Dell’s EqualLogic storage architecture has been deployed to support Sapient Corporation’s migration from Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 to 2010. Dell’s virtualized storage solution has helped the company reduce maintenance and downtime and boost productivity by supporting the storage needs arising out of its new unified communications platform.
Sapient’s phenomenal growth, exponentially increased demand on unified content, communication and collaboration services. It became imperative for Sapient’s IT team to identify, re-architect a scalable, reliable and agile solution that enhanced services provided through and complement existing infrastructure investments. Sapient was not looking for technology but a solution offering that met current needs and also aligned to it’s long term IT objective focusing on end user productivity, whilst ensuring simplicity. A paradigm shift from technology speak of feed speeds for voice, video and data to unified content, communication and collaboration services.
Sapient selected Dell’s EqualLogic PS6510X virtualized iSCSI storage area networks (SANs) to support its Exchange Server 2010 requirements in India and the United States. Dell EqualLogic PS6010X virtualized iSCSI SAN solution for the company’s private cloud environment, and Dell EqualLogic PS6510E SAN for storing file data. A key factor in Sapient’s choice of Dell EqualLogic for its storage was that the solution met the company’s demands for green efficiency.
Dell’s highly scalable and cost effective virtualized storage solution works seamlessly with existing infrastructure in meeting the expanding storage demands brought about by Sapient’s integrated IT infrastructure that connects its 10,000+users from over35 locations across North America, Europe &Asia-Pacific. Virtualization has also brought added benefits of increased customer responsiveness in setting up of new project environments for global teams and the timely release of resources for new projects.
Due to the stability of the system Dell was able to help Sapient migrate all mailboxes to Exchange Server 2010 within less than half the projected time using a lean IT team and allowing the company to focus its resources on new projects. The lower maintenance of the system and the 24/7 availability of Dell ProSupport Mission Critical Onsite Response service also enabled Sapient to focus resources on the delivery of strategic projects. The company expects to achieve its return on investment within 6 months of deployment of the project.
Ashok Sethi, CIO, Sapient Corporation, explained, “Dell was able to understand our current and latent needs; engaged collaboratively to architect a solution that would extend and supplement our infrastructure investments. At present we are building partnership with Dell, whose product/solution strategy is aligning to our Enterprise IT vision and is willing to work along with us in this journey!”
Sridhar S, Director – Enterprise Solutions Business, India said, “Dell had a single line brief on this project – provide an end-to-end solution that improves productivity, collaboration and reduces downtime. By first assessing and understanding the limitations of Sapient’ s existing infrastructure, we were able define their core issues, make a recommendation and finally deploy our solution. Our highly scalable platform was deployed in a quarter of the projected time and meets Sapient’s changing storage demands.”