Case Study
Focus International Ltd.
fashions IT infrastructure
Objective
Required a reliable and scalable
virtualised server and storage
infrastructure to increase
availability, speed restoration
times and support growth
Approach
Approached several organisations
for their understanding of the
chosen technologies and ability
to design, implement and manage
the infrastructure project
IT Matters
• Oers reliable server, storage and
networking solutions in a virtualised
environment, delivering a robust
disaster recovery capability and
supporting all business operations
• Satisfies the shared storage needs
through eicient replication, protecting
valuable business data
Business Matters
• Lowers restoration times from
24 hours to 15 minutes, increasing
systems availability substantially
and minimising business disruption
• Oers energy-eicient servers,
lowering power and cooling costs
by 50 per cent and reducing TCO
• Provides a highly scalable SMB IT
infrastructure, supporting growth
in a highly competitive market
• Delivers a less complex and
easily maintained infrastructure,
increasing productivity and
reducing operating costs
from latest technologies
HPE server, storage and networking solutions
transform fashion house’s operations
Focus International Ltd.,
part of JD Sports Fashion
plc, deploys HPE server,
storage and networking
solutions with advanced
virtualisation and
replication technologies to
create a highly reliable IT
infrastructure with a robust
disaster recovery capability.
The HPE servers have
reduced power and cooling
costs by 50 per cent while
the storage and replication
solutions have lowered
restoration times from
24 hours to 15 minutes.
Challenge
Availability, restoration
and scalability concerns
Focus International Ltd. controls operations
from server rooms in London and
Huddersfield, West Yorkshire. Although the
existing IT infrastructure was originally well
specified, more recently, senior executives
became increasingly concerned about the
availability of key production systems, slow
restoration times following service disruption
and insuicient scalability to respond to
growing market demands.
The complex, dated infrastructure was also
expensive to support and maintain while
power and cooling costs were too high and
environmentally unsound for an organisation
that values green credentials. Moreover, the
10MB Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS)
telecommunications network linking the two
sites only supported an extremely slow outof-hours incremental backup process and
did not support cost-eicient Voice over IP
(VoIP) telephony.
Case study
Focus
International Ltd.
“From a server perspective, we’d already decided to move to
Hewlett Packard Enterprise expertise as we sought only the best of
the best technologies. We regard the HPE ProLiant DL360 Gen 9 Server
as one of the finest in the world. Most importantly, we knew the HPE
equipment would integrate well with our chosen virtualisation and
replication technologies across the Wide Area Network.”
– Steve Anderson, IT manager, Focus International Ltd.
Industry
Multichannel retail
Page 2
“Our main objective was to provide a
more stable and available infrastructure
to accommodate the demands of a
growing, dynamic business without
significant additional eort or costs,”
explains Steve Anderson, IT manager,
Focus International Ltd. “Our existing
heterogeneous infrastructure contained
only physical servers, included some
legacy devices, had no replication
capability and simply didn’t support a
modern disaster recovery solution.”
Seeking new technologies
Focus International Ltd. adopted a more
structured IT strategy and decided to invest
in new server, storage and networking
solutions as well as advanced replication
and virtualisation technologies. All solutions
would function under the Microsoft®
Windows® Server 2012 operating system.
The small and medium-sized business
(SMB) also required migration services to
transfer data from the current servers to
the new server environment; planning and
installation services to provide data backup
and site-to-site replication; and configuration
and installation services for an upgraded
Storage Area Network (SAN). Furthermore,
Focus International Ltd. sought an email
upgrade from Microsoft Exchange 2003 to
cloud-based Microsoft Oice 365.
Before starting the main infrastructure
project, the company invested in a new
VoIP phone system, deployed two Hewlett
Packard Enterprise 2820 switches to support
the IP technology and increased the MPLS
fibre channel capacity to 50 MB.
“From a server perspective, we’d already
decided to move to HPE expertise as
we sought only the best of the best
technologies. We regard the HPE DL360
server as one of the finest in the world,”
continues Anderson. “Most importantly,
we knew the HPE equipment would
integrate well with our chosen virtualisation
and replication technologies across the
Wide Area Network (WAN). In our opinion,
Microsoft and Veeam oer the best
and most compatible virtualisation
and replication solutions.”
Solution
Finding the perfect fit
Focus International Ltd. started to look
for a suitable partner to deliver the
chosen server, backup and virtualisation
technologies and to design, implement and
manage the infrastructure project. After
due consideration, Focus International Ltd.
selected Corporate Systems Group (CSG)
Limited, a leading IT infrastructure solutions
provider and HPE Preferred Partner.
Case study
Focus
International Ltd.
Industry
Multichannel retail
Page 3
98%
reduction in
service disruption
restoration times
Focus International Ltd.
Focus International Ltd., part of JD
Sports Fashion plc, designs, sources,
markets and distributes own-brand,
and licensed, footwear and apparel.
Established in 1993, this market leading
company operates from locations in
Huddersfield, London and St Albans.
Well-known high-street retailers,
independent outlets and major UK
mail-order and e-commerce businesses
visit these premises to view seasonal
collections in vibrantly branded
showrooms. Popular clothing brands
include Ellesse, Peter Werth and FLY53
while the Mocks and Voi Jeans Co
brands serve the footwear market.
“Several organisations familiar with HPE
solutions approached us when they heard
about our requirements,” says Anderson.
