Spring 2013

In collaboration with Intel®

Unleashing IT Seize innovation, accelerate business, drive outcomes.All through the cloud.

• Caribbean forecast: Cloudy and booming

• Taking a business to the clouds

Technology as cultural change agentLouisville Gas and Electric and Kentucky Utilities Energy LLC is breaking through longstanding behavioral norms to improve operating efficiency. Page 8

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Experiences

03 Transforming a business, one cloud at a time Broadridge is taking its behind-the-scenes financial services business to the frontlines.

05 World-class technology services in paradise Curaçao Technology Exchange aims to support a regional business boom with the Caribbean’s first tier-IV data center.

08 Technology as cultural change agent, efficiency booster Louisville Gas and Electric and Kentucky Utilities Energy LLC is changing behavioral norms to improve operating efficiency.

10 The foundation for better business decisions Staples Australia is extending its business intelligence to customers and suppliers for greater insight and agility.

12 Brokering the cloud How Virtacore is transitioning from resource provider to resource broker.

Education Feature

14 Advancing IT capabilities, despite aging hardware With BYOD and VDI, Coppell Independent School District is extending the life of its infrastructure and saving $1 million as a result.

15 Supporting meteoric business growth Liberty University’s rise to the top of private, nonprofit academia happened faster than expected, creating new challenges and opportunities.

Cover: Eric Slavinsky, CIO of Louisville Gas and Electric and Kentucky Utilities Energy LLC

Unleashing IT Seize innovation, accelerate business, drive outcomes.All through the cloud.Spring 2013

Transforming the nature of transformationNot long ago, if you asked an IT executive about transformation, there was a good chance you’d get a technology-centric response. You’d hear about consolidation and virtualization, power and cooling, security and availability.

Today, the responses are different. This edition of Unleashing IT is all about transformation. Not technology change, but business change through the use of technology.

Over time, the nature of transformation has, well, transformed. Instead of technology advances for technology gains, companies have learned they can use IT to reduce costs, create efficiencies, and solve problems. And many forward-thinking organizations are finding that opportunities for transformation are much broader and more impactful.

Broadridge is using cloud technologies to transform its service offerings and operating model (page 3). A prominent utility company is breaking through longstanding cultural norms to enhance the collective efficiency of its workforce (page 8). Staples Australia is extending its business intelligence capabilities to enhance customer and supplier relationships (page 10). And Curaçao Technology Exchange is transforming the business possibilities of an entire region (page 5).

In all of these cases, technology is neither the question nor the answer. It is simply the enabler of business opportunities, both small and large.

For more information, follow the links inside or contact Cisco at 1-800-553-6387 and select option 1 to speak with a Cisco representative. We welcome your feedback on the articles in this publication at www.UnleashingIT.com

Sincerely,

Giuliano Di Vitantonio Vice President Cisco Systems, Inc.

Lisa Graff Vice President Intel Corporation

In collaboration with Intel®

3Seize innovation, accelerate business, drive outcomes. All through the cloud.

(From left) Broadridge CTO John Gullotta and Vice President of Corporate Communications Kelly Howard discuss business transformation

Experiences

How does an established company grow its business when it already owns a significant share of the market? It’s a question that Broadridge, a leading provider of investor communications and security processing solutions for more than 50 years, is currently answering.

“We help the financial services industry and corporate issuers operate more efficiently,” says Kelly Howard, Vice President of Corporate Communications for Broadridge. “Our solutions help our clients focus on their core business activities.”

The solutions to which Howard is referring have historically been of the behind-the-scenes, back-office variety. But the company, which processes nearly five trillion dollars a day in financial settlements and facilitates more than one billion investor communications annually, is transforming its

business to be a frontline technology and solutions provider.

It’s all part of a strategic, multiyear plan that started with server virtualization, continued with data center convergence, and is now moving toward cloud-based infrastructure-as-a-service.

“We’re still on the journey,” says John Gullotta, Senior Vice President and CTO of Broadridge. “It’s a phased approach to improving our overall IT capabilities, focusing on creating a platform that facilitates business change.”

The journey begins

Broadridge started the virtualization of servers more than three years ago in an effort to reduce costs and optimize IT resources. Following a comprehensive virtualization

How Broadridge is taking its behind-the-scenes financial services business to the frontlines.

