivendor IT environment scattered across six, non-optimized data centers due to a series of corporate acquisitions. The disjointed collection of hundreds of independent compute, storage SAN, and data protection platforms was far too costly and complex to maintain and scale. The data centers were located in sites with high energy costs. Expanding capacity meant deploying and configuring separate server and storage platforms—an expensive and drawn-out proposition. Introducing or upgrading applications, configuring backup policies, and troubleshooting and resolving problems was a time consuming, resource-intensive process involving numerous low-level administrative interfaces. The company was unable to meet its Recovery Point and Recovery Time Objectives with its inefficient legacy data protection solutions.

Genia, a Danish hosted service provider, was struggling with its legacy IT infrastructure which was a collection of independent compute, storage and backup solutions with distinct administrative interfaces. This setup was proving to be too costly and complex to maintain and scale. Provisioning new customers or troubleshooting problems was a resource-intensive, time-consuming endeavor. Moreover, the provider was unable to meet its RPO/RTO goals using its legacy Veeam data protection solution. Concerned about the company’s ability to consistently meet its SLA objectives, CEO Kristian Hansen, decided to take a fresh look at the data center.

The division of a Global 100 Technology Firm’s IT department was facing a problem where its legacy IT infrastructure was preventing the delivery of the level of services that its internal customers expected. The IT team was managing three data centers that were already at 100 percent capacity, and was looking for ways to provide further value and innovation for its internal customers—all the while reducing the cost and complexity of its infrastructure. The primary function of the internal IT operations staff is to support global development—a team comprised of 150 support and product development engineers spread across multiple data centers. The IT operations staff is responsible for all of the applications implemented to support the team, including development tools, build tools and systems, bug tracking applications, and support applications; this includes Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI), an application in the nascent stages of evaluation for productivity and efficiency for the global workers, many of which were located as far as India. Previous evaluations conducted by the team were not met with success as they did not provide the level of performance to the remote workers that they expected.

Guelph Hydro, a Canadian electric company, was facing challenges with its virtual desktop infrastructure. The IT team was receiving numerous complaints from users about slow system performance and frequent disconnections. Despite making incremental improvements every three to six months, the issues persisted. The company's data center was cluttered due to the use of SANs to run 60-70 VMware hosts on two networks, leading to a 'spaghetti' effect. The company was also keen on reducing its carbon footprint and saving power. The existing SAN took up half to three-quarters of a rack in the space the company had. Despite adding flash processors and hybrid flash arrays, then ESX hosts with NVIDIA cards, the problem remained unsolved.

NovAtel, a Canadian telecommunications equipment company, was facing the challenge of managing an outdated infrastructure that needed complete replacement. The management of multiple solutions and vendors was manageable but not ideal. The company was in need of a modern, efficient, and integrated solution to replace its old infrastructure.

Interland, a California-based real estate development and asset management company, was facing challenges with its aging Dell server and storage systems. The systems were nearing their end-of-life and were running out of capacity. The Dell EqualLogic storage arrays at the Interland facility in Davis, California, and the Jim Joseph Foundation office in San Francisco were nearly out of capacity. Furthermore, the IT team was unable to reliably replicate data across the two sites and had to rely on an inefficient cloud-based data backup service for disaster recovery. This was a risky proposition in an earthquake-prone area like Northern California. When Dell announced plans to discontinue support for the EqualLogic equipment, Blake Soiu, IT Director for Interland, initiated a technology refresh program to improve the reliability, performance, and economics of the company’s IT systems.

Iterum was facing challenges with their existing infrastructure which led them to evaluate and ultimately select HPE SimpliVity Hyperconverged Infrastructure. The company was in the process of a capacity purchase/upgrade of their existing infrastructure which led to an overall platform review. Prior to deploying HPE SimpliVity, they found the management of multiple solutions and vendors to be manageable, but not ideal.

