Iqon/Rompetrol Case Study - VCE

ResultsWith Vblock Systems, Iqon was ableto attain significant improvements:physical servers were reduced by90%; the number of people neededto manage the environment shrunkfrom 14 to 5, and availability climbedmarkedly from 93.7% to 99.8%. In all,Iqon realized savings of $3.6 milliona year. The infrastructure operatingburden was reduced by more than twothirds, thus freeing resources to tacklebusiness critical challenges.Iqon was able to meet and exceedRompetrol’s virtualization targets. Iqonvirtualized 88% of Rompetrol’s servers,enabling it to reduce the number ofphysical servers from 675 to 63. Thisin turn has resulted in power andspace savings. The infrastructure nowhandles most of Rompetrol’s businessapplications, 6 out of 8 of their majortier one workloads (the remaining 2will soon be retired), and 230 of its250 other workloads.0%2010201188%2012Summing up his experience with thesystems, Askor Zhakenov, a GroupIT Director at Rompetrol says, “TheVblock Systems’ major advantage canbe expressed in four simple words: bestvalue for money.” George Oprescu,the General Manager of Iqon, has seenthe financial benefit as well, and herecognizes how the Vblock System haslet him elevate the level of his business:“By going with Vblock Systems, wefinally managed to reverse the ratio ofresources spent on administration andthe development of new opportunities.Moreover, it is the first step towards agreater level of transparency everyoneis craving. The Vblock System is thebest example of how technologycan enable IT to better help businesspeople, while decreasing the budget.”The Vblock System has also shown itsmettle with impressive improvementon a number of operational metrics.For instance, the number of downtimeincidents per month has decreasedfrom 3 to .05. The improved uptimedirectly increases the quality of theservices provided. Iqon can now offerenterprise grade infrastructure for thevirtualization of tier one applications.Infrastructure Savings (Millions USD Per Year)Support Contracts for Legacy Hardware $ 1.38Infrastructure Monitoring Software $ 0.77People Moved To Different Tasks $ 0.64Support for High Availability Components $ 0.38Hosting + Power + HVAC $ 0.38Total Savings Per Year $ 3.56Iqon IT — Before and After Vblock2010 2012Virtualization status: 0% Virtualization status: 88%Datacenter space: 45 racks Datacenter space: 23 racks-0 kW annual Power Savings -240 kW annual Power SavingsCPU usage: 2.76% CPU usage: 24%RAM usage: 53% RAM usage: 90%Physical Servers: 675 Physical Servers: 63Availability Ratio (%): 93.7% Availability Ratio (%): 99.8%

The pre-integrated, standardized natureof the Vblock Systems dramaticallysimplifies IT. As Mr. Balulescu describes,“When you manage infrastructure, youhave to consider a lot of things, likesupport, provisioning, and administrationof the operating systems. If you run aheterogeneous environment, this is a realheadache. The Vblock System is much,much simpler to manage.” Provisioning ismuch faster now too, with new capacityprovisioned in hours, whereas before itcould take a month and a half. This hasgreatly increased the speed at whichIqon can respond to new requests fromthe business.The tremendous ease of management theVblock System provides has enabled thecompany to reduce admin support from14 FTE’s to 5, freeing 9 people to work onnew projects to drive additional businessvalue for customers. Mr. Balulescuexplains, “Now more than 50% of my timeis spent on new projects. Before 70% wasspent on administrative projects.” Thisbenefits the business and “it makes for amore enjoyable work environment.”Next StepsThe capabilities and responsiveness thatVblock Systems provided helped thenew group to go beyond their originalmandate to serve Rompetrol. With theexpertise of over 100 IT professional,the technology differentiation affordedby Vblock systems, and a major oilconglomerate as its main customer,the group became Iqon Romania, anindependent company. It evolved itsbusiness model to provide IT as a serviceto other companies across Europe.According to Mr. Balulescu, “One of thekey benefits for me is knowing exactlywhat I have in my court. It used to alwaysbe a surprise. Now, I have one machineand everything is on it. If I exceedcapacity, I can buy more. So, it makes myinfrastructure management very easy.”He knows that if additional capacity isneeded, VCE can respond quickly withadditional Vblock Systems delivered inunder 45 days and operational just hoursafter delivery. In contrast to systems fromother vendors, which can take months fordelivery and weeks tobecome operational.“As far as I am concerned,the advantage offered bythe Vblock platform can beexpressed in just four words:best value for money.”— Askar Zhakenov, CIO,RompetrolThe Vblock System experience has beena very positive one for Iqon. Mr. Balulescufinishes, “I would recommend the VblockSystem. The most impressive behavior isfrom the team. They are very enthusiasticto be working with it.”For More Information visit www.vce.comor contact your authorized VCE reseller.To learn about Iqon, please go to:www.iqon.comCopyright © 2013 VCE Company, LLC. All rights reserved. VCE, VCE Vision and Vblock are registered trademarks or trademarks of VCE Company LLC or itsaffiliates in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks used herein are the property of their respective owners.www.vce.comTHE WORLD’S MOST ADVANCED CONVERGED INFRASTRUCTURE