Transforming a business, one cloud at a time

Unleashing IT4

Gullotta shows off Broadridge’s new technology infrastructure (left) and the operations it is fueling (right)

assessment and maturity modeling, the company identified the need for and benefits of a fully converged infrastructure.

“We wanted to align our internal teams, processes, and technology,” Gullotta explains. “So we extended our server virtualization efforts to all functional areas of the data center.”

Utilizing the Cisco® Unified Computing System™ (UCS), which is based on Intel® Xeon® processors, Broadridge now has a powerful, converged infrastructure that can be used as a platform for more efficient technology services—or entirely new ones.

“We’re just now at the point of leveraging our converged infrastructure to deliver production services,” says Gullotta. “From an IT standpoint, we’re ready to deliver infrastructure-as-a-service through a private cloud. From a business standpoint, we’re still determining our capabilities, our processes, our governance models, and how to extend internal resources to external customers and partners.”

The company is currently performing a comprehensive cloud assessment, he adds, to establish a roadmap that will meet Broadridge’s business objectives.

Preparing for change

With a unified infrastructure in place, both Howard and Gullotta indicate there are countless ways in which it can be put to use. Exactly how the new environment is utilized will be determined by Broadridge business leaders and the markets they serve.

“The financial services industry continues to undergo significant change,” explains Howard. “We can’t predict the future, but we can be prepared to adapt and stay ahead of the curve. That’s why we’re not investing in a solution, but rather a platform that is flexible and able to support the changes to our business and our clients’ needs.”

“We want to build our capabilities gradually to determine our readiness, avoid any risks, and get comfortable with the environment,” Gullotta adds. “But then we have an opportunity to extend those capabilities.”

Broadridge is planning to create an internal private cloud that allows the company’s business teams to easily provision IT infrastructure and services. Thereafter, Gullotta foresees an external private cloud that provides dedicated services to the company’s client base as well as new markets and customers.

Partnering with business leaders

While the options are vast and the specific course of action unknown, one thing is certain: Gullotta isn’t interested in determining the strategic direction of Broadridge’s business.

“Business leaders determine the road ahead,” he says. “We want to build a fast, efficient vehicle, and then give them the wheel.”

Gullotta is aiming to establish a “Cloud Governance Council” that brings together the company’s technology caretakers with its business leaders. Working collaboratively, the two sides will define a set of technology criteria and processes

that support and enable business initiatives.

“The discussion isn’t about servers; it’s about technology supporting business capabilities and scenarios,” Gullotta notes. “We want the ability to quickly conduct pilot projects, validate concepts, and deliver new products and services that push our business forward.

“We have an opportunity to extend our technology services in new and exciting ways,” he adds. “This may include big data analytics initiatives, mobile applications, or social media outreach. Fortunately, we have the right platform and capabilities in place to explore and test a number of options.”

Broadridge has saved millions of dollars through server and data center consolidations, and is using those IT initiatives to establish a converged infrastructure. The potential value of the converged infrastructure is forthcoming, with innovative products and services delivered through a number of channels and initiatives.

“The worst case scenario is a more dynamic, cost effective, efficient infrastructure,” says Gullotta. “The best case scenario is new products and services, new partners and markets, and new revenue opportunities.”

Complimentary data center analysis

For a custom, comprehensive analysis of the performance, scalability, and reliability of your data center, including recommendations for improvements, visit the Resource Center at: www.UnleashingIT.com

5Seize innovation, accelerate business, drive outcomes. All through the cloud.

Curaçao Technology Exchange CEO Anthony de Lima aims to support the business boom of an entire region

Ideal location and growing business opportunity spawn the Caribbean’s first and only tier-IV data center.

Hidden beaches, colorful architecture, pristine reefs, and picturesque plantations; located in the southwestern corner of the Caribbean, Curaçao has it all. But it’s about to get more. Much more.

The island continues to gain prominence as a hub of international finance and commerce. And Curaçao Technology Exchange (CTEX) is preparing to be a key enabler of the region’s business boom.

“We are building the first tier-IV data center complex in the region,” says Anthony de Lima, CTEX Chairman and CEO. “It will be the most advanced, purpose built, high-density technology services facility in the Caribbean and Latin America.”

