Metia CEP Weston Foods optimizes server farm with the help ...



Microsoft Customer SolutionCustomer Solution Case Study00Weston Foods optimizes server farm with the help of Windows Server? 2008 Hyper-V? R2 OverviewCountry or Region: Canada Industry: Food Services/ManufacturingCustomer ProfileWeston Foods Canada distributes and manufactures food products. Business SituationTo take advantage of benefits such as server consolidation and clustering for high availability, the company determined that moving to a more virtualized environment would help to boost efficiency and reduce costs. SolutionWith Hyper-V, Weston now has a more flexible and powerful virtualization environment and is now able to virtualize its IT environment applications without spending money on new hardware.BenefitsReduced IT costsEnhanced server managementFoundation for growth“Previously, we were running out of space and we knew that we were going to grow server-wise. Through virtualization, we’re looking at saving about $50,000 on hardware and licensing on a $280,000 capital investment.”John Canini, Director of Network and Operations, Weston Foods CanadaWeston Foods Canada distributes and manufactures food products. To take advantage of benefits such as server consolidation and clustering for high availability, the company determined that moving to a more virtualized environment would help to boost efficiency and reduce costs. With Hyper-V, Weston now has a more flexible and powerful virtualization environment and is now able to virtualize its IT environment applications without spending money on new hardware.SituationWhen businessman George Weston founded a local bread bakery in Toronto in 1882, even he scarcely could have imagined how successful his legacy would be more than a century later. Today, Weston Foods (Canada) Inc. operates as a subsidiary of George Weston Ltd. and represents a food-processing and distribution heavyweight that serves most of Canada.In addition to producing breads, bagels, cakes and other tasty baked goods, the company also distributes dairy products such as yogurt and butter. The company caters to national and regional supermarkets, mass merchandisers, and store wholesalers. As a market leader, the company strives to maintain its brand standing by understanding consumer needs. Staff at Weston – production workers, machine operators and administrative support – is guided by this principle. Technology – including legacy applications and Windows-based solutions – is the enabler to company success and the IT team at Weston plays a central part in maintaining the company’s reputation for high-quality products. However, with the IT staff responsible for the company’s entire infrastructure, much of which was dispersed across its multiple locations, the company could foresee what that space for its growing number of physical servers could potentially become an issue.Weston’s IT department works hard to optimize resources while supporting the business. While the previous environment was stable, notes John Canini, Director of Network and Operations, Weston Foods Canada, “we had just too many physical boxes to try and manage.”The company needed a more powerful, scalable virtualization solution to achieve better performance for the server environment. “At the time we had 49 physical servers. If we kept on going the way we were, we would have gone up to 55 in no time. We were simply running out of physical space,” says Canini.SolutionTo take advantage of benefits such as server consolidation and clustering for high availability, the company worked with Microsoft? Gold Certified Partner Gibraltar Solutions Inc. to determine that moving to a more virtualized environment would help to boost efficiency and reduce costs. The IT team at Weston reviewed a range of technologies – including VMware-based offerings – before determining that leveraging Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V was the most cost-effective way to virtualize its server infrastructure. Weston worked with Gibraltar to develop a new network and shared storage architecture for Hyper-V Cluster high availability.“We looked at VMWare initially when we started this project but the actual cost we projected for deploying and maintaining it really drove our decision towards using Hyper-V,” says Canini.This scenario is helping Weston to optimize the value of each physical server. The company also deployed Microsoft? System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2 to manage its virtual landscape. As a part of the Microsoft? System Center suite of management solutions, it provides centralized management of virtual machines, accelerated provisioning, and easy virtual machine performance tuning.Using Hyper-V R2, the company is consolidating multiple server roles as separate virtual machines that run on a single physical machine. Weston was able to immediately reduce its physical server footprint – 39 physical servers down from the original 49. The company is currently using the virtualization platform to reduce this number even further, says Robert Kovac, Senior Systems Administrator, Weston Foods. The Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V platform also features Cluster Shared Volumes failover clustering and Live Migration. “Weston Foods was particularly impressed with the Cluster Shared Volumes feature, which helps with server optimization by improving the configuration and management of clustered virtual machines,” adds, Vladimir Kryukov, Gibraltar Solutions Inc. “As a result, the new environment helps to free up storage space, quickly provision test and development environments and boost availability, which is highly important to the company.” BenefitsWith Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V, Weston Foods is realizing a host of IT benefits. With Hyper-V, Weston now has a more flexible and powerful virtualization environment and is now able to virtualize its IT environment applications without spending money on new hardware. Reduced IT costsWith Hyper-V, Weston is reducing the number of physical servers within its IT environment. This enables the company to spend less on hardware and has reduced the overhead costs related to server maintenance, floor space and cooling. “Previously, we were running out of space and we knew that we were going to grow server-wise. Through virtualization, we’re looking at saving about $50,000 on hardware and licensing on a $280,000 capital investment,” says Canini.Enhanced server managementWeston uses native Hyper-V management tools to simplify the management of virtual machines. Weston is also taking advantage of Microsoft? System Center solutions to automate server imaging, application and update deployment, server monitoring, and backup.“Companies like Weston are using Hyper-V to handle resource-intensive, multiprocessor virtual machines. Improving hardware resource utilization goes a long way towards achieving Weston’s server consolidation goals,” says Kryukov.Foundation for growthVirtualization has become a key strategy for Weston from a server consolidation perspective. The company is taking advantage of clustered virtual machines to help ensure that the server environment is highly available. “Consolidating our server environment with Hyper-V helps us be more proactive from a short and long term business perspective. We’ll be able to see problems coming as opposed to actually reacting, and we can start being more strategic with our technology processes. This in turn helps us improve our overall operations, which is key,” says Kovac. Software and ServicesWindows Server? 2008 Hyper-V? PartnerGibraltar SolutionsThis case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.Document published October 2010For More InformationFor more information about Microsoft products and services, call the Microsoft Sales Information Center at (800) 426-9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft Canada Information Centre at (877) 568-2495. Customers in the United States and Canada who are deaf or hard-of-hearing can reach Microsoft text telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234. Outside the 50 United States and Canada, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information using the World Wide Web, go to:For more information about Gibraltor Solutions products and services, call or visit the website at: more information about Weston Foods products and services, call or visit the website at: ................
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