Outerwear innovator boosts server, storage, and network performance by virtualizing SAP on Intel® data center technologies.
How can IT leaders deliver the right infrastructure for a dynamic business with shifting requirements? For Michael Leeper, senior manager of IT engineering at Columbia Sportswear, the answer is to deploy a private cloud based on Intel data center technologies. Leeper’s team has virtualized over 90 percent of the company’s applications on Intel® Xeon® processor-based servers, and recently migrated its enterprise resource planning (ERP) system from a legacy RISC environment to SAP ERP* 6.0 running on VCE Vblock* Infrastructure Platforms. Modular Vblock architecture uses Intel technologies in its servers, storage controllers, and networks to deliver high performance and quick deployment.
Challenges
• Replace the aging ERP system. With business requirements growing rapidly, Columbia Sportswear needs an agile, scalable, and higher-performing ERP solution.
• Build toward the cloud. RISC-based systems that ran the legacy ERP solution are expensive and do not provide the standardized architecture Columbia Sportswear wants for its private cloud environment.
Solutions
• Virtualize on Intel® Xeon® processors. Columbia Sportswear is two years into a virtualized, private cloud environment built on Intel Xeon processors and VMware vSphere* 4.0.
• Standardize on converged, industry-standard architecture. The VCE Vblock Infrastructure Platforms include Cisco Unified Computing System* (UCS) blade servers and EMC storage controllers based on the Intel Xeon processor 7500 series, Intel® Ethernet 10 Gigabit Server Adapters, Cisco networks, and vSphere.
Impact
• Instant capacity, lower costs. Vblock modules and the cloud’s flexibility helped Leeper’s team deploy the SAP solution faster than expected, scale instantly, and reduce infrastructure costs by hundreds of thousands of dollars compared to the previous RISC-based environment.
• Better use of IT. Leeper’s physical-infrastructure management team is one-fourth its previous size, enabling more staff to contribute at a higher level.
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Outerwear innovator boosts server, storage, and network performance by virtualizing SAP on Intel® data center technologies.
How can IT leaders deliver the right infrastructure for a dynamic business with shifting requirements? For Michael Leeper, senior manager of IT engineering at Columbia Sportswear, the answer is to deploy a private cloud based on Intel data center technologies. Leeper’s team has virtualized over 90 percent of the company’s applications on Intel® Xeon® processor-based servers, and recently migrated its enterprise resource planning (ERP) system from a legacy RISC environment to SAP ERP* 6.0 running on VCE Vblock* Infrastructure Platforms. Modular Vblock architecture uses Intel technologies in its servers, storage controllers, and networks to deliver high performance and quick deployment.
Challenges
• Replace the aging ERP system. With business requirements growing rapidly, Columbia Sportswear needs an agile, scalable, and higher-performing ERP solution.
• Build toward the cloud. RISC-based systems that ran the legacy ERP solution are expensive and do not provide the standardized architecture Columbia Sportswear wants for its private cloud environment.
Solutions
• Virtualize on Intel® Xeon® processors. Columbia Sportswear is two years into a virtualized, private cloud environment built on Intel Xeon processors and VMware vSphere* 4.0.
• Standardize on converged, industry-standard architecture. The VCE Vblock Infrastructure Platforms include Cisco Unified Computing System* (UCS) blade servers and EMC storage controllers based on the Intel Xeon processor 7500 series, Intel® Ethernet 10 Gigabit Server Adapters, Cisco networks, and vSphere.
Impact
• Instant capacity, lower costs. Vblock modules and the cloud’s flexibility helped Leeper’s team deploy the SAP solution faster than expected, scale instantly, and reduce infrastructure costs by hundreds of thousands of dollars compared to the previous RISC-based environment.
• Better use of IT. Leeper’s physical-infrastructure management team is one-fourth its previous size, enabling more staff to contribute at a higher level.
