The major IT pitfall
Binod Bihari Ray, a technology enthusiast, and IT expert decoded the university’s server and computing requirements. He started to work on various IT solutions and with the advent of brainstorming sessions, Ray finally decided to implement HCI(Hyper-Converged Infrastructure). According to him, the HCI technology is flexible, scalable and easy to maneuver, especially for small setups like the university.
The university’s HCI journey started with a transition in IT processes and systems. The university hosts a bouquet of applications including an in-house platform used to operate online classes and manage admission activities.
“Our infrastructure was not equipped to handle an overload of concurrent users which led to regular unscheduled maintenance checks and forced downtime of up to eight hours of server stoppage, and up to a minute for simple data retrieval jobs. We tried to invest in individual servers and outsourced admissions that just simply increased our IT investments, infrastructure manpower, and overheads significantly. This is when we decided to explore different vendors who would help us address this challenge,” Binod Bihari Ray, IT-Head, GLA University told ETCIO.
Eureka! HCI is the solution
Ray and his team gathered knowledge and did self-research on the use cases of HCI and how this technology will solve the university’s IT problems at a reasonable cost. He wanted to partner with an IT vendor with which his team can collaboratively solve the problem. But the challenge was to select a single vendor who can manage multiple things simultaneously and can react promptly.
“Certain parameters that we kept in mind while identifying our requirements included an always-available solution that could continue to work even if any of our applications were down. Another requirement was to look for a solution that would allow us to upgrade on the go. Through this, we would then be able to overcome limitations in regards to capacity or CPU cycle and upgrade our infrastructure as and when we would require it,” Ray added.
After going through different vendor’s portfolios, POCs, etc, based on cost, implementation, and availability factors, Ray decided to implement Dell EMC VxRail, an HCI solution by Dell Technologies. He did multiple discussions with the technology provider to understand how beneficial this HCI solution is going to be for the university. Later on he deployed Dell EMC VxRail which helped the university in lifecycle management of a fully integrated hardware and software stack while cutting costs.
“The process of execution of the project was simple. GLA University being a prime educator understood the importance of adopting new technologies and put their trust in us. We were able to execute the entire process of assessment, identification, and action within just a span of 2 weeks. Experts at Dell Technologies guided us and with their support, we deployed Dell EMC VxRail HCI System Software with utmost ease. Now, GLA University will be able to handle any type of workload that might come their way even during this era of remote working,” Gurpreet Singh Bhatia, MD, Arrow PC Network said when questioned about the company’s contribution in this project deployment.
Ray expressed that choosing the HCI solution was a relatively easy call to take, because of the cost efficiency factor of the solution. Moreover, he has a separate budget for IT spending, and other than the technology cost, he is quite zealous about how an innovative solution can change the university’s way of working.
Deployment manifesto
“Post thorough research, we got in touch with Arrow PC Network, a Partner of Dell Technologies, to overcome the challenges related to our workloads. They explained to us the need for a 3-tier/vSAN Architecture to automate business requirements. In addition, they suggested that we deploy VxRail HCI System Software, powered by Dell Technologies as it is an end-to-end server technology solution that can be easily implemented into any current business process experience and is optimized to support the most demanding workloads and applications. Arrow PC Network, with the support of Dell Technologies, led the project and carried out the deployment of the VxRail solution. Additionally, a full staff training was completed within just 2 weeks,” Ray highlighted.
Post-deployment situation
Before deploying HCI, the university faced critical issues in handling the overflow of concurrent users. HCI helped the university with enhanced computing performance and simplified processes without sacrificing features or reliability while reducing time spent on building and maintaining IT systems.
With the HCI solution, GLA University has modernized its data centre and has become cloud-ready for the future. They are now able to meet any HCI use case including support for many of the most demanding workloads and applications as well as experience consistent performance.
The university has been able to reduce their overheads; namely, AMC, electricity, cooling units, etc., and have even diverted 80% of their teams’ time to high-value tasks without worrying about their savings in terms of manpower and training.
“Since HCI has the power to merge storage and compute into one, we realized, it would not only help us reduce our initial footprint but would also help in reducing our investments and costs in the long run. Not only this, but we were also surprised by the simplicity that it would provide us, in terms of applications and their interface, making it easier for our staff to manage. Hence, going ahead with the HCI solution was a wise decision for us,” Ray concluded.