Three catalysts have converged in CTEX’s favor: growth in Latin American emerging

markets, advances in cloud computing, and an auspicious locale.

More business, more technology needs

Business activity in Central and South America has been on the rise for some time. Caribbean nations, at the commercial crossroads between North America, Europe, and Latin America, are experiencing a similar business surge.

Despite this growth, there continues to be a lack of high-end technology services. Companies wanting to conduct business in the region have few options for storing their data, accessing advanced technologies, and getting top-notch support.

Today, the Caribbean doesn’t have an Uptime Institute-certified tier-IV data center. They exist in the U.S., Canada, and Europe, but many regional companies are concerned with the privacy laws, strict regulations, and high costs that come with them. Others are wary of utilizing South American data centers due to physical security and political instability.

World-class technology services in paradise

Experiences

Unleashing IT6

From vision to reality: De Lima is building the Caribbean’s first tier-IV data center from scratch

“Most companies doing business in the region use data centers in North America or Europe,” de Lima explains. “But when you are moving data and running applications across such distances, there are often bandwidth and latency problems, not to mention the high cost of labor and taxes.”

An untapped island refuge

CTEX was formed in Curaçao not by happenstance, but through careful planning and an exhaustive search. In the island paradise, de Lima and his team found the perfect location for a tier-IV data center.

“The island is situated outside the hurricane belt and major seismic zones,” de Lima says. “And the data center is being purpose-built for 100 percent reliability. It is 197 feet above sea level, and can withstand a Category 5 hurricane and extensive seismic

activity. Our clients don’t have to worry about putting their data or technology operations in harm’s way.”

Curaçao’s connectivity is also a significant benefit. Six redundant submarine cables link the island to the rest of the world, and more are currently being installed; perfect for reliable, high-speed data transmissions.

Part of the Dutch Kingdom, Curaçao is very friendly to international business. The privatization laws are favorable, the taxes are low, there are no import duties on technology equipment, and the island offers unique benefits for expatriate employees. A multicultural populace that speaks English, Spanish, Dutch, and Portuguese also makes the island an ideal location for transnational commerce.

“The location, connectivity, and laws make Curaçao one of the safest

locations in the world to house critical information assets,” says de Lima.

Building a world-class data center

De Lima didn’t want to build any data center. He sought to deliver a tier-IV data center with “unparalleled technology capabilities that enable business to be conducted in ways never before imagined.”

Four massive, 57,000 square foot complexes are currently being constructed to achieve this vision. VblockTM Infrastructure Systems—with integrated technology from Cisco, EMC, Intel, and VMware—form the technical foundation of the company’s business-class cloud solutions. CTEX is also utilizing Cisco® Carrier Routing System (CRS), Cisco ASR 9000 Series Aggregation Services Routers, and Cisco Nexus® 7000 and 5000 Series Switches.

“We want to provide customers with the most advanced data center services and the most secure, reliable cloud environment in the region.” Anthony de Lima, Chairman and CEO, Curaçao Technology Exchange

“We want to provide customers with the most advanced data center services and the most secure, reliable cloud environment in the region,” de Lima says. “With a unified infrastructure that has been pretested and validated, we can focus on delivering high-end IT services instead of worrying about hardware and software details.”

The company will offer world-class colocation, security management, archival, disaster recovery, and managed services. Companies can take advantage of a private or multitenant cloud, managed by CTEX or by their own personnel. Cisco Intelligent Automation for Cloud software streamlines cloud provisioning and administration. With more than a dozen standard server models, CTEX and its customers can select their operating system and

configuration of choice, and the software quickly and automatically provisions the environments and payment structure.

“We want our customers to focus on running their business, not IT,” de Lima explains. “With state-of-the-art infrastructure and automation tools, they can access secure, on-demand services from any location. We’re taking the guesswork out of configuring and managing cloud environments.”

De Lima is particularly excited about the disaster recovery services his company will offer. In addition to remote data backup, CTEX has office space—with server and desktop provisioning, a full communications suite using Cisco Unified Communications Manager, and Cisco TelePresence® capabilities—for clients

who need to keep their business running during a crisis.

“Our customers need safety and security for their data, and the ability to scale up or down quickly and without a lot of capital investment,” says de Lima. “In delivering these capabilities, we have an opportunity to help shape the Caribbean and Latin American region, and its value in a global, digitized economy.”

