Technology used:
IBM BladeCenter H Chassis and HS21 quad core servers
IBM Open Fabric manager
IBM Proventia web filter
Cisco 1400 Wireless
Liebert 20KAV UPS from Emerson
DoubleTake replication software
Fijian-based VT Solutions had plans to build a data centre to serve local organisations with hosting, but it was Air Pacific’s need for such services that put the plan into motion.
VT’s project for the airline consisted not only of data centre services, but also an overhaul of the client’s site and the decommissioning of many servers.
Managing director Shailesh Sharma now describes the customer’s site as ‘state of the art’.
“Originally they were running on 46 or so servers that were run very inefficiently and were resource hungry, and some were out of warranty. We decommissioned most of them,” Sharma says.
The space in the room housing the servers was also limited, so there was a strong need for more efficient systems.
“Having that many servers scattered around in that size room (at the production site), it was really difficult to even move and to get the circulation of the air conditioning right and get the backup systems working harmoniously.”
Installing new blade servers reduced racks from about four-and-a-half to one-and-a-half, meant less physical space was used up and improved air circulation, Sharma says.
In fact, VT Solutions estimates close to 50 percent cost savings have been achieved through reduced power and cooling requirements.
In addition, VT Solutions provided SAN boxes to centralise storage. Like many organisations in Fiji, Air Pacific was previously heavily reliant on tape backup and external hard drives.
VT says it was able to reduce Air Pacific’s business risk by hosting its disaster recovery site in a real-time, online environment, and reduce bandwidth wastage thus reducing costs. The airline mainly services the tourist market around the Pacific Rim, and needs its communications and compliance systems to be reliable and accurate.
VT Solutions’ investment in its datacentre is set to pay further dividends, as it has two more companies signed on for hosting and hopes to have another three to four by the end of the year.
