CDW has completed the implementation of a completely new IT infrastructure, storage and DR platform for newly-created Vivid Housing.
The formation of Vivid involved bringing together two Hampshire-based housing providers, First Wessex Housing and Sentinel Housing, each with similar aims but different systems and processes. First Wessex and Sentinel both had IT infrastructures that were showing signs of ageing, and their respective IT infrastructures were spread across four data centres, delivered by several different providers. Furthermore, neither housing providers’ existing IT arrangements were sufficiently scalable on their own to match Vivid’s ambitions.
A key objective for Vivid’s new IT infrastructure was therefore to enable a complete refresh and overcome the complexity of dealing with disparate suppliers, as well as introducing mobile technology for Vivid’s 250 field-based workers.
CDW was selected for its innovative approach and proven track record, having been one of First Wessex’s suppliers for the previous 18 months. CDW presented a solution that minimised Vivid’s risks and maximised the value of the available budget. It created an end-to-end solution around the implementation of new architecture, working with Dell EMC to equip Vivid’s primary data centre with Dell EMC R630 servers and Unity Storage. This was underpinned by ServiceWorks Back-Up and ServiceWorks Assure for disaster recovery.
Duncan Brown, director of finance and technology, Vivid Housing, said, “We had our own view of what we wanted but CDW’s solutions architects were very honest in their assessment of our ideas and, rather than simply going along with it, they encouraged us to consider a more economical and efficient solution.”
By moving Vivid’s primary data centre from one of its own offices to CDW’s co-location facility in Surrey, the housing provider benefited from a professionally-managed service, delivered by a single supplier, while freeing up space within its own offices. The development of a single managed infrastructure was aimed at reducing pressure on internal IT resources, while reducing costs by moving to a more efficient ‘op-ex’ model, based on the number of virtual machines in use per month.
Having considered the option of on-premise infrastructure, Vivid chose a co-located solution offering the best of both worlds. Brown said, “We needed infrastructure capacity with high availability, taking advantage of cloud capabilities and including an element of managed services to reduce the burden on internal teams. This took away any worries about loss of data in the event of a power loss and reassured us of the continuity we need to operate successfully.”
The ‘re-platforming’ process was handled with CDW’s ServiceWorks Assure as the migration model, providing Hypervisor-based replication from the source environment to the new target platform, plus non-disruptive testing of failovers to ensure a smooth transition.
Brown said, “The transition was extremely smooth, particularly when relocating our hardware to the new data centre and rerouting our phone system over the weekend, both of which we thought would be problematic.
“We described the project as being the equivalent of rewiring a jumbo jet while it is in flight. You have to keep everything running while you are simultaneously changing everything.”
