STREAMLINING OPERATIONS: World Vision International has cut its datacenter network operating costs by 40% with an Ethernet fabric-based network infrastructure from Brocade to support increased server virtualisation.
World Vision International, a global relief, development and advocacy organisation, has cut its datacenter network operating costs by 40% with an Ethernet fabric-based network infrastructure from Brocade to support increased server virtualisation.
Its new hosted datacentre, which has deployed Brocade VDX switches, has enabled it to reduce its network cost of ownership through streamlined administration, space savings, and lower power consumption, while providing an open standard platform and a pathway to software-defined networking(SDN).
“Lowering the total cost of infrastructure ownership, while increasing its capability, enables us to free up more funds for World Vision’s work and, at the same time, increase our operational effectiveness.” said Nick Goh, director of Service Centres - Global ICT, World Vision International in a statement
World Vision functions as a partnership of interdependent national offices in nearly 100 countries running more than 2,500 projects that impact the lives of over 100 million people.
Its shared services, infrastructure services and service centre is based in Malaysia and supports 45,000 staff worldwide with systems for program management, sponsorship and donor management, financial management and a corporate intranet.
“World Vision is heavily dependent on IT as an enabler of activity, bringing transparency, accountability and transformation in the work that we do while reducing the ‘distance’ between the donor/sponsor, and the sponsored child,” added Goh.
Its existing datacentre network infrastructure had been approaching end-of-life and with its hosting contract coming up for renewal, World Vision decided to migrate its servers to a new state-of-the-art hosting facility while upgrading its network to be more scalable, flexible, cost-effective and standards-based.
One of the NGO’s key objectives in upgrading its datacentre infrastructure was to increase the use of server virtualisation, and according to Goh, approximately 80% of the organisation’s application servers have now been virtualised
World Vision International’s new datacentre has the Brocade VDX 6710 switches and VDX 6720 switches running VCS Fabric technology to form a single, low-latency Ethernet fabric that supports more than 300 physical and virtual servers – along with 70 terabytes of data storage capacity.
The VCS Fabric technology support dynamic virtual machine mobility without network reconfiguration, and enables highly efficient and automated management of the entire fabric as a single logical switch.
“Brocade is leading the industry with transformative innovations that overcome the complexity and limitations of traditional networks. Working closely with World Vision International has once again validated our foremost capacity in delivering a purpose-built network infrastructure for highly virtualised and cloud computing environments,” said Sean Ong, Brocade country manager for Malaysia.
“We are excited to be working closely with World Vision International to not just address its network challenges today, but also to transform its network for decades ahead.” he added.
