Auckland-based Southern Spars is an industry pioneer in the manufacture of carbon-fibre spars (masts) used for world-class yachting and racing. The company also specialises in the design and construction of high-performance rigging, booms and other components.

Its award-winning spars grace the decks of many of the world’s largest super-yachts and sailing vessels. These yachts can be seen competing in Grand Prix yacht races, America’s Cup and Olympic campaigns, and around the world races.

Virtual upgrade
With more than 350 employees working both in offices and remotely, at home in New Zealand and in the United States, Sri Lanka and South Africa, Southern Spars relies on high-performance technology to run applications and connect its people with mission-critical data.

In July 2009, the company was running Windows Server 2008 Enterprise operating system on 20 virtual machines, with three host computers, and using the Windows XP operating system for its 135 client computers.

Mobile users, who make up about 15 percent of the company’s workforce, accessed the network remotely, through a virtual private network (VPN) process that was complicated and often required IT assistance.

Southern Spars wanted to upgrade these systems and expand its virtualisation capacity, so improving performance.

It also wanted to simplify remote network access.

Easy integration
In August, the company upgraded to Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise to take advantage of new features that could help it meet its business goals. The company also deployed the Windows 7 operating system on its client computers. The upgrades were a logical choice given that the company was already using Microsoft software.

“We felt this solution would provide the outcomes we wanted and would easily integrate into our existing Windows-based environment,” says Geoff Mears, IT manager at Southern Spars.

The company wanted to take advantage of the enhanced Hyper-V technology in R2 Enterprise for server virtualisation and, eventually, client virtualisation.

Hyper-V now supports up to 64 logical processors on a host computer and includes the new live migration feature that IT staff can use to move a virtual machine from one host computer to another without any interruption in service.

Windows Server 2008 R2, along with Windows 7, also has the new DirectAccess feature. This allows mobile users to remotely access the company’s IT network directly, whenever they have internet access, instead of through a VPN.

“We wanted to implement DirectAccess to provide a more ‘at your desk’ experience,” says Mears.

Southern Spars, director, Mark Hauser, has seen the business benefits across the global operation. “The technology was implemented without fuss and has improved our remote access capabilities. It’s allowing our teams to work remotely and across time zones.”

The company engaged Microsoft Services’ consultants and Lexel Systems, a Microsoft partner, to help implement DirectAccess. Lexel is a local IT solutions provider that offers consulting, design, procurement, implementation and support services.

The team used the Active Directory service and Internet Information Services 7.5 to set up a DirectAccess environment. This, in turn, uses Internet Protocol security (IPsec) for authentication and encryption.

After running a small pilot that included users from the company’s business management, sales, and IT departments, Southern Spars began deploying the solution for other business functions, including project management, research and development, production, and finance. It expects to complete the company-wide deployment by September 2010.

Benefits
By upgrading to Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7, Southern Spars has realised cost efficiencies, while improving network performance and simplifying remote access. Benefits include cost efficiencies, improved performance and easier remote access.

Cost efficiencies
Because Hyper-V, in Windows Server 2008 R2, can now access up to 64 logical processors on a host computer, it means greater virtual machine ratios per physical host.

“With the new Hyper-V capabilities, we’ll be able to keep up with business expansion and offer more services without deploying as much hardware as we would for a non-virtualised environment,” says Mears.

So far, Southern Spars has extended its virtualisation capacity by 20 percent, to 24 virtual machines, using the same number of host computers as before.

“With the additional virtualisation capacity provided by Hyper-V, we’ll be able to consolidate servers and push out major hardware upgrades for 18 months, which will save us around $80,000,” says Mears.

Future client virtualisation, using Remote Desktop Services and the Virtual Desktop Infrastructure delivery model in Windows Server 2008 R2, will also keep hardware costs down. The company will be able to deploy a full Windows desktop in a virtual environment without having to replace existing client computers.

Improved performance
With the Hyper-V enhancements, Southern Spars has been able to take advantage of better system performance for increased productivity.

“The improved performance of Hyper-V lets us run more virtual machines off the host computer and increases their responsiveness,” says Mears. In addition, the new live migration feature makes the task of migrating servers between hosts seamless to users, so they experience no work disruption.

Easier remote access
By using DirectAccess, Southern Spars has been able give all its mobile users direct access to the company’s network, which is critical.

“We have people spread all over the world, including a large contingent of mobile users,” says Mears. “We needed to provide a single network and make it accessible from anywhere at any time to facilitate information sharing.”

DirectAccess eliminates the need for the hard-tofollow VPN process that mobile users were experiencing.

Mears believes this will encourage more use, reduce IT support time, and give users more time to concentrate on work.

“DirectAccess will probably free up IT time by 40–45 hours annually and save each user, on average, approximately 25 hours annually,” says Mears.





> Lexel Systems
W: www.lexel.co.nz,
P:  09 4141 777



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