Valpak|Professional services
Energy conscious solutions
Thanks to SQL Server specialist Coeo, energy conscious Valpak is benefiting from significant cost and efficiency savings with a database solution that combines Microsoft Hyper-V and Microsoft SQL Server to cut the number of servers in use and provide 100% availability of business critical systems.
Summary
Objective
Valpak needed to cut costs and realise efficiencies by consolidating its servers and data centre onto a single platform. Coeo deployed Microsoft Hyper-V, Microsoft System Centre Virtual Machine Manager 2010 and Microsoft SQL Server in a Windows Server environment.
Solution
Technology
- Microsoft SQL Server
- Microsoft Windows Server Hyper-V
- Microsoft System Centre Virtual Machine Manager
- Microsoft Windows Failover Clustering
- Coeo Managed Service
Results
- Servers in use reduced from twenty to four
- Reduced hardware and maintenance costs
- Reduced power consumption from optimised IT infrastructure
- Faster fault diagnosis and resolution with 24/7 monitoring and support
- Trusted advice from a specialist provider
Valpak is the UK’s leading supplier of compliance and recycling solutions. It has a significant role in supporting the recycling obligations of UK companies. It also provides consultancy to help customers reduce their carbon footprint and is influential in communicating best practice in green computing.
Valpak has a mandate to implement and adhere to best practice internally, including leveraging cost effective technologies such as virtualisation to reduce energy consumption.
Learning & understanding
The challenge
Valpak has many diverse business requirements supported by a combination of Microsoft Dynamics and bespoke applications.
These were developed and added to over time, with each application demanding its own separate instance of Microsoft SQL Server. The result was an all too familiar situation, with lots of different versions of SQL Server and a large resource overhead to administer and manage the unique configurations and requirements across different servers. When Valpak made the decision to upgrade its Microsoft Dynamics NAV application, it also needed to upgrade to Microsoft SQL Server. This was the perfect opportunity to standardise across the business.
“We needed the support of a partner that we could rely on to develop a solution that would not only be 100% reliable, but also support the future growth of our business while extending our commitment towards green computing.” Ben Erwood, Head of IT, Valpak.
Implementation
The solution
Valpak engaged Coeo to deliver a two phase solution to migrate to SQL Server and consolidate the number of SQL Server instances in use from twenty to just four.
This project was so successful that Valpak extended the scope to include data centre consolidation across its IT infrastructure.
Coeo’s technical director Christian Bolton, says, “After an assessment of Valpak’s requirements, we identified an innovative, cost effective solution that we could deploy using Microsoft Hyper-V, Microsoft System Centre Virtual Machine Manager and Microsoft SQL Server in a Windows Server environment. What started as a SQL Server consolidation project expanded into a data centre consolidation project to encompass their entire IT infrastructure.”
Outcomes
The results
Months after the consolidation project, Valpak was able to confirm 100% availability of its business critical systems. More than that, it had experienced significant cost savings from reduced database administration overhead. It had a new, efficient, infrastructure in place that would give it the scalability required for the foreseeable future to accommodate new users and applications as the business grew.
Valpak engaged Coeo to provide a managed service to continually monitor systems and ensure continuity. Ben Erwood, Head of IT at Valpak says, “We were immediately impressed with their approach and structured engagement.
We recognise their expertise in their field and we now rely on them to provide a fully managed service, monitoring our systems 24/7.”
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