CIP Tramelan – New infrastructure and virtualisation of IFZ Tramelan’s workstations.

Starting point.

At the beginning of the project, IFZ had a classic infrastructure with a complex and time-consuming management (individually, for each workstation), particularly with regard to equipping the computer rooms.

Project objectives.

The aim was not just to renew the infrastructure, but also to ensure its central and standardised management. Additionally, IFZ wanted to provide its IT teachers with virtual workstations as part of the infrastructure renewal, in order to simplify classroom preparation and setup.

Challenge.

Two phases needed to be tackled simultaneously: renewal of the server and storage infrastructure and implementation of a VDI solution. We handled the whole project. Our specialists took care of server sizing and the hardware was then ordered from a local company, a supplier of IFZ. But when it came to implementation of the storage and VDI solutions, IFZ relied on our expertise and experience alone. “Contact with Bechtle Switzerland was always outstanding, even though we were no longer using the product that had started our business partnership. At no point did we have the impression that collaboration had come to an end. We knew that we could contact Bechtle at any time, so when it came to time to renew our infrastructure and implement a VDI project, we didn’t hesitate to turn to the Bechtle team. We really like how Bechtle is a large company offering many different skills that we can absolutely depend on. In implementing this project, we looked at the IT market to see what we could find. After this research, we valued Bechtle’s competitive advantage even more. For us, Bechtle isn’t just a reseller, but a real sales partner,” Christophe Glauser tells us.

Solution.

Our specialists first analysed the customer request, and were able to present and offer the best solutions for renewing the infrastructure, which was to be built as an extension of the existing one, as well as for the VDI project. Regarding the infrastructure, the choice was an HP Prolian DL-380 Gen9 server and a NettApp FAS 2520 array. The VDI was realised with a Citrix XenDesktop solution. Our engineers then provided IFZ’s IT team with the sizing of this new infrastructure so that it could host the VDI solution, too. The project was then presented to and discussed by the Supervisory Board of the Tramelan Interregional Training Centre who determined the budget. We were thus able to plan installation of the new infrastructure, set up a VDI driver for configuration, and conduct the required tests and checks. Our specialists then deployed the VDI solution in all computer rooms and trained the existing IT team. The next step was to rollout the VDI solution for all IFZ users. Our specialists gave technical advice and took care of sizing, installation, and configuration of the server and storage infrastructure. Next, they trained IFZ’s IT team in the areas of server, storage, and workplace virtualisation.

Business benefits.

“Since implementing this project, we have been able to see real changes, both within the team and in terms of the training provided by IFZ Tramelan. We wanted to conduct the first VM-supported courses before summer 2015 and we were able to! Additionally, we have been able to setup the first VM for our IT team. At the moment we’re ahead of schedule! Thanks to the new storage system, we have gained speed, availability and capacity,” Christophe Glauser tells us. “Compared to the amount invested in our previous hardware, we were able to reduce our budget by between 30% and 40% by virtualising our workstations. Our IT team will also save valuable time when it’s time for any Office or Windows 10 suite migrations. With regard to the computer rooms, in preparing the courses we offer, we saved about 70% of the time it normally takes. The head of training is very happy and for him there is no looking back!” says Christophe Glauser.

Partners.