Aisin Thai Automotive Casting reduces number of physical servers by with virtualization

Benefits

• Companyincreasesefficiencywhilereducingnumberofphysicalservers

• ReductioninITenergyconsumption

• CompanyreceivesfullsupportofnewsolutionduetoexcellentdocumentationfromDellConsultingServices

• ITteammaximizesreturnsbyloweringmaintenancecosts

• Backup,recoveryandarchiving• Dataconsolidationandmanagement• Greenefficiency• Virtualization

Customerprofile

Company: Aisin Thai Automotive Casting

Industry: Automotive

Country: Thailand

Employees: 710

Website: www.aisin.com

BusinessneedTo support growth, the company needed to improve the performance of its IT infrastructure. The goals of the company’s IT team included increasing uptime while reducing power usage and management time.

SolutionThe organization worked with Dell consultants to implement a virtualized Dell server and storage infrastructure, and chose Dell ProSupport to maximize availability.

“ The reliability of the new Dell environment has given us the confidence to virtualize our core applications. We’ve gained the performance we need to deliver our IT goals with fewer physical servers.” Traitet Thepbandansuk, Information Technology section manager, Aisin Thai Automotive Casting

The company needed to invest in a new data center as part of a strategy to increase the performance of all IT services. The automotive casting business was growing, with employee numbers increasing and the need to deploy a robust HR system to help manage expansion. The new data center also needed to maintain high availability of business-critical applications such as SAP.

FullsupportforremotelocationsandstrongrelationshipwithDellsealschoiceforcompanyDell distinguished itself from competitors by agreeing to support the new solution, even with the remote location of the business in Thailand.

“Dell provided us with the specialist support we needed,” says Traitet Thepbandansuk, Information Technology section manager at Aisin Thai Automotive Casting. “No other company demonstrated such a high level of commitment to the project.”

Traitet Thepbandansuk was confident that Dell solutions could offer the performance required to deliver reliable IT services to hundreds more employees and support paper-free operations. “We knew Dell had the solutions to deliver an energy-efficient, simple-to-manage infrastructure.”

CompanyreceivesfullsupportofnewsolutionduetoexcellentdocumentationfromDellConsultingServicesAisin Thai Automotive Casting gained expert guidance from Dell Consulting

Services on the virtualized server and storage solution. The work of the Dell consultants was invaluable, enabling the company’s IT team to focus on daily operations while Dell assessed and designed the new infrastructure.

“Thanks to excellent documentation from Dell, I was able to illustrate the value of the solution to company directors and received their full support,” says Traitet Thepbandansuk. “The deployment went smoothly, which is a credit to Dell’s expertize and their commitment to our business.”

Aisin Thai Automotive Casting (ATAC) is based in Thailand. Established in 2010, ATAC specializes in the production of engine-related parts to major original equipment manufacturers worldwide. The casting business has achieved success through a commitment to quality and efficiency.

“ Dell provided us with the specialist support we needed. No other company demonstrated such a high level of commitment to the project.” Traitet Thepbandansuk, Information Technology section manager, Aisin Thai Automotive Casting

Technology at work

Services*

Dell™ Consulting Services– Assessment, Design &

Implementation

Dell ProSupport – Mission Critical option

Hardware

Dell PowerEdge™ R710 servers with Intel® Xeon® processors

Dell EqualLogic PS6000 storage area network

Dell PowerVault™ TL4000 tape library

Software

VMware® vCenter Server- VMware Sphere™

- VMware VMotion™

CA ARCserve®

CompanyboostsperformanceandconsolidatesserversAt the heart of the new infrastructure are Dell PowerEdge R710 servers with Intel® Xeon® processors, which run VMware® ESX server software.

The solution enables the company to maximize the uptime of business applications, which include an enterprise resource planning solution.

“The reliability of the new Dell environment has given us the confidence to virtualize our core applications. We’ve gained the performance we need to deliver our IT goals with fewer physical servers,” says Traitet Thepbandansuk.

Companygainson-demandstorageandprotectsdataAisin Thai Automotive Casting can now meet the storage needs of employees after implementing a Dell EqualLogic PS6000 storage area network (SAN) solution. For instance, when employees need additional storage for a project or want to increase mailbox sizes, the IT team can dynamically make the adjustments so that more space is available immediately.

The company protects its data, ensuring business continuity in the event of an emergency, by backing up data to one of its Dell EqualLogic PS6000 SANs with the support of CA ARCserve®. The company also has a Dell PowerVault TL4000 tape library to complete a highly secure disk-to-disk-to-tape backup process.

“With our new backup and recovery system from Dell, we can reliably recover our systems in the event of an emergency,” says Traitet Thepbandansuk.

VirtualizationreducesITpowerconsumptionandimprovesITteamservicesWith fewer machines to power and the Energy Smart technologies of the Dell PowerEdge R710 servers, the team has reduced its IT energy consumption. “We have significantly lowered power use across the data center with our new Dell virtualized solution,” says Traitet Thepbandansuk. “IT is now playing a major role in helping the company reduce its carbon footprint.”

Additionally, IT personnel are taking advantage of the virtualization technology to launch new servers more quickly, improving services to end users. Says Traitet Thepbandansuk, “We can now launch a virtual machine within hours of a server request coming in. New projects can get underway much faster than previously.”

With the introduction of virtualization and management tools such as VMware® vCenter Server, VMware vSphere™ and VMware VMotion™, availability has greatly improved. “System availability has been excellent,” Traitet Thepbandansuk says. “We can now manage the servers proactively to avoid downtime.”

“ We begin work each day knowing our Dell solution will perform to the highest standards.” Traitet Thepbandansuk, Information Technology section manager, Aisin Thai Automotive Casting

ITteammaximizesreturnsandreducesmaintenancecostsThe IT team expects to maximize the return on investment on the new Dell solution, with a reduction in physical services and downtime.

The company receives Dell ProSupport - Mission Critical option, which offers on-site support within six hours. This agreement has helped reduce maintenance costs significantly. With Dell ProSupport, the company has confidence in the solution’s performance.

Traitet Thepbandansuk says, “We begin work each day knowing our Dell solution will perform to the highest standards.”

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January 2011. © Dell inc. Dell is a trademark of Dell Inc. Intel and Intel Xeon are registered trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries. This case study is for informational purposes only. Dell makes no warranties, express or implied, in this case study. 10008570