“We chose Managed Networks over their competitors for many reasons but mainly because their approach focused on prevention rather than cure” - Phil Cross, Managing Director, Mizkan

“The project manager at MN and the supporting team worked tirelessly to overcome the many challenges and we are left with an excellent and robust system tailored for our business needs with first class hassle free support” - Gordon Worswick, Rotrex Ltd

“Through their proactive approach to network management and their excellent team of engineers, Managed Networks have become a highly valued member of the Liberty team. We would have no hesitation in recommending them” - Tom Brown, IT Manager, Liberty Wines

“I can get more done now. The system is easier to administer and, so far, it's been 100 per cent reliable, with no downtime.” - Tom Brown, IT Manager, Liberty Wines

“Managed Networks hosting platform has provided MASECO Private Wealth with a secure, scalable environment to run our business critical applications from. Their technical support team is always quick to respond, highly professional yet very friendly” - Alex Eichhorn, MASECO Private Wealth

Liberty Wines

Background
Liberty Wines, founded in 1997, imports wines to supply to restaurants, supermarkets, and independent retailers from its headquarters in central London.

Business Situation
To provide the customer service its clients expect, Liberty Wines needed to update its existing IT infrastructure to faster, more efficient systems that could grow with the company.

Solution
Managed Networks deployed Windows Server 2008 R2 with Hyper-V while upgrading the company’s system to include Microsoft SQL Server 2008 and Microsoft Exchange Server 2010.

Benefits

  • Energy use cut by 60 per cent
  • Business continuity improved
  • Productivity increased
  • Costs cut by £45,000
  • Sales improved


"I can get more done now. The system is easier to administer and, so far, it’s been 100 per cent reliable, with no downtime."- Tom Brown, IT Manager, Liberty Wines


Wine Importer Saves £45,000 and Improves Business Continuity with Virtualisation

Wine importer and distributor Liberty Wines wanted to speed up business processes to improve the way it met the needs of customers in the fast-paced world of fine dining. Updating its existing IT infrastructure was an important part of this plan. After consulting with Microsoft Gold Certified Partner Managed Networks, Liberty Wines deployed a virtualised server solution incorporating Windows Server 2008 R2 with Hyper-V. The new infrastructure reduced hardware replacement costs by £45,000 and energy consumption by approximately 60 per cent, while enhancing stability. Applications run faster so employees can provide better customer service with improved productivity. Virtual servers can be added quickly and easily, as needed, to meet the future growth of the business.

Situation
Recipient of multiple international wine awards—including the International Wine Challenge On Trade Supplier of the Year for two years running—Liberty Wines is one of the United Kingdom’s foremost wine importers and distributors. The wholesale distributor provides wines to top London restaurants, supermarkets, and independent wholesalers and retailers. Founded March 1997 by Master of Wine David Gleave, the business has grown to represent more than 900 lines. The central London-based company specialises in Italian wines, but also buys and sells products from high-profile producers and niche wineries all over the world, as well as producing a number of its own brands. Tom Brown, IT Manager at Liberty Wines, says: "Our search for quality drives our choice of producers. We’ll only carry a wine if it meets our standards."

To provide the service their customers expect, employees at Liberty Wines need quick and easy access to customer, order, and stock information. In the past, the company relied on 10 physical servers for applications and services, such as order processing, reporting tools, and email.

As the business expanded, the existing servers were unable to cope with increased data volumes, and maintenance of the system put a strain on the IT team of two employees. "The existing systems were beginning to slow down. They couldn’t provide the responsiveness employees expected, so we needed to upgrade our IT infrastructure before it affected sales and customer service," says Brown.

Solution
Brown initially considered a phased approach to upgrading the servers. But, after consulting with the company’s IT provider and Microsoft Gold Certified Partner Managed Networks, he realised that simply replacing the servers would not provide the performance and scalability for which he was looking.

Grant Weitsz, Client Account Manager at Managed Networks, says: "We suggested virtualisation to reduce costs and make the service more resilient." Brown researched the benefits of virtualisation and realised this was the logical next step. It could immediately improve performance, while setting out a more flexible, resilient infrastructure that would grow with the company’s needs.

