Millard Refrigerated Services
Millard Refrigerated Services accelerated recovery of crucial applications 10,000-fold with a virtualization solution from Dell Services
Date
:
3/1/2011
Not only do Dell service and support teams do a good job, but my Dell rep regularly reaches out to me. I’ll get a call or email asking how things are going and what our upcoming needs are. I really appreciate that Dell puts resources toward checking in with me and managing the relationship.
Curtis Oie, Manager of Technology, Millard Refrigerated Services, United States
Challenge
At Millard Refrigerated Services, a small, centralized IT staff was responsible for maintaining the system infrastructure in 36 different locations. Server failures had the potential to substantially impact the entire business, but IT staff required two to three weeks to replace an unavailable server.
Solution
Millard worked with Dell Services to refresh and standardize desktop hardware companywide and rolled out a virtual server environment based on Microsoft® Hyper-V™ technology on Dell™ PowerEdge™ servers, supported by Dell PowerVault™ and Dell EqualLogic™ internet SCSI (iSCSI) storage area networks (SANs). By using two-node clusters in its regional distribution centers, the company has accelerated recovery of business-critical applications 10,000-fold in the event of a server failure.Benefits
• 10,000-fold faster recovery of business-critical applications after server failure (12 minutes vs. 2+ weeks previously)• 520 to 780 IT staff hours per year reclaimed on server administration
• 5 to 1 average reduction in number of servers at each company location
• Reductions in power and cooling costs companywide
• 30 percent to 50 percent less IT time spent on desktop hardware support
• Immediate return on investment (ROI) on use of Dell Deployment Services for desktop computer rollout
• Projected 6-fold improvement in recovery point objective (RPO) for single-server failure
• Projected 42-fold improvement in RPO in event of headquarters-wide infrastructure failure
• Projected 1,000-fold improvement in recovery time objective (less than 20 minutes vs. 2+ weeks)
• More reliable hardware compared with legacy systems