More information

To speak with a Cisco cloud expert about intelligent automation and ITaaS, contact us at: intelligentautomation@cisco.com To hear how others are using VblockTM Infrastructure Packages, visit the Resource Center at: www.UnleashingIT.com

4,652 members. 2,384 companies repres- ented. 52 local chapters. The Cisco UCS™ user group community continues to grow.

Local chapters meet three to four times each year to discuss everything about Cisco UCS, which is based on Intel® Xeon® processors. Members are able to hear from their peers and technology experts about:

• Cisco UCS best practices• Hardware and software roadmaps• Hot trends and topics

“The community and meetings are entirely

user-driven,” says Patti Garza, UCS Program Manager for Cisco. “There aren’t any sales or marketing pitches. It’s strictly about the technology, created for and by members.”

Each meeting includes a best practice presentation from a UCS user, many include live demonstrations, and members are often the first to hear of forthcoming products and solutions.

“Each chapter and meeting is different, but they are always fun and informative,”

says Garza. “It’s a great way to interact with your peers, learn new tips and tricks, discuss technology trends, and get the inside scoop on unannounced products.”

More information

To locate a UCS User Group chapter in your area, email: ucsusergroups@cisco.com For more information on Cisco UCS, visit: www.UnleashingIT.com

A growing—and active—community of Cisco® Unified Computing System™ (UCS) users

7Seize innovation, accelerate business, drive outcomes. All through the cloud.

Unleashing IT8

CIO Eric Slavinsky works with Cisco and LG&E and KU operations personnel to drive change

Technology as cultural change agent, efficiency booster

How one utility company is utilizing analytics, mobility, and collaboration technologies to change behavioral norms and improve operational efficiency.

“The tenure of our workforce is 15 to 30 years on average,” says Eric Slavinsky, CIO of Louisville Gas and Electric and Kentucky Utilities Energy LLC (LG&E and KU). “And that leads to a lot of entrenched behaviors.”

When Slavinsky joined the utility two and half years ago, he sought to reevaluate those behaviors and find new opportunities for efficiency. He wanted to solve business challenges. And he was focused on enabling his workforce to be productive anytime, anywhere.

“We wanted to change our business culture,” Slavinsky says, “through IT.”

Two factors had always been in the way. First, the company was relying on a host of manual processes, which dictated where and how company personnel could perform their jobs. Second, critical

information was stashed in a variety of disparate systems, requiring a tremendous amount of work to pull information together, and making it nearly impossible to perform data analyses thereafter.

“To continue providing our customers with cost-effective electric and gas service,” Slavinsky says, “we needed greater transparency, better decision making, and a more productive workforce.”

For an industry that is often resistant to change, cultural transformation could not be forced or dictated. The utility’s operations teams would need to be included in the upfront decision making, and empowered in their day-to-day activities.

“You can’t just push change on people,” Slavinsky claims. “You need to give them a sense of ownership and participation. And then you need to show them how change can positively impact their job. It’s all about empowering the business through the use of technology.”

Utilizing analytics, mobility, and collaboration

To influence longstanding behaviors and processes, Slavinsky wanted to create transparency between internal systems, services, and employees. That started

Experiences

9Seize innovation, accelerate business, drive outcomes. All through the cloud.

with data. Giving the LG&E and KU workforce better access to the company’s information resources would reduce the amount of time to answer everyday questions, conduct routine reporting, and make effective business decisions.

“In the past, we had a tough time accessing data, let alone analyzing it,” Slavinsky explains. “We were still printing out spreadsheets from different systems, then manually piecing everything together. It was slow and rarely provided a comprehensive, timely view of our operations.”

LG&E and KU implemented business intelligence software on a new, fully integrated platform to improve information access and utilization. Running on the Cisco® Unified Computing System™ (UCS), which is based on Intel® Xeon® processors, the SAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse Accelerator pulls together real-time information from all of the utility’s operations systems and provides sophisticated analytics capabilities.

“The less time you spend searching for and integrating data, the more time you have to maximize it,” says Slavinsky. “Our business intelligence system is cutting the time it takes to produce monthly reports in half. It’s eliminating many of the old manual printing processes. And most importantly, it is

enabling our workforce to conduct analyses that lead to faster, more informed decisions.”