King Price Insurance, a medium-sized insurance company based in South Africa, was facing significant business challenges that led them to evaluate and ultimately select HPE SimpliVity Hyperconverged Infrastructure. The company's current deployment time could not keep pace with demand or staffing resources, which was a major issue. Additionally, the management of multiple solutions and vendors was found to be a burden, adding to the complexity and inefficiency of their operations. These challenges necessitated a solution that could streamline their operations, improve efficiency, and keep pace with the growing demands of their business.

Lawlords, a UK-based full-service firm of costs lawyers, law costs draftsmen and costs consultants, was facing challenges with its aging IT infrastructure. The firm relied on a mix of non-redundant legacy HP and Dell servers with internal storage. This outdated infrastructure was becoming increasingly risky and costly to maintain. Equipment failures or catastrophes had the potential to impair critical IT services and disrupt business. Furthermore, Lawlords was constrained by inefficient tape-based backup procedures. Applications and data were backed up daily, after business hours. Manual restorations from tape took hours, and any changes that occurred since the last nightly backup were simply lost. Stuart Taylor, IT Manager for Lawlords, initiated a data center modernization program to improve the reliability and agility of the firm’s IT infrastructure.

Merlin Entertainments, a large entertainment company, was facing challenges with its fragmented IT infrastructure. The company relied on a mix of independent server, storage, and data protection solutions at its remote sites. Equipment configurations and vendors varied widely from property to property, making administration and support a complicated and time-consuming process. The company initiated a modernization program to simplify operations and improve the economics, performance, and reliability of the company’s distributed IT environment.

MyiOffice Corporation purchased HPE SimpliVity Hyperconverged Infrastructure as a result of a new application deployment, including Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI). Prior to deploying HPE SimpliVity Hyperconverged Infrastructure, they found the management of multiple solutions and vendors to be a significant burden.

The Mississippi Department of Revenue was facing challenges with its aging IT environment, which was a mix of Cisco servers and EMC storage arrays. The legacy system had become too expensive and complex to administer and expand. Moreover, the Department was unable to meet its Recovery Point Objective (RPO) and Recovery Time Objective (RTO) goals using its legacy EMC Avamar backup and recovery solution. The Department was increasingly dissatisfied with EMC’s products and customer support, leading Network Services Manager Patrick Welch to decide that the time was right for a technology refresh.

The Mississippi Department of Revenue was facing challenges with their existing infrastructure. The management of multiple solutions and vendors was proving to be a significant burden. The department was in the process of a capacity purchase/upgrade of their existing infrastructure which led to an overall platform review. This review led them to evaluate and ultimately select HPE SimpliVity Hyperconverged Infrastructure. The department was looking for a solution that could consolidate their data center, modernize their infrastructure, and provide a solution for their remote/branch office. They also needed a solution for their production applications, test/dev and QA, and data migration.

Namibia Institute of Pathology decided it was time to bring all of their IT operations in-house to gain better management and control. They had been using physical servers, with storage associated to each, and relying on tape backups. NIP didn’t have any disaster recovery capabilities. They did have multiple sites and the need for modernization, consolidation, data protection, high availability, and of course, disaster recovery. The main criteria for NIP’s team was simplified IT. They needed migration from outsourced to in-house IT that could be done without additional skills and resources that the organization didn’t have. They didn’t have the budget that would be needed to get those skills through outside specialists and consultants, but they had to find a solution that could accomplish their goals.

The Northern California Carpenters Regional Council (NCCRC) was dealing with an aging multivendor IT infrastructure that had become too costly and risky to maintain and scale. The union’s core business applications were hosted on physical servers in a Sacramento colocation facility. Expanding capacity or introducing new applications often meant deploying additional servers and incurring additional monthly colocation fees. In addition, the IT organization relied on time-consuming, scripted file backup and restoration procedures. Hardware failures or administrative mishaps had the potential to disrupt business-critical applications for hours or even days while files were recovered.