Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) Case Studies Francis Drilling Fluids, Ltd. Deploys SimpliVity’s OmniStack™ Hyperconverged Infrastructure Platform

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	Francis Drilling Fluids, Ltd. Deploys SimpliVity’s OmniStack™ Hyperconverged Infrastructure Platform Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE)

Francis Drilling Fluids, Ltd. Deploys SimpliVity’s OmniStack™ Hyperconverged Infrastructure Platform

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE)

Technology Category	Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - Cloud Computing Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - Cloud Storage Services
Applicable Industries	Oil & Gas
Applicable Functions	Discrete Manufacturing Logistics & Transportation
Use Cases	Fleet Management Predictive Maintenance
Services	Cloud Planning, Design & Implementation Services System Integration
Challenge	Francis Drilling Fluids, Ltd. (FDF) had been using an IBM BladeCenter infrastructure, IBM SAN storage, DLT tape solutions, and Veeam for VM backup protection. Over time, the company saw more demand for new applications and experienced significant growth in VM servers, which put significant strain on the existing legacy infrastructure and the small IT team. The added complexity from the VM server 'sprawl' coupled with initiatives to improve data protection, DR, and co-location hosting, the company's IT department decided to take a closer look at converged infrastructure. The company works hard to ensure alignment between business strategy and IT strategy, according to Steve Schaaf, Chief Information Officer for FDF. However, with a small IT shop, executing on that vision can be challenging. Read More
About Customer	Francis Drilling Fluids, Ltd. (FDF) is one of the oldest drilling fluids companies on the Gulf Coast and is a true American success story. The company started with one truck in 1977 and has grown into the largest drilling fluids supplier on the Gulf Coast and a leader in logistics operations for the fracking industry. Now 23 plants strong, FDF offers a full range of high quality fluid products and services, including liquid mud storage, specialized mixing, water-based chemicals, completion fluids, completion fluids chemicals, casing scrubs, and corrosion inhibitors. The company is based in Lafayette, Louisiana. FDF also runs a variety of different mission critical applications including Microsoft Exchange, Kronos time and attendance, Kofax/Axacore for document imaging, and NetTraQ for GPS fleet tracking, along with custom inventory tracking and logistics software. Read More
Solution	FDF decided to deploy two Cisco C240 M3 systems in its Lafayette, Louisiana data center and another pair of Cisco C240 M3 systems, consisting of a space efficient, 2U x86 platform, in a co-location facility in Dallas for disaster recovery. FDF required a full set of functionality, including flexible Cisco UCS C-series 2U x86 platforms with pooling and sharing of all resources, simple, cost-effective, incremental scale-out in the future, ease of use and unified global management from one interface with a VM/application-centric approach, fully-integrated data efficiency with inline deduplication and policy-based data protection for improved business continuity, management and visibility that is VM-application-centric Support quick and simple deployment. Since installing SimpliVity, FDF has been able to reduce its data center footprint from 200 to 4U by eliminating its BladeCenter unit, tape backup solution, SAN and expansion cabinets. Read More Log in to view content
Contents

Technology Category

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - Cloud Computing

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - Cloud Storage Services

Applicable Industries

Oil & Gas

Applicable Functions

Discrete Manufacturing

Logistics & Transportation

Use Cases

Fleet Management

Predictive Maintenance

Services

Cloud Planning, Design & Implementation Services

System Integration

Challenge

Francis Drilling Fluids, Ltd. (FDF) had been using an IBM BladeCenter infrastructure, IBM SAN storage, DLT tape solutions, and Veeam for VM backup protection. Over time, the company saw more demand for new applications and experienced significant growth in VM servers, which put significant strain on the existing legacy infrastructure and the small IT team. The added complexity from the VM server 'sprawl' coupled with initiatives to improve data protection, DR, and co-location hosting, the company's IT department decided to take a closer look at converged infrastructure. The company works hard to ensure alignment between business strategy and IT strategy, according to Steve Schaaf, Chief Information Officer for FDF. However, with a small IT shop, executing on that vision can be challenging.

About Customer

Francis Drilling Fluids, Ltd. (FDF) is one of the oldest drilling fluids companies on the Gulf Coast and is a true American success story. The company started with one truck in 1977 and has grown into the largest drilling fluids supplier on the Gulf Coast and a leader in logistics operations for the fracking industry. Now 23 plants strong, FDF offers a full range of high quality fluid products and services, including liquid mud storage, specialized mixing, water-based chemicals, completion fluids, completion fluids chemicals, casing scrubs, and corrosion inhibitors. The company is based in Lafayette, Louisiana. FDF also runs a variety of different mission critical applications including Microsoft Exchange, Kronos time and attendance, Kofax/Axacore for document imaging, and NetTraQ for GPS fleet tracking, along with custom inventory tracking and logistics software.

Solution

FDF decided to deploy two Cisco C240 M3 systems in its Lafayette, Louisiana data center and another pair of Cisco C240 M3 systems, consisting of a space efficient, 2U x86 platform, in a co-location facility in Dallas for disaster recovery. FDF required a full set of functionality, including flexible Cisco UCS C-series 2U x86 platforms with pooling and sharing of all resources, simple, cost-effective, incremental scale-out in the future, ease of use and unified global management from one interface with a VM/application-centric approach, fully-integrated data efficiency with inline deduplication and policy-based data protection for improved business continuity, management and visibility that is VM-application-centric Support quick and simple deployment. Since installing SimpliVity, FDF has been able to reduce its data center footprint from 200 to 4U by eliminating its BladeCenter unit, tape backup solution, SAN and expansion cabinets.

Impact #1	Reduced data center footprint from 200 to 4U by eliminating BladeCenter unit, tape backup solution, SAN and expansion cabinets.
Impact #2	Saved a considerable sum on Veeam license and maintenance, and support costs on legacy equipment.
Impact #3	Enabled to operate much more efficiently while meeting key application performance levels.

Impact #1

Reduced data center footprint from 200 to 4U by eliminating BladeCenter unit, tape backup solution, SAN and expansion cabinets.

Impact #2

Saved a considerable sum on Veeam license and maintenance, and support costs on legacy equipment.

Impact #3

Enabled to operate much more efficiently while meeting key application performance levels.

Benefit #1	Reduced data center footprint from 200 to 4U.
Benefit #2	Saved a considerable sum on Veeam license and maintenance, and support costs on legacy equipment.
Benefit #3	Took only about three hours to install the SimpliVity systems.

Benefit #1

Reduced data center footprint from 200 to 4U.

Benefit #2

Saved a considerable sum on Veeam license and maintenance, and support costs on legacy equipment.

Benefit #3

Took only about three hours to install the SimpliVity systems.

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Overview

Francis Drilling Fluids, Ltd. Deploys SimpliVity’s OmniStack™ Hyperconverged Infrastructure Platform

Operational Impact

Quantitative Benefit