Those decisions can now be made anytime, anywhere, thanks to improved mobility and collaboration capabilities. The utility is using Cisco Unified Communications Manager and Cisco mobility platforms to extend the reach of its applications environment, and deliver consistency no matter how or where it is accessed.

Through a bring your own device (BYOD) program, mobility software, and virtual desktop integration (VDI), operations personnel can tap the utility’s business applications from any location, and have the same experience whether they are using a tablet, laptop, or personal computer. This allows them to be as productive in the field as they are in the office.

“The mobile system is a wealth of information at your fingertips,” says Terry Walker, Service Technician for LG&E and KU. “Every day I logon and use it to view system maps, create work request maps, find locations of trouble calls, log inspections, and any other job that comes my way. It’s made my job a lot more efficient.”

The company is also utilizing collaboration tools, such as instant messaging, chat, and video. LG&E and KU engineering experts will soon be able to help diagnose

and fix problems remotely, reducing the time and cost of travel and repairs. The mobility and collaboration capabilities have been particularly useful during storms and outages, when the business must go into “crisis response mode” and coordinate large groups of field employees.

“We pride ourselves on superior customer service, especially during storms,” says Slavinsky. “Our new computing platform and capabilities are making us much more effective and coordinated during outages, and that has a direct impact on our costs and customers.”

Through advanced analytics, mobility, and collaboration, Slavinsky is quickly transforming the culture and operational efficiency of LG&E and KU. And it’s working. The utility is one of the lowest-cost energy providers in the U.S., and has recently received best-in-class customer satisfaction ratings among Midwest utilities.

Complimentary data center analysis

For a custom, comprehensive analysis of the performance, scalability, and reliability of your data center, including recommendations for improvements, visit the Resource Center at: www.UnleashingIT.com

“Our business intelligence system is cutting the time it takes to produce monthly reports in half. And most importantly, it is enabling our workforce to conduct analyses that lead to faster, more informed decisions.” Eric Slavinsky, CIO of Louisville Gas and Electric and Kentucky Utilities

Unleashing IT10

The foundation for better business decisions

Hardware and software investments help Staples Australia move strategically toward data transparency for customers and suppliers.Be nimble, be agile, take risks, and apply innovation to how you’re using data in your business. It’s a fairly ambitious goal, but it’s one that Garry Whatley, VP of IT and Business Services, Staples Australia, believes is a matter of perspective. You either focus on the risk or you focus on the strategic advantage. Whatley is a proponent of the latter.

“Our end goal is to provide information transparency to our customers and suppliers, so we can make better business decisions collectively,” says Whatley. “That goal drove our transformation program, where we implemented a new hardware platform to support a new business warehouse (BW) software suite. Our business intelligence vision is very defined, and we invested in it substantially because

it is strategic to how we’re going to operate as the business moves forward.”

The value of data access and analytics

Unlike its parent company in the U.S., Staples Australia does not have any retail locations. It engages with customers online or through its sales force. In both instances, sophisticated data transparency creates an opportunity to alter business processes significantly. For a high volume, high data business like Staples, Whatley believes better data access and analyses can help drive cost out of the supply chain and reveal new business insights.

Staples Australia chose the Intel® Xeon® processor-based Cisco® Unified Computing System™ (UCS) as the hardware foundation supporting its data transparency initiative and SAP NetWeaver BW investment. The company also implemented the Cisco Business Warehouse Accelerator to amplify the speed of its SAP NetWeaver

Experiences

11Seize innovation, accelerate business, drive outcomes. All through the cloud.

BW software to drive faster queries, reporting, and decision making.

The Cisco implementation was consistent with Whatley’s emphasis on strategic advantage. As Corporate Express (prior to the Staples integration), the company was an early adopter of many new Cisco technologies, including IP Telephony and IP Contact Center as well as previous iterations of Cisco UCS™. Whatley wanted to maintain the strategic commitment to the Cisco relationship.

So was the strategic gamble worth it? Whatley believes it was. “Both the Cisco UCS and SAP choices were sound strategic decisions that I would make again. In fact, we should have done it sooner. Our users were frustrated with performance, and we have reversed that experience significantly. Now, we are in a position to not only deliver performance, but also drive toward our vision as well.”

