6 days ago - Consulting. â Enterprise Deployment. â Software Defined Storage. â Servers ... hardware solutions. â
SIMPLIFIED STORAGE FOR CLOUD SERVICES brightsolid drives growth, delivering a seamless, cost-effective cloud service to customers with software-defined storage
Hosting Solutions
Business needs brightsolid wanted to meet customer needs for enhanced cloud services by developing its storage environment and upgrading to Windows Server 2016.
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United Kingdom
Solutions at a glance ●● Consulting ●● Enterprise Deployment ●● Software Defined Storage ●● Servers ●● Networking
Business results ●● G ives customers continued reductions in the cost of cloud services
●● S aves days in deployment of latest cloud IT hardware solutions
●● Helps business meet rising demand for cloud IT
●● E nhances rate of return with improved storage utilisation
%
70
decrease in routine IT management time
“We resolved any issues we had with Microsoft Storage Spaces and upgraded successfully to Windows Server 2016 with Dell EMC.” Kenny Lowe, head of emerging technologies, brightsolid
The market for cloud services is growing fast. According to Gartner, public cloud services will soon exceed £137 billion (US$204 billion) worldwide. In the U.K., companies such as brightsolid are seeing healthy business expansion. Through its relationships with the U.K.’s public sector, brightsolid has seen significant growth among local authorities, which are increasingly using cloud services not only as a way to reduce costs, but also to improve the delivery of mission-critical services. brightsolid wanted to enhance its Microsoft-based cloud solution to drive development and deliver greater value to customers. The cloud solution was successfully running on Windows Server 2012 R2, but there were integration issues with the system’s Microsoft Storage Spaces, which provide virtual pools of storage. The company looked for a vendor that could solve these problems, as well as ensure a smooth upgrade path to Windows Server 2016, helping brightsolid meet critical security requirements in markets such as the public sector.
Solving today’s issues The organisation engaged with Dell EMC Consulting Services, which proposed a Dell EMC Storage with Microsoft Storage Spaces (DSMS) reference architecture to overcome brightsolid’s challenges. The solution features Dell EMC PowerEdge R630 servers with Intel® Xeon® processors, which brightsolid selected for several reasons. These included the density of the servers for supporting large numbers of virtual machines, and the fact the servers are validated for Windows Server 2012 R2. The reference architecture also featured Dell EMC PowerVault MD3060E storage enclosures and Dell EMC Networking S4810 10 to 40 Gigabit Ethernet switches. Comments Kenny Lowe, head of emerging technologies at brightsolid, “We resolved any issues we had with Microsoft Storage Spaces and upgraded successfully to Windows Server 2016 with Dell EMC. The implementation was a success because of the time everyone put into the project. Dell EMC and Microsoft worked for more than 12 months to ensure the right levels of validation for the solution.”
Saves days in deployment time To simplify the implementation process, brightsolid worked with ProDeploy. As part of the engagement, ProDeploy personnel completed a site readiness review and a Dell EMC project manager took over the implementation process. Deployment was completed with full knowledge transfer, and the Dell EMC solution was verified post installation. “We were impressed with ProDeploy. It saved us days of work because the ProDeploy team has the experience and expertise to avoid the pitfalls of building a new environment end to end,” says David Fleming, IT services engineer on emerging technology at brightsolid.
Continued reductions in cloud costs brightsolid is better able to meet its commitment to lowering the cost of cloud services. With improvements in technology enabling greater efficiencies, the company sees no reason why its customers shouldn’t enjoy the benefits. “We’re committed to reducing the cost of our cloud services as technology allows us to do so. Improving our cloud infrastructure in partnership with Dell EMC is helping us deliver on our promise,” says Kenny Lowe.
Keeping pace with rising cloud demand The firm can scale the DSMS solution easily as demand for its cloud services grows. Kenny Lowe says, “We see Windows Server 2016 as an important step forward in enabling us to deliver better cloud services. For example, with Microsoft Hyper-V Shielded Virtual Machines, the cloud has an even higher level of security.”
70 per cent less management time brightsolid IT personnel can spend more time developing its cloud services now that routine management has been significantly reduced. With the DSMS in place, we no longer have issues around Microsoft Storage Spaces. “We’ve reduced management time by up to 70 per cent with our DSMS solution from Dell EMC,” says David Fleming.
“We’ve reduced management time by up to 70 per cent with our DSMS solution from Dell EMC.”
Increased speed and capacity
David Fleming, IT services engineer on emerging technology, brightsolid
Customers can have critical applications delivered by the brightsolid cloud safe in the knowledge that the architecture offers a high level of storage performance. In tests, brightsolid achieved storage performance of more than one million I/Os per second. Kenny Lowe adds, “We’ve also seen useable storage capacity rise, delivering greater value to the business.”
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Copyright © 2017 Dell Inc. or its subsidiaries. All Rights Reserved. Dell, EMC, and other trademarks are trademarks of Dell Inc. or its subsidiaries. Other trademarks may be trademarks of their respective owners. This case study is for informational purposes only. The contents and positions of staff mentioned in this case study were accurate at the point of publication, May 2017. Dell and EMC make no warranties — express or implied — in this case study. Part Number: H15976
