Novosco has been chosen to implement a new private cloud computing infrastructure for the SISK Group in Dublin. The implementation will involve technologies from VMware, Cisco and EMC. The project value is €200,000.
The Virtual Computing Environment coalition (VCE) represents an unprecedented level of collaboration in development, services and partner enablement from VMware, Cisco and EMC that reduces risk in the virtualisation journey to the private cloud.
VCE infrastructure delivers a complete IT infrastructure which integrates best-of-breed virtualisation, networking, compute, storage, security and management technologies. VMware, Cisco and EMC have invested in an industry-first delivery of seamless customer support with end-to-end accountability.
Private cloud represents a new approach to IT which lowers costs, reduces complexity and increases agility. This provides organisations with a flexible, scalable, on-demand virtual infrastructure which is built, operated and consumed differently from traditional IT.
New private cloud infrastructure
SISK Group IT’s new private cloud infrastructure will facilitate significantly greater numbers of virtual machines running on each individual piece of server hardware. Cisco UCS components also provide centralised management over the compute, networking and storage elements needed to deploy scalable virtual ICT infrastructures. This ‘wire once, walk away’ approach will result in significantly faster deployment times for the delivery of key services.
The primary driver for this project was the need to consolidate the entire back-end infrastructure associated with the SISK Group’s traditional and acquired companies into one central virtual environment.
The creation of this private cloud infrastructure provides flexibility and scalability, which is required to facilitate such large-scale consolidation. In addition, the creation of this new dynamic virtual environment allows SISK Group IT to more accurately quantify the compute resource being consumed, per subsidiary or cost centre.
To further aid this process, Novosco worked with SISK Group IT to develop a customised pay-as-you-grow finance package.
This innovative approach meant that SISK Group IT could take possession of more resources than they needed straightaway and then pay for the additional resources required as and when they begin to consume them. This is different from the traditional approach to scaling out infrastructure, which can often result in non-linear expenditure growth, which in turn makes budgeting and cross charging more complex to implement.
Flexibility of private cloud
Another important factor in choosing this solution was the ability to rapidly provision and deploy applications across the group. The unique flexibility of private cloud architecture allows SISK Group IT to change the role of a physical Cisco blade server much faster than with traditional servers.
This means that the server compute resources can be quickly harnessed to run physical or virtual workloads or to run virtual desktops, based on user demand. The Citrix range of application deployment and optimisation solutions were chosen as the platform of choice for deploying these virtual desktops and applications to users across the group’s network.
For SISK Group IT, the flexibility of private cloud computing will provide greater control over the support and control of the overall environment, with new and improved services delivered within existing resource commitments and budgets.
“With the creation of this new internal private cloud infrastructure, we believe that we will deliver on the one of the core components of SISK Group IT’s vision, which is to consolidate group IT operations centrally, while also enabling us to speedily deliver business applications to the end user and hence add real value to the business,” Daragh Doohan, group infrastructure manager with SISK Group IT, explained.
Doohan went on to explain the rationale behind their choice of partner. “Novosco’s experience in virtualising large-scale enterprise environments, along with their strong relationships with each of the VCE partners made this offering very compelling. We look forward to expanding our virtualised infrastructure in partnership with Novosco, which will allow us to consolidate group operations, while delivering a better IT experience to our staff.”
Eddie O’Rourke, sales director with Novosco, said the willingness and ambition of the SISK Group IT to embrace this new way of delivering ICT services to staff group-wide will undoubtedly be of major benefit to the business.
“We recognise the need to provide improved services to an increasingly diverse and demanding user base while meeting the twin challenges of resource constraints and budget restrictions,” O’Rourke said.
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