The hardware and software investments have been fundamental in helping Staples be agile and react to insight gleaned from the data. For example, operations personnel can gather metrics that help rank and compare suppliers against KPIs and other supply chain partners. On a monthly basis, Staples

provides the Supplier Performance Reporting Pack to its suppliers. Previously, completing those reports required a significant amount of manual effort. With automation, Staples can provide visibility around performance levels to the more than 300 suppliers in its supply chain.

In addition, data transparency is enhancing inventory management. Staples can calculate daily performance on KPIs for the purchasing team, operations team, and the overall business based on day-to-day order fulfillment and the company’s “perfect order” model. The ongoing insight is improving customer service levels and reducing inventory holding.

Driving toward its future vision

With the foundation in place, Staples can contemplate adding new capabilities to drive its future vision. Mobility is a key priority. With no retail presence, the company relies heavily on its sales force to service corporate and mid-market customers. Pushing order information and online reporting to reps while at customer sites is a primary focus. Executive insight enablement is also critical. In a high volume, low value business model, having the visibility to track the business in fine detail on a daily basis promotes better business decisions.

In fact, Staples is about to launch a pilot focused on reviewing and analyzing customer sales history. Through advanced analytics, business users can examine factors including what customers spend, where they spend, categories of spend, and which areas of the business spend more than others. It is similar to the breakdowns of paper reports, but the automation enables drill down, discussion, analysis, and “what if” scenarios on the fly.

“Clarity in what you’re driving toward is what enables you to move away from a risk focus to a strategic orientation,” says Whatley. “At Staples, we are clear that mobile intelligence and real-time analytics represent our optimum data transparency capabilities. And we have the hardware and software foundation to move there confidently—delivering the value of visibility to our customers and suppliers for better business decisions every step of the way.”

Cisco Bridge to SAP HANA Appliance

For a video, whitepaper, and solution brief about improving your business intelligence capabilities with Cisco and SAP solutions, visit the Resource Center at: www.UnleashingIT.com.

Unleashing IT12

Peruse a list of the top 10 characteristics to look for in a financial broker and you’re bound to find “trustworthy” and “responsive.” When we invest money, we expect the experts to be quick to respond to market demands, to take a holistic view, and to manage our funds seamlessly.

Compare that to the demands being placed on today’s CIOs and the two are increasingly similar. When a business unit submits a request for compute power, they expect fast, secure results, and they want the ability to ‘see’ how their server environment is performing.

“CIOs are being asked to transition from being a resource provider to resource broker,” says Phill Lawson-Shanks, Chief Technology Officer at Virtacore, a wholly-owned subsidiary of IKANO Communications Inc., headquartered in Sterling, Va. “That means they need to adapt to a new service delivery paradigm that

leverages internal, external, and hybrid cloud fabrics, where virtual instances and resource pools are both dynamic and manageable at an increasingly granular level,” he says.

As a leading cloud services provider, Virtacore understands the intricacies of leveraging IT-as-a-Service (ITaaS) to reduce capital costs and operating expenses. At the same time, the company realizes the need for speed, visibility, and increased manageability.

Which is why it’s currently in the process of building a new core infrastructure with the Intel® Xeon® processor-based Cisco® Unified Computing System™ (UCS), Cisco Nexus® and Catalyst® switches, Cisco Intelligent Automation for Cloud (Cisco IAC), and a next-generation hybrid storage solution from Nimble Storage.

Currently located in Equinix International Business Exchange data centers in Silicon Valley, Chicago, Los Angeles, and

Virtacore’s dynamic cloud infrastructure-as-a-service helps CIOs transition from resource provider to resource broker.

Brokering the cloud Experiences

13Seize innovation, accelerate business, drive outcomes. All through the cloud.

Washington, D.C., Virtacore became the first cloud service provider to leverage Equinix Business Suites earlier this year. It is also among the first to be nominated to VMware’s vCloud Powered program, which requires partners to offer on-demand access to virtual infrastructure from a public cloud while supporting application and API portability between a customer’s internal data center and the VMware Powered Service of their choice.

