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• 2007

S&T virtualises ORF server farm

130 virtual servers with VMware on six physical devices

Up to 130 virtual servers are being operated by only six physical devices in accordance with the plan of Austria’s largest media company. Therefore around 100 physical servers have been eliminated. S&T Austria was responsible for the analysis, design and implementation of the entire harmonisation project and carried out the tasks together with the specialists at ORF. Five company SAP servers and applications like e.g. virtually all Microsoft servers, Blackberry and Oracle tools (Oracle Enterprise Manager, Oracle Internet Directory) were virtualised. By consolidation and virtualisation of the server, ORF not only reduced hardware and software costs considerably, but also substantially increased the availability of its IT system. Over and above that, the IT department at ORF can react more quickly and more flexibly to current requirements and install new servers more quickly and carry out adjustments or increase reliability. The in summer 2006 commissioned project was concluded successfully according to plan. Markus Wirgler, ORF Project Manager: “The project ran smoothly and very cooperatively. We have achieved our aims of greater flexibility, better performance, greater reliability and lower purchasing and administration costs.”

Server monitoring
In addition for virtualisation of the current VMware Software, S&T Austria has integrated the new server smoothly into the existing server-monitoring (Microsoft Operations Manager). “We not only have the necessary know-how for the consolidation and virtualisation of the infrastructure but can also combine systems from different manufacturers. The entire implementation was carried out during normal operation of all systems”, explains Georg Komornyik, Managing Director of S&T Austria.

Reliability success aspect
In order to guarantee high availability of the systems VMware Vmotion Technology was used. Consequently, the reliability of the server is achieved without necessary cluster solutions. Marcus Bühn, Manager T1 3 systems ORF: “An innovative project requires a strong and reliable partner”.

Greater server utilisation with VMware
Like ORF, many other companies also have over the course of time, growing server infrastructures with increasing requirements. Often these heterogeneous servers create high costs and intensive administrative expense. The VMware virtualisation software used by ORF, besides the reduction of the total costs of the servers, above all enables the efficient usage and manageability of the system. Especially the VMware ESX Virtual Infrastructure Server 3.0 used by ORF brings on average up to 80% better utilisation as well as a reduction of complexity with reduced risk.

Caption:
S&T Austria harmonises the server infrastructure of ORF, the largest media company in Austria.
Copyright: ORF