Client's I/O drama solved by Nutanix

A Melbourne-based integrator helped its client Gunnersen dramatically reduce hardware by switching its ERP onto a Nutanix virtualised environment.

Gunnersen, a major Australian suppler of timber products, needed to test rival systems for an ERP overhaul. It was testing Infor M3 ERP against Oracle JD Edwards from UXC RedRock.

Steve Watson, IT manager of Gunnersen, said: "ERP is absolutely critical for us. Without it we couldn’t survive. If the system goes down for a day, we cannot provide the requisite levels of service to customers, suppliers and staff; and obviously we just can’t let that happen."

Watson turned to its long-term service provider Advantage Technology Solutions (ATS) to help with the project, which had an estimated value of $1.5-$2 million.

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ATS managing director Frank Angotti told CRN: "Gunnersen was looking to invest in a new ERP system to give its business an edge in the marketplace.

"I believe over a year, the company narrowed the choice to two ERP vendors. A couple of months before making their decision, they called us in to work with the final two vendors to determine what hardware was required, and thus the total cost of each of the ERP solutions.

"Gunnersen directed us to build the ERP solution on new hardware using its traditional branded server/storage vendor," said Angotti.

But after some investigation, the AVT team found that neither ERP solution would fit the bill, because of the I/O limitations of Gunnersen's traditional infrastructure.

Gunnersen was reluctant to buy more SAN because, among other drawbacks, it would not be quick enough to handle the massive data flows generated by the business nor be easily scalable to accommodate the significant growth Gunnersen anticipated.

"That’s when we turned to Nutanix," added Angotti.

Not only did the decision meet the technical requirements, it cut down on infrastructure, said Watson.

"We chose Nutanix because it promised to support all of these activities and do so with two to three times the capacity of our legacy solution. What used to be 16 rack units prior to Nutanix is now just two."