The move to a wholesale data center model coincides with the company’s migration to Cisco UCSTM and Nimble. Together, the two strategies are giving Virtacore the performance and visibility it needs to stay ahead of larger competitors, delivering broker-like services at an extremely cost-effective price, says Lawson-Shanks.

“Before we started this migration it could take up to six weeks to deploy a customer’s cloud instance. Now we can deploy within a matter of hours,” he says, noting that proofs of concept run on the new core infrastructure in a production environment, allowing for a simple transition to a full service contract once customers are satisfied.

“From our perspective, we’ve gained a block of resource we can carve up and deploy any which way we need. From a customer perspective, they get a real world experience of what the system is going to be from soup to nuts that helps to allay any reservations they may have,” he says.

Two of the first Virtacore customers to migrate to the new cloud infrastructure include a large food distributor and a well-known software provider. Both are experiencing faster response times—almost double what they were experiencing previously—with the added advantage of confidence. As Virtacore engineer Matt Tedder explains, the new environment offers “a single pane of glass” management view that provides crucial information about processing speeds, memory, network availability, and storage, as well as built-in pre-emptive monitoring capabilities.

“Nimble offers the cleanest user interface we’ve seen from a storage product,” says Tedder. “From just a few sets of tabs, we can obtain a top-down view of everything.”

In the case of the food distributor, the first application to move to Virtacore’s Cisco UCS/Nimble platform was SharePoint,

a mission-critical application which is performing better in the cloud than it did on a tier-one manufacturer’s blade infrastructure. For the software provider, the main advantage is being able to quickly spin up customer instances with a high degree of visibility.

“Latency is not an issue any more. It’s about the performance of the systems, installing them correctly and managing them appropriately,” notes Lawson-Shanks, adding that Virtacore is looking to capitalize on the scalability of Cisco UCS and Nimble CS series, as well as the self-service provisioning capabilities of Cisco IAC, to support future growth.

“We’re only limited now by the amount of power our hosting partners can provide us,” he says.

Complimentary consultation

For more information and to qualify for a personalized consultation on leveraging a joint Cisco UCS and Nimble Storage solution in your data center, visit the Resource Center at: www.UnleashingIT.com

Unleashing IT14

“Our hardware,” says Chad Branum, Executive Director of Technology at Coppell Independent School District, “typically has a five-year lifecycle.”

Coppell’s 3,000 desktops and 4,000 laptops are dispersed among 15 public schools in Texas. With these hardware systems nearing the end of their projected lifecycle, Branum recently found himself in a predicament.

“Using technology to empower our students and advance our educational model is a part of our overall strategy,” he explains. “Our administrators and parent community have always been very pro-technology, and have consistently pushed for new, engaging services.”

And yet, like most public school systems, Coppell is challenged with funding. In a classic case of needing to do more with less, Branum had to find a way to modernize his school district’s technology capabilities, despite a restrictive budget and aging hardware.

“It’s tough to replace hardware when you are cash-strapped,” Branum says. “It’s even tougher to deliver new services and stay at the forefront of technology-based education.”

But that’s exactly what Branum and his team accomplished. The first step was implementing a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) program that takes advantage of students’ mobile computing resources.

“By leveraging our community’s personal devices, we can extend our computing services and learning experiences,” says Branum. “It’s also less for us to buy, manage, and maintain.”

The second step was making sure all students have a consistent experience, regardless of the device through which they connect to the school district’s computing environment. To do so, Coppell implemented a virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) using Vblock™ Infrastructure Packages. “VDI gives us the consistency we needed across all

devices,” says Branum. “The experience is the same whether a student is in a library using one of our desktops, on a field trip using their mobile device, or at home using their family’s personal computer.”

The virtual infrastructure is also extending the life of Coppell’s desktops and laptops by three to five years. Compared to the cost of hardware replacement, Coppell will save more than $1 million over the next five years.

Presidio, a leading technology services provider, helped Coppell with the VDI deployment, from proof of concept to ROI modeling to Vblock implementation. According to Branum, Presidio kept the big picture in mind while managing the day-to-day details.

“Working with Presidio has been a lot of fun,” says Branum. “They are extremely knowledgeable and took a strategic, holistic approach to our situation. Together, we created a five-year plan that solved immediate challenges and generated cost savings that can be applied elsewhere.”

