The Outcome
Ergon Energy now has a robust, high-performance, fully redundant network, and a computer system that supports applications that can control, monitor and manage a diverse array of devices and systems, which themselves communicate using an equally diverse array of protocols.
All with just a few boxes in their rack, and two network cables. “Rather than the four or five racks of equipment we’d have had had with a server & SAN implementation,” said English, “now we have a single rack. With room for expansion.”
No compromises on performance either. In fact, according to English, their server performance is actually some 25 times better than they’d expect from traditional computing platforms.
Just as importantly, their solution is easy to use and requires negligible ongoing maintenance. “Had we gone down the server & SAN road,” said English, “we would have had to employ a significant team of people to support it. A database specialist, a VM specialist, a hardware specialist, a storage specialist…”
HyperFlex has also helped make Ergon Energy more agile. “We’re able to deploy a new virtual server, off template, complete with storage and patching, and ready to go, in under 20 minutes,” said English. “It’s shortened our time to market considerably. In a server & SAN environment, this would take a couple of days per server.”
And if they do happen to need some help along the way, they have one number to call. “The entire solution from rack to street is managed and controlled by a single-vendor system, so we always have that peace of mind of knowing the people we call will be able to resolve the problem.”