Case Study: Conxerge Is On Roll With Data Center On Wheels
PXP hired Houston storage and server integrator Conxerge, which not only merged the data centers into one, but then virtualized the new center and made it possible to actually roll it into a room the size of a closet.
>> FOCUS: Data centers
>> PROBLEM and SOLUTION: Oil and gas exploration company PXP was growing fast due to acquisitions, and its original data center infrastructure had trouble adapting. PXP took a chance on a new virtualized data center integrated by Conxerge, and now can grow as needed and stay up and running due to remote management and virtualization capabilities.
>> PRODUCTS and SERVICES USED: Custom-built server blades, EqualLogic PeerStorage iSCSI storage arrays, Liebert rack-mount air conditioner
>> LESSONS LEARNED:
> Customers that are consolidating because of acquisitions, or looking to simplify their IT infrastructures, are ripe for solutions that reduce the complexity of their data centers.
> Virtualization is here, and it is ready to be integrated into your solutions.
About two years ago, Conxerge started to develop an integrated IT system consisting of server and storage blades, and saw in the PXP/3TEC merger a chance to try out the concept, said Neil Jones, business development manager for the solution provider.
The timing was right, said Brent Rogers, IT manager at PXP. The company had grown quickly over the past 10 years, both organically and via several acquisitions, taxing its IT infrastructure.
"We had an inflexible infrastructure that couldn't keep up," Rogers said. "We needed an infrastructure in place so that, if the company came to me tomorrow and said, 'We're going to double in size,' we could handle it."
Conxerge's eBlade-branded data center solution consists of server blades built by a Taiwan-based manufacturer to its specifications, along with PeerStorage iSCSI storage arrays from EqualLogic. The servers and arrays are built into a single rack, which is combined with a rack-mounted air conditioner from Liebert.
Jones calls the solution "a data center on wheels," and said its design came in handy during the first installation. On top of the 3TEC acquisition, PXP was moving into new offices that lacked a data center, so a small system was necessary.
"All we could find was a deserted 300-square-foot machine room," Jones said. "But we could move the whole environment into that space."
Rogers said the solution has proved to be a simple way to expand and manage the company's data processing needs, and Conxerge has built three smaller versions for business units of PXP. While the smaller units are not portable, they include the same hardware and software as the original to handle the businesses' particular processing needs. For instance, the geologists in one office now have three workstations virtualized onto a single blade, he said. As new systems were added, they were tied together for data-replication and disaster-recovery purposes, Rogers said.
Management of PXP's IT infrastructure has been greatly eased thanks to the virtualization technology included in the eBlade and EqualLogic products. In particular, Rogers said the system, with its remote management capabilities, has made it easy to update the company's IT infrastructure.
"For instance, if I need a new SQL server, it can be set up within minutes," he said. "We have a server set up in a virtual environment. When we need it, we can just point to the storage, point to the server, and boot it up."
If a blade fails, an alarm signal is sent to Conxerge, which then can remotely reboot the blade or add new capacity. "We can then have someone else, even the janitor, go in later and replace the bad blade," Jones said.
That provisioning capability also helps ensure smooth operation in case of hardware failure. Last month, a hard drive on one of the server blades failed. "Because the operating system was virtualized, we could boot it on the next blade server, and it was up in a couple of minutes," Rogers said. "That second server was already in production, but because of virtualization, it ran both OS instances while I replaced the bad hard drive."