With its new virtual infrastructure and cost savings, Coppell is evaluating the potential use of virtual courses, online research programs, flip classroom initiatives, and technology-based standards testing.

“We want a seamless integration between technology and learning. The first critical steps are giving students access to computing devices, and then delivering a consistent, engaging experience,” Branum explains. “Doing so has allowed us to explore new instructional strategies that were not previously possible.”

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Education Feature

15Seize innovation, accelerate business, drive outcomes. All through the cloud.

How advanced technology helped Liberty University become one of the nation’s largest and most successful academic institutions. It supports nearly 100,000 students. It offers 253 programs of study. And it boasts more than 6,000 faculty and staff members. Located in Lynchburg, Virginia, Liberty University is one of the most successful academic institutions in the United States. But it only recently reached such prominence, having experienced meteoric growth over the past several years.

“We delivered 160,000 credit hours in 2005,” says Matthew Zealand, CIO of Liberty University. “In 2012, we delivered over 1.3 million.”

This growth was greater than anticipated, Zealand admits. Much of it happened organically, and all of it happened faster than anyone envisioned.

“Growth impacts everything,” Zealand says. “More students necessitate more faculty, administrators, call center agents, financial specialists, you name it. And that means more IT systems and services to support them all.”

Unfortunately, Liberty University’s pre-existing technology infrastructure was not designed to sustain such growth. The largely physical environment was nearing capacity, struggling to support on-campus operations, and hindering an online learning program that was growing 25-30 percent each year.

Online programs fuel enrollment increases

Much of Liberty University’s dramatic growth can be attributed to its online learning program. The increasingly popular online curriculum now educates nearly 85,000 students in 95 countries, far outpacing the university’s 12,500 on-campus students.

“Our online learning program is a business-critical service we provide to our students,” explains Connie Allison, Enterprise IT Communication Liaison for Liberty University. “Any downtime results in student dissatisfaction and complaints, and it decreases our ability to maintain and increase enrollment. We can’t compete if our online systems are up and down.”

Because a majority of online students have never stepped foot on campus, the online learning program must also espouse the culture and mission of Liberty University.

“We need to maintain consistency in everything we do, whether it’s on campus or online,” says Zealand. “This primarily falls on the shoulders of our technology systems and services. We can’t proactively advance our programs, our enrollment, and our mission when we are reactively dealing with data center and application issues.”

To relieve data center constraints and support ongoing growth, Liberty University recently deployed the Cisco® Unified Computing System™ (UCS), which is based on Intel® Xeon® processors. Maximizing virtualization and consolidation, the Cisco UCS™ environment supports all university operations, from student and financial services to administrative and call center systems to classroom and online applications.

“Cisco UCS has given us the flexibility,

scalability, and stability we need to support our growth,” Allison says. “The Cisco network management tools allow us to see and address stress points before they become problems. We had nearly 10 hours of downtime the semester before we implemented Cisco UCS, but we haven’t had any downtime this semester.”

Instead of fixing problems, university administrators and IT staff can now focus on opportunities.

“In the past, we spent most of our time responding to incidents and issues,” Allison explains. “Now we can explore and implement new ideas, new student services, and new university resources.”

This has fostered a second wave of growth and development, she adds. The university is in the process of building a state-of-the-art library, a center for cinematic arts, and a new baseball stadium. Already the nation’s largest private, nonprofit educator, Liberty University also continues to expand its online learning curriculum and degrees.

“Enrollment growth places more strain and demand on everything, not just our network and application infrastructure,” says Zealand. “Cisco UCS has helped us relieve data center constraints, while allowing us to accommodate ongoing growth and focus on the future of our university.”

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Supporting meteoric business growth Education Feature

Servers based on the Intel® Xeon® processor E5-2600 product family

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Designed to combine performance, built-in capabilities, and cost-effectiveness, servers based on the Intel® Xeon® processor E5-2600 product family are at the heart of today’s evolving data center.

Brilliantly versatile Designed to sit at the heart of diverse IT environments: • Enterprise infrastructure • Public & private cloud installations • Storage systems • Research and High-Performance Computing (HPC) • Embedded devices • Workstations

Copyright © 2012 Intel Corporation. All rights reserved. Intel, the Intel logo, Xeon, and Xeon inside are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and other countries.