Westcon Group Picks Cisco Unified Computing System

Westcon Group, a specialty distributor in networking, convergence, security and mobility, has said that using Cisco Unified Computing System, and EMC (News - Alert) storage area network technology, it has centralized its Data Center.

 

Company officials said that they were able to increase their network efficiency and generate over $1.1 million in operational savings.

 

Recently, the company began a massive project that entailed migrating each of its regional Data Centers to a single, cloud-based virtualized environment. Previously, the company relied on over 175 physical servers across multiple geographies for the core of its network operations.

 

However, over the last several months, this was reduced to 24 Cisco (News - Alert) Unified Computing System servers, which now run in a centralized Data Center environment, said company officials.

 

In addition to eliminating the strain of managing multiple disparate physical servers, the consolidation also provides redundancy and seamless real-time replication capabilities. Moreover, the company now has the ability to run applications on a virtualized architecture across its entire business.

 

"Westcon is now demonstrating their deep commitment to Cisco and the technology by deploying the Cisco Unified Computing Systems as the foundational architecture of their own data center infrastructure," said Dave O'Callaghan, vice president of distribution at Cisco.

 

The company selected Cisco Services to assist with the initial migration and deployment as well as to provide operational best practices around the Unified Computing Architecture. Last year, the company's business unit, Comstor (News - Alert), was the first distributor to announce that it would be carrying Cisco Unified Computing System solutions on a global basis to its reseller customers.

 

Moreover, Westcon deployed the Cisco Unified Computing System worldwide using Cisco data center technologies within its own networking infrastructure. Company officials said that the system has been running since November 2009. When completely deployed, the company expects to operate its entire Information Technology (IT) infrastructure in a virtualized environment.

 

Dean Douglas (News - Alert), president and CEO at Westcon Group, said that by centralizing the Data Center capabilities, the company is able to realize both the scale and agility its IT infrastructure will require to aggressively grow our business in the coming years.

 

"Not only do we offer Cisco Unified Computing System to resellers, we are also an early adopter in implementing the solution within our own networking environment," Douglas said.

 

Earlier this month, Westcon said that its business unit, Westcon Security, entered into a Pan-European distribution agreement with Great Bay Software.