U.S. Air Force 45th Space Wing Launches Successful Virtualization Initiative Using CA ARCserve Backup and CA XOsoft Cloud-Based Replication to Help Meet Cost Cutting and Service Objectives
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ISLANDIA, N.Y., Aug. 31 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- CA (Nasdaq: CA) CA today announced that the U.S. Air Force 45th Space Wing (45th SW), which manages launch operations for Department of Defense space programs, has saved at least $180,000* in hardware and support costs by virtualizing its IT infrastructure, using CA ARCserve Backup to protect data across physical and virtual servers and CA XOsoft Replication for IP cloud-based replication to migrate data from physical to virtual machines.
The project successfully cut hardware-related costs by at least $180,000 and reduced carbon emissions by more than 50%*-- all without violating service level agreements (SLAs), losing data or overburdening administrative staff. The project team used CA ARCserve to back up physical and virtual servers in the same way, including seamless integration with VCB backups, and leveraged CA XOsoft for low-cost, easy-to-implement IP-based replication to migrate data from physical to virtual machines with minimal downtime.
"It's hard to put a price tag on the huge amount of time and effort we saved by using CA ARCserve and CA XOsoft to support Lean IT through virtualization," said Glenn Exline, manager of Enterprise Networks for Computer Sciences Raytheon (CSR), the Eastern Range Technical Services contractor for the 45th SW. "But we can measure the significant savings achieved by consolidating our virtual infrastructure, dramatically reducing power and cooling, support and hardware refresh costs and cutting out over 50 tons of CO2 output each year."
The 45th SW was faced with the usual issues of having to regularly replace and upgrade hardware and software, rising electricity and cooling costs, and an annual doubling of storage needs. To meet these challenges, CSR executed a multi-phased approach to bring the infrastructure under control--consolidating the storage into a SAN at each of the two primary locations at Patrick Air Force Base and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station--that reduced 60 physical servers to 4, including 40 virtual machines.
The Best Choice for P-to-V
The usual methods of converting physical to virtual servers either didn't work or didn't completely meet the project objectives. The project team then discovered that using CA XOsoft for IP-based replication was simple and effective, allowing them to replicate from old to new systems regardless of the vendor, class of system or type of processor--and it was far less expensive than using hardware-based replication.
"We downloaded and tested three different IP replication products, spoke with long-term customers and read the reviews," said Exline. "CA XOsoft turned out to be the least expensive and best match for our needs."
The entire migration was completed in just three months. The 45th SW now has duplicate server environments at both Cape Canaveral and Patrick AFB. The virtual servers at each location connect via Brocade switches to the SAN. The SANs replicate to each other and the servers replicate between sites via an IP cloud. Users access the servers and storage through this same cloud. CA ARCserve Backup talks directly with the VMware Consolidated Backup (VCB) to back up the physical and virtual servers at both locations.
"We didn't have to retrain personnel for backup since CA ARCserve works with both physical and virtual backup," said Exline. "CA ARCserve lets us back up physical and virtual servers in much the same way, with the same tape libraries and interfaces. Rather than one set of backup processes and hardware for physical and another for virtual, there is a seamless integration with the VCB backups."
Glenn Exline will be presenting at VMworld 2009 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco on Wednesday, September 2nd at 1:30 PM PT on "Using IP based replication as an Enabler for Server Virtualization and Storage Repurposing."
* The above figures are particular to use of the CA software products in the customer's particular software environment. Such figures are not necessarily indicative of performance in different, similar or identical software environments.
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