Business Needs
Wanted to replace aging 3-tier storage and server infrastructure
Solution
- Nutanix NX-3000 series
- Nutanix AHV virtualization
- Nutanix Prism management solution
Benefits
- Obtained a high availability solution for all applications and workloads
- Shortened the time to create corporate reports by 3-5x
- Reduced datacenter footprint
- Lowered IT costs by eliminating expensive legacy hypervisor licensing fees
- Simplified storage, server, and hypervisor management with one unified management console
Challenge
JSC Kazakhtelecom was relying on a traditional 3-tier architecture environment, with legacy servers, SAN networking infrastructure, and an aging SAN storage system. The company’s data analysis system consists of a data warehouse built using Oracle 11g and the SAP Business Object analytical software. All data is downloaded daily to the repository from a variety of sources, including service information from the billing platform and customer data from Oracle Siebel CRM. The system’s 200 active users are responsible for creating over 500 analytical reports each year and 50 reports on a daily basis, with peak loads occurring during the preparation of quarterly financial statements. The volume of accumulated data is now about 3.5 terabytes, distributed using Oracle Partitioning technology.
Due to the age of the legacy platform and the need for higher levels of performance, JSC Kazakhtelecom’s IT management team started looking for new computing infrastructure that could support all mission-critical applications, database information, and decision-making systems for the company’s operational and analytical monthly reporting divisions. High availability and speed of reporting were the two most important factors in choosing the new technology solution.
Solution
JSC Kazakhtelecom’s IT department experts analyzed several alternatives to the traditional 3-tier approach, hoping to eliminate the need for separate servers, SAN network, and dedicated storage systems. The Telecom’s IT team tested the hyperconverged Nutanix web-scale architecture, with excellent results. “The process of preparing the test environment took less than one day,” noted Sergey Ivashov, Director of Corporate Information Systems at JSC Kazakhtelecom. After the successful tests, JSC Kazakhtelecom made the decision to purchase the Nutanix enterprise cloud platform.
“Nutanix surpassed all of the criteria on our list of requirements,” Ivashov reported. “In addition to the high performance and availability, the hyperconverged systems take far less space than our previous 3-tier solution. One NX-3000 system occupies just two rack units and consumes only one kilowatt of electrical power, enabling us to reduce our ongoing operational expenses.”
Results
Nutanix Competence Center specialists in Kazakhstan were able to configure the new cluster in just three hours. “The process involved only one engineer from our side, engaged in the task of tracking the analysis system,” noted Ivashov. “All of our vital business analytics, including our Oracle and SAP databases, have now been migrated to the Nutanix platform. By moving to Nutanix, we were able to reduce the time required for run the analysis by 3-5x.
”In addition to selecting the Nutanix Acropolis computing and storage systems, Kazakhtelecom also chose the hardened Nutanix AHV, eliminating the expensive license agreements for the legacy hypervisor. JSC Kazakhtelecom’s IT specialists are also using the built-in Nutanix Prism interface to manage the server, storage, networking, and hypervisor infrastructure. “Our engineers are able to quickly look at the Prism console and see that everything is in order,” said Ivashov. “Even though the Nutanix systems are very reliable and the product hasn’t had any problems, just being able to look at the overall statistics on the hardware infrastructure, virtualization environments, and virtual machines in one screen gives us a lot of confidence that the operational units are performing well.”
JSC Kazakhtelecom chose Nutanix for its high performance, smaller footprint, high availability, and easier management. “The high performance provided by the Nutanix systems has enabled us to make better use of our data, Ivashov noted. “With better insight into our end users’ needs, we can provide better service to our customers.”
Next Steps
JSC Kazakhtelecom is now considering the use of Nutanix for a wider range of applications, including several more of its virtualized, tier-1 enterprise applications. “We are very pleased with the results we have obtained with Nutanix, including the great performance, ease of maintenance, and high availability,” Ivashov concluded. “I would certainly recommend Nutanix to other organizations that are looking for a modern approach when choosing new IT infrastructure.”
We are very pleased with the results we have obtained with Nutanix, including the great performance, ease of maintenance, and high availability. I would certainly recommend Nutanix to other organizations that are looking for a modern approach when choosing new IT infrastructure.
Sergey Ivashov, Director of Corporate Information Systems, JSC Kazakhtelecom