Managed Networks deployed Windows Server 2008 R2 with Hyper-V virtualisation technology. The 10 servers were replaced with three physical servers, running 10 virtual servers in a high availability cluster configuration. An additional server is used as part of a backup system, further improving resilience and stability. During implementation, Managed Networks and Brown upgraded the system to include Microsoft SQL Server 2008 data management software, Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2, and Microsoft Exchange Server 2010. Brown says: "Deployment went smoothly. We wanted a fast deployment with zero downtime, and that’s what we achieved. We’ve had no problems at all."

The new system runs on a Dell EqualLogic storage area network (SAN). This means that if a virtualised server fails, its function will be immediately picked up by another server. Brown says: "We reduced the number of physical servers from 10 to four, while increasing performance, resilience, and flexibility."

Liberty Wines has an on-going support contract with Managed Networks and, so far, no reactive IT support has been needed. Ben Rapp, Chief Executive Officer at Managed Networks, says: "Our IT support model is proactive. This means we routinely monitor the systems and we avoid reactive IT support." During installation, Managed Networks trained Brown on the system. "The transfer of knowledge left me in a position where I could rebuild a host from the ground up if necessary. I know everything I need to administer the environment," he says.

Benefits
By reducing the cost of hardware and energy needed to run and cool it, Liberty Wines experienced immediate benefits from virtualisation. The company’s customers receive an even more reliable service while employees have increased their productivity. Brown says: "I can get more done now. The system is easier to administer and, so far, it’s been 100 per cent reliable, with no downtime. If we’re unable to process orders—or our sales team can’t communicate effectively with customers—we can’t provide the service our customers have come to expect. These are mission-critical aspects of our business."

Energy Costs Cut by 60 Per Cent
By reducing the number of physical servers, power consumption has been reduced by approximately 60 per cent. "It costs far less to run the servers, plus with only three servers and an additional backup machine, we don’t have to spend money on air conditioning to cool the system," says Brown. "This helps our bottom line and reduces our carbon footprint, so it’s good for the environment."

High Availability Improves Continuity
Windows Server 2008 R2 with Hyper-V provides automated failover for virtual servers, greatly reducing downtime and increasing availability. A third of the staff at Liberty Wines, including sales people, work from home. They are located across the country and need to log on to the system at all hours. With increased system availability, they can serve their customers more effectively.

Brown also needs to access the system at all times. Now, if an IT issue arises out of business hours, he can log on to the system from home and fix any problems quickly. He says: "We were looking for stability, and Microsoft gave it to us in abundance."

Easier Management Saves Time and Increases Productivity
With virtualisation, it’s easier and quicker to provision servers. "It's hard to quantify how much time is saved, but everything is much easier to do," says Brown.

With System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2, server and application management is easier because all Hyper-V and cluster management tools are in one place. "I can monitor the health of the network from one place," says Brown. Plus, the Live Migration feature of Hyper-V means that IT staff can repair and maintain servers with no impact on users.

Scalable Solution Cuts Costs by £45,000 and Allows for Future Growth
"Virtualisation improves the longevity of our servers," says Brown. "We’re licensed for 12 virtual machines, but we can buy more if we need them. By adding memory I can configure our servers for many more virtual machines." Brown estimates that doubling the number of virtual machines would save £45,000 (U.S.$69,500) compared to using physical servers.

Enhanced Application Performance Improves Sales
Applications run noticeably faster and are more available on the virtualised environment, improving employee productivity. "High application performance is important to Liberty Wines, because it allows us to continue to provide industry-leading customer service while both order volumes and the number of customers increase. It’s easier for everyone—office-based and remote—to get to the information they need when they need it. This helps staff use their time more productively. And, as our business grows, this will become increasingly important—already the new system is supporting revenue growth of 15 per cent on last year," says Brown.

Windows Server 2008 R2
The Windows Server 2008 R2 family helps organizations do more with less. Now you can run your IT infrastructure more efficiently, build better applications faster, and deliver the best infrastructure for enhancing user productivity. And you can do all this faster, more securely, and at lower cost.

Managed Networks
Managed Networks