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A New Technology Infrastructure Hits Home For Builder's Resource Group
"With the fault tolerance of our new systems, I no longer worry if our systems are running. Instead, I can focus on strategic activities and execution."
Tom Roberts, Director of IT
Builder's Resource Group | |
Highlights
When it comes to buying a home, the community you choose is just as important as the home itself. For Builder's Resource Group, home and condo builder in the Midwestern U.S., this guideline also applies to technology. With 35 years of residential development experience under their belt, Builder's Resource Group has mastered the approach of designing homes and communities that fit their customer's lifestyles. However, it got to the point where they needed to master their own environment, specifically their technology infrastructure. To Builder's Resource Group, the technology they were seeking was just as important as finding the right solutions provider.
Technology Dilemma
Builder's Resource Group was faced with a mixed technology infrastructure environment at each of their four business division locations and had no IT staff onsite to support it. In addition, they had no centralized backup plan in place, which adversely affected their backup process. For every backup, a new tape needed to be inserted to prevent downtime and there was no telling how long each server backup could take. Some servers took minutes and others took up to three hours to complete the backup. Furthermore, their organization was growing rapidly--to the point where Builder's Resource Group was named the fastest growing company in central Ohio for 2004--and their current technology did not possess the performance, reliability or speed to support this growth.
With the best interest of the organization always a priority, Builder's Resource Group decided to move all four business divisions (construction, property management, financing and utilities) to one location. While this move will help improve business operations and organizational structure, it also allowed for a centralized technology environment.
Crafting The Solution
One of the biggest single points of resistance to adopting new technology is the painful process of moving away from an incumbent technology. Once Builder's Resource Group's four business divisions moved to their headquarters, getting the systems onto one network and migrating their applications to larger, newer hardware was the challenge. To ensure a successful migration and the right technology was utilized, Builder's Resource Group met with IBM Premier Business Partner Champion Solutions Group. After consulting with us, they were confident that our recommendation for a centralized storage and consolidated backup solution would greatly improve their productivity, as well as increase reliability and network availability.
The Champion and IBM teams architected a solution comprised of (6) highly available and scalable IBM eServer xSeries 345 servers, a McDATA Sphereon 4300 Fabric Switch and an IBM TotalStorage DS4300 disk subsystem. These additional servers have given Builder's Resource Group a total of 26 servers, 11 of which are running Linux. The solution also included an Ultrium Tape Library, which has significantly reduced the time it takes to perform backups. With all of Builder's Resource Group's systems now on one network, the tape runs for only five hours verses running multiple times for countless hours. In addition, we assisted with the migration of their Lotus Notes/Domino and Active Directory applications to their new servers, giving them the added peace of mind in knowing their data and applications are available and accessible when needed. Furthermore, Builder's Resource Group received Champion SANCare™ and ServerCare™ services that help ensure optimal performance from their servers and storage area network (SAN). This process involves us identifying potential system bottlenecks, recommending the appropriate solution, and reporting on performance trends and potential future issues.
Furnished with state-of-the-art technology equipment, Builder's Resource Group has already seen numerous results. They now have a highly reliable and available infrastructure, along with the added capacity and speed needed to support their surge of data. In addition to meeting current and future growth requirements, they have recognized a considerable increase in productivity, spending less time on fixing problems and more time focusing on growing their business.
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