“CSG instantly stood out from the crowd as
its specialists immediately understood our
technical and financial requirements.
“CSG was a perfect fit to support and deliver
the infrastructure solutions and services we
needed. The business had a comprehensive
knowledge of all three vendors’ technologies
backed by a thorough and professional
approach. We also appreciated the close
cooperation between HPE, Microsoft and
Veeam Software.”
Robust disaster recovery capability
The primary production site in St Albans and
the secondary site in Huddersfield both host
three reliable, compact and energy eicient
HPE DL360 Gen9 servers (File SQL and
Backup). Microsoft Hyper-V Server acts as
the virtualisation platform, generating three
mirrored guest machines at the sites.
The HPE infrastructure solution also
contains a high-performance HPE MSA
2040 Storage array. The two-node storage
system operates in an active-active
configuration and employs Veeam backup
and replication software to duplicate data
across both sites. The next generation
HPE MSA 2040 Storage array provides
excellent value for the Focus International
Ltd. virtualisation initiative, satisfies the
company’s shared storage and data
protection needs and reduces Total Cost
of Ownership (TCO) while dramatically
increasing performance.
Two new secure, scalable and easy-to-use
HPE 2920 switches support the higher
performance MPLS fibre link and SMB
SAN between the two server rooms.
This powerful HPE server, storage and
networking solution combined with
the Microsoft and Veeam Software
technologies creates a robust backup and
disaster recovery capability. A separate
Apple Macintosh hardware and software
infrastructure at the Huddersfield site
supports the in-house design teams.
SMB solution
The HPE infrastructure solution
delivered to Focus International Ltd.
by CSG typifies the HPE solution portfolio
for SMBs. It helps the company to increase
productivity, lower costs, minimise downtime
and support growth within the dynamic,
fast-moving footwear and apparel markets.
The server, storage and networking
solutions work together to support
business operations eiciently.
“The extremely reliable HPE ProLiant
servers run highly productivity applications
at the highest compute, memory and I/O
levels of performance while the HPE storage
solution focuses on several key areas
including virtualisation, file sharing, SQL
Server and back-up and data protection,”
adds Jason Clark, managing director,
Corporate Systems Group. “We’re also
helping our client to migrate from Microsoft
Exchange 2003 to the cloud-based
Microsoft Oice 365 email solution.”
Case study
Focus
International Ltd.
Industry
Multichannel retail
Customer at a glance
Application
Data centre operations
Disaster recovery
Hardware
• 6 x HPE ProLiant DL360 Gen9 servers
• 1 x HPE MSA 2040 Storage array
• 2 x HPE 2820 Switch series
• 2 x HPE 2920 Switch series
Software
• Microsoft Hyper-V Server
• Veeam Software Backup & Replication
• Microsoft Oice 365
(Exchange via the Cloud)
• Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2
Our solution partners
After designing and installing the
HPE server, storage and networking
solutions with the associated virtualisation
and replication technologies, CSG
successfully transferred all important
data from the old physical servers to
the new virtualised server environment.
The HPE partner also setup the backup
and site-to-site replication process and
provided the configuration and deployment
services for the upgraded SAN. CSG
provides all infrastructure support
services including 24/7 support with
a four-hour response time.
Benefit
Increased availability and
faster restoration
Today, Focus International Ltd. possesses a
highly reliable, high-availability HPE server,
storage and networking infrastructure
operating with industry-leading
virtualisation and replication technologies.
The new infrastructure is extremely scalable,
supporting growth within the business’
buoyant and dynamic markets.
“The availability of our infrastructure has
increased substantially by introducing
these new technologies and installing
uninterruptable power supplies and backup
power failure systems. Outages are now very
rare, minimising disruption to the production
environment,” comments Anderson. “A major
advantage of the virtualised environment is
remote access to the servers.”
If an emergency arises at head oice due
to an unforeseen event, Focus International
Ltd. now has peace of mind. IT sta simply
switch key production systems and all
operations to the disaster recovery site
in Huddersfield, minimising business
disruption. “When service disruption has
taken place, restoration times are typically
15 minutes rather than 24 hours with the
original incremental backup process, a fall of
98 per cent,” declares Anderson.
Lower hardware footprint and costs
The company is also reaping the benefits
of a reduced hardware footprint in the
server rooms. Replacing the 11 outdated
physical servers with compact HPE ProLiant
360 Gen9 servers within a virtualised
environment has reduced the number of
server cabinets from three to one, releasing
valuable space.
The new, less complex virtualised
HPE infrastructure is also much easier to
maintain and less expensive to operate.
IT personnel can readily move systems
between hardware platforms when they
want to retire or replace equipment or
conduct scheduled maintenance.
“After deploying the new HPE ProLiant
servers, we estimate our power and cooling
costs have fallen by 50 per cent, making a
major contribution to lower ownership costs
and boosting our environmental credentials,”
reveals Anderson.
With the back-end IT infrastructure
completed across the company’s two
main sites, Focus International Ltd. future
plans include refreshing the front-end
infrastructure. “We’ll certainly be taking
a very close look at HPE technology to
satisfy our desktop, laptop and wireless
requirements after such a positive
experience during our infrastructure
project,” concludes Anderson.
Learn more at
hpe.com/go/justrightit
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4AA6-4673EEW, May 2016
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