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Case
5/12/2024
Case study for DTEK: Successful implementation of virtualization based on VMware Cloud Foundation
While developing an updated IT strategy, DTEK faced the need to optimize the IT infrastructure developed in 2011. Most of the solutions had already been withdrawn from support or were in the process of being phased out. The infrastructure was based on a classic approach, including traditional data storage and networks.
When developing an updated IT strategy, DTEK faced the need to optimize the IT infrastructure developed in 2011. Most of the solutions had already been withdrawn from support or were in the process of being phased out. The infrastructure was based on a classic approach, including traditional data storage and networks.
The target solution was a hyperconverged infrastructure approach that integrates networks, computing resources, data storage, containerization infrastructure, and security settings in a single virtualized environment. This minimizes the amount of physical equipment and cable infrastructure and simplifies the process of deploying new services, as well as provides the flexibility to move services between the private cloud of your own data center and cloud infrastructures of hyperscalers (AWS, Azure).
The main goals of the hyperconverged infrastructure implementation were:
- Modernization of the outdated computing infrastructure (servers) and the current hypervisor: the existing infrastructure in the company needed to be updated to support modern business requirements.
- Cost optimization: reducing the cost of maintaining and operating the IT infrastructure by switching to a software-defined infrastructure (software storage, software network, information security).
- Increase flexibility and scalability: enable rapid deployment of new services, adaptation to changing business needs, and mobility of services between clouds.
- Ensure high availability and fault tolerance: minimize downtime risks and ensure continuous operation of critical systems, including the creation of a backup site for infrastructure recovery.
- Integration with cloud services: creation of a hybrid cloud infrastructure to take advantage of both private and public clouds, ensuring effective communication between them and access to cloud services, and implementing a strategy independent of a single cloud provider.
After analyzing various solutions, the customer chose VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF).
At the time of the decision, VMware was the only vendor offering a comprehensive hybrid cloud solution with the ability to manage both on-premises and cloud infrastructure. VMware's solution provides all the tools you need to build a hybrid cloud, including virtualization, networking, storage, security, and management.
Moreover, the VMware Cloud Foundation solution is compatible with major public clouds (Amazon VMC, Azure), which makes it easy to move virtual machines between different environments. An additional argument when choosing a solution was that VMware is the market leader in virtualization, has many years of experience and provides reliable operational vendor support.
One of the key challenges was to create an architecture and select hardware that would be compatible with the chosen solution and receive long-term vendor support. In this context, it was also important to work out a strategy for future expansion of the system, so a scaling plan was developed that provides for the gradual addition of new computing power to the VCF cluster.
Results
By implementing a solution based on VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) and HPE-based hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI), the MODUS X team achieved the following results.
- Creation of a flexible, scalable and secure hybrid cloud infrastructure: DTEK has received a modern platform for managing virtual machines, containerized services (Kubernetes) and traditional applications that meets various business needs.
- Increased application mobility: thanks to VMware HCX, DTEK can easily move virtual machines between its own data center and the company's infrastructures in the public clouds (VMC from Amazon and Azure VMWare Solution from Microsoft) and hybrid environments, ensuring business continuity and optimizing resource utilization.
- Reduced IT infrastructure costs: hyperconverged infrastructure and automation of management processes allowed DTEK to reduce the cost of maintaining a private cloud by up to 40% compared to using only a public cloud of the same size.
- Enhanced security: VCF's built-in security features, such as NSX-T micro-segmentation and vSAN data encryption, help protect data and applications in accordance with information security requirements.
- Simplify management and reduce operational costs: Automating management, monitoring, and maintenance processes with Aria Operations helps reduce operational costs and minimize human error risks.
- Creating competitive advantages: a flexible and scalable infrastructure allows DTEK to respond faster to market changes, develop and implement innovative IT solutions, ensuring easy integration with all public cloud services.
During the full-scale invasion in February 2022, this solution enabled the company to move its core services to a hybrid cloud, using both on-premises and cloud solutions.
The MODUS X team acted as a strategic partner, providing DTEK with a comprehensive infrastructure virtualization solution:
- Business analysis and analysis of the existing IT infrastructure: defining requirements, developing the optimal architecture and project plan, taking into account DTEK's long-term development strategy.
- Technical support for hardware selection: selection of VCF-compatible hardware, taking into account performance, scalability and reliability requirements.
- Implementation and configuration: installation and configuration of VCF components, including vSphere, vSAN, NSX-T, Aria Operations and other.
- Migration: securely and efficiently migrate existing virtual machines to a new platform.
- Technical support: providing ongoing technical support, including the development of additional functionality (automation, containerization).
Overall, the project was implemented in several stages over several months.
- Analysis and planning: defining requirements, developing architecture and project plan.
- Implementation and configuration: installation and configuration of VCF components.
- Virtual machine migration: transferring existing virtual machines to a new platform.
- Testing, optimization and training: testing the system performance and optimizing the settings.
The next stage of development is the development of TANZU (containerization) functionality and Aria Automation products to implement DevOps practices to automate the deployment of new applications in the hybrid cloud.
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