COMPANY

The European distribution centre of Pentax Imaging Systems decided to make a virtual change in its IT infrastructure in order to further enhance the effectiveness of the European business. Furthermore, for safety reasons the critical data of the company are being duplicated to a nearby identical storage system. This strategic investment is already proving to have been very worthwhile. To carry out this project, Pentax selected the specialist Cheops Technology.      

Virtual means secure

There were a number of reasons why Pentax opted for virtualisation. The top priority was to guarantee business continuity. “First, virtualisation includes a number of applications that have been used to ensure our IT environment is more secure,” Wannes Engelen, Pentax’s IT manager, explained. ”One of these is High Availability. Before, whenever a server breakdown was imminent, the IT worker dealing with the problem had a lot to do, such as copying data, preparing other servers and reconfiguring the server. Now, with our virtual servers, if one virtual machine is affected by problems another virtual machine automatically takes over. As a result, downtime is kept to an absolute minimum.” In addition to virtualisation, Pentax also decided to replicate critical data on an identical storage system located in a nearby warehouse, again for security reasons.

Aging servers

In 2009, Pentax Europe calculated its IT budgets for the upcoming fiscal year. “Our servers were five years old at the time, which is quite old,” Wannes Engelen explained. “And manufacturers are unable to renew service level agreements (SLAs) for such old servers. In addition, we urgently needed to expand our data storage capacity. In other words, we needed to be on the lookout for new servers and storage systems. After closely studying the different alternatives, we concluded that virtualising our IT infrastructure, using VMware, would be the right strategic decision.”

Extremely flexible

Virtualisation not only made the day-to-day management of the IT infrastructure easier, it also created a virtual environment that is a great deal more flexible than the old server park. In the past, a spare server had to be available whenever a new application was tested and installed, just in case the system crashed. This procedure is now permanently a thing of the past. "Applications can be implemented, and servers added or removed, very quickly and easily now,” Wannes Engelen explained. “Moreover, in contrast to physical servers, virtual servers do not involve any further investments and if we downsize we will not lose our investment.”

Energy efficient

Reducing electricity bills formed an additional argument for choosing virtualisation. “Servers consume a great deal of power,” Wannes Engelen explained. “The cost of running a server over its five-year lifetime can be just as high as the purchase price of the server.” Moreover, the machines generate heat, creating the need for an air-conditioning system, which naturally drives electricity consumption up further. Virtual servers offer an excellent solution in this area. Using them in combination makes for a much more energy efficient solution than the last generation of servers. “We used to have sixteen physical servers, but now just two physical servers get the same job done,” said Wannes Engelen. “This represents a major saving, and it also helps us do our bit to reduce carbon emissions. Reducing energy consumption was not the main reason why we decided on virtualisation, but it does come as a welcome bonus. It’s the icing on the proverbial cake.”

A matter of ROI

One year on from virtualisation, what can be said about the project in terms of the return on investment (ROI)? “It’s been really good,” Wannes Engelen confirmed. “We used to have on average one server breakdown a year, which would result in us sustaining losses of between €20,000 and €30,000 a day. In the past twelve months, we haven’t had a single minute’s downtime. From the perspective of business continuity, we have already recouped our entire investment. This means that from now on we can start to save costs, which is vital given the current economic crisis.”

Teamwork

Pentax conducted a detailed study of the market before teaming up with Cheops. “We didn’t want an IT company that would only supply the materials,” said Wannes Engelen. “What we were looking for was a partner with the right technical knowhow and with which we could build up a long-term working relationship. Cheops turned out to be just the right match. Cheops took care of purchasing and installing the equipment, supervised the project and handled the testing. They kept to the agreed budget and time frame, and there wasn’t any downtime during implementation.”

Pentax and Cheops did not part ways once the IT infrastructure had been successfully virtualised and consolidated, and their working relationship is being continued in the form of a service level agreement (SLA).

About Cheops

Cheops is an independent IT services provider that offers top-quality total solutions for complex IT infrastructures, covering advice, design, installation and proactive management. The mission of Cheops is to help enable its clients achieve operational excellence. The services offered by Cheops can be grouped into four activities: System Integration, Managed Services, Managed Hosting, and Consulting. Cheops has received recognition of its competencies, and is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, HP Gold Preferred Partner, VMware Enterprise Solution Provider, Cisco Premier Partner and Citrix Gold Solution Advisor.

About Pentax

Pentax stands for Japanese quality in the area of cameras and optical instruments, medical innovation, CCTV and machine vision. In 2008 it became a division of Hoya Corporation, a Japanese company active in the optical and medical sectors.

The Hoya Corporation employs some 34,000 people around the world.