SUSE Case Studies Sony Italia's Server Consolidation: A Cost-Saving Success

	Sony Italia's Server Consolidation: A Cost-Saving Success SUSE

Sony Italia's Server Consolidation: A Cost-Saving Success

SUSE

Technology Category	Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - Cloud Computing Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - Cloud Databases
Applicable Industries	Electronics Semiconductors
Applicable Functions	Maintenance Procurement
Use Cases	Construction Management Infrastructure Inspection
Services	System Integration
Challenge	Sony Italia, a branch of the global electronics giant Sony Corporation, was facing a significant challenge with its IT infrastructure. The company had consolidated most of its IT infrastructure into two data centers in the U.K, but Sony Italia opted to maintain its local server infrastructure for high performance and ease of maintenance. However, as data volumes and user numbers grew, the servers began to experience reduced performance and reliability. The company had 30 physical servers, but with limited budgets, replacing all of them was not feasible. Additionally, Sony Italia was concerned about the increasing heat output and electricity consumption in the data center. The company had already virtualized about half of its infrastructure, but needed a more cost-effective solution to extend these benefits. Read More
About Customer	Sony Corporation is a leading global electronics company, producing a wide range of advanced consumer and professional technologies across computing, audio-visual devices, semiconductors, and electronic components. The corporation operates globally, employing approximately 147,000 people. Sony Italia, headquartered in Milan, is a branch of Sony Corporation and employs approximately 250 people. The company had a significant local server infrastructure to ensure high performance and ease of maintenance for its country-specific systems. However, growth in data volumes and user numbers put significant pressure on these servers, leading to reduced performance and reliability. Read More
Customer Name	Sony Corporation Read More
Solution	Sony Italia turned to SUSE for a solution. The company aimed to complete the virtualization of its infrastructure, but the cost of additional licenses was too high. SUSE provided a solution based on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) with Xen virtualization included, which allowed Sony Italia to deploy a Linux distribution with built-in virtualization at no extra cost. Additionally, the SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension was added to ensure a resilient, clustered solution. Sony Italia installed two new servers running SLES in a high-availability cluster, hosting more than 12 virtual Linux and Windows servers. The company used PlateSpin Migrate to simplify the migration from the old physical infrastructure to the new virtual machines, minimizing business disruption and accelerating the process. Sony Italia plans to extend its use of Xen virtualization on SLES, replacing the current technology on up to 10 physical servers. Read More Log in to view content
Contents

Technology Category

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - Cloud Computing

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - Cloud Databases

Applicable Industries

Electronics

Semiconductors

Applicable Functions

Maintenance

Procurement

Use Cases

Construction Management

Infrastructure Inspection

Services

System Integration

Challenge

Sony Italia, a branch of the global electronics giant Sony Corporation, was facing a significant challenge with its IT infrastructure. The company had consolidated most of its IT infrastructure into two data centers in the U.K, but Sony Italia opted to maintain its local server infrastructure for high performance and ease of maintenance. However, as data volumes and user numbers grew, the servers began to experience reduced performance and reliability. The company had 30 physical servers, but with limited budgets, replacing all of them was not feasible. Additionally, Sony Italia was concerned about the increasing heat output and electricity consumption in the data center. The company had already virtualized about half of its infrastructure, but needed a more cost-effective solution to extend these benefits.

About Customer

Sony Corporation is a leading global electronics company, producing a wide range of advanced consumer and professional technologies across computing, audio-visual devices, semiconductors, and electronic components. The corporation operates globally, employing approximately 147,000 people. Sony Italia, headquartered in Milan, is a branch of Sony Corporation and employs approximately 250 people. The company had a significant local server infrastructure to ensure high performance and ease of maintenance for its country-specific systems. However, growth in data volumes and user numbers put significant pressure on these servers, leading to reduced performance and reliability.

Customer Name

Sony Corporation

Solution

Sony Italia turned to SUSE for a solution. The company aimed to complete the virtualization of its infrastructure, but the cost of additional licenses was too high. SUSE provided a solution based on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) with Xen virtualization included, which allowed Sony Italia to deploy a Linux distribution with built-in virtualization at no extra cost. Additionally, the SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension was added to ensure a resilient, clustered solution. Sony Italia installed two new servers running SLES in a high-availability cluster, hosting more than 12 virtual Linux and Windows servers. The company used PlateSpin Migrate to simplify the migration from the old physical infrastructure to the new virtual machines, minimizing business disruption and accelerating the process. Sony Italia plans to extend its use of Xen virtualization on SLES, replacing the current technology on up to 10 physical servers.

Impact #1	The server virtualization solution provided by SUSE has brought significant operational benefits to Sony Italia. The new two-server cluster offers all the performance Sony Italia needs, replacing 12 older physical servers. The company can now create new IT resources faster and more flexibly. Instead of purchasing new hardware to meet emerging business requirements and then installing the correct operating system, security patches, and application software, Sony Italia can simply create a new virtual machine using an existing environment as a template. This has significantly reduced the time to provide new test and development environments, with a new virtual server for the business being created within just five hours.

Impact #1

The server virtualization solution provided by SUSE has brought significant operational benefits to Sony Italia. The new two-server cluster offers all the performance Sony Italia needs, replacing 12 older physical servers. The company can now create new IT resources faster and more flexibly. Instead of purchasing new hardware to meet emerging business requirements and then installing the correct operating system, security patches, and application software, Sony Italia can simply create a new virtual machine using an existing environment as a template. This has significantly reduced the time to provide new test and development environments, with a new virtual server for the business being created within just five hours.

Benefit #1	Consolidated 12 physical servers to virtual machines running on two physical servers, reducing the need for physical space in the data center.
Benefit #2	Saved an estimated 60% on server acquisition costs by buying two large servers instead of 12 smaller ones.
Benefit #3	Reduced Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) by cutting power and cooling requirements, leading to significant savings in electricity.

Benefit #1

Consolidated 12 physical servers to virtual machines running on two physical servers, reducing the need for physical space in the data center.

Benefit #2

Saved an estimated 60% on server acquisition costs by buying two large servers instead of 12 smaller ones.

Benefit #3

Reduced Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) by cutting power and cooling requirements, leading to significant savings in electricity.

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Overview

Sony Italia's Server Consolidation: A Cost-Saving Success

Operational Impact

Quantitative Benefit