Telco Reduces Costs While Improving Datacenter Services - A Case Study

With over 1.4 million wireless subscribers and 400 employees, a Jordanian telecommunications company, Umniah, recently deployed Windows Server 2008 R2 and Hyper-V server virtualization technology to their enterprise.  Here's how they were able to reap the benefits of reduced IT costs (reduced hardware spend by 60%) while increasing service levels to their customers (reduced downtime by 90%).

How to Plan and Deploy with Confidence?

1. Hire the Right Consultants - If you don't have in-house experts?  Hire them from the outside.  For example, Umniah hired consultants from Microsoft Services to deploy Windows Server 2008 R2 and Hyper-V.
2. Use the Right Deployment and Planning Tools - Umniah used the Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit to find under-utilized servers that are good candidates for Hyper-V virtualization.  Also try other Virtualization Solution Accelerators such as the Infrastructure Planning and Design Guides that can help you with planning and operating virtualized environments.
3. Launch the technologies in PHASES - Umniah divided up the project into 2 phases.  First they virtualized the domain controlers and application servers.  By mid 2009, they also plan to deploy all 40 Windows-based servers and 15 Linux servers to Windows Server 2008 R2 and Hyper-V.

How do you get the key resources to deploy Windows Server 2008 R2 and Hyper-V

1. Windows Server 2008 R2 Evaluation Site
2. Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit for Hyper-V virtualization candidates
3. Infrastructure Planning and Design Guides for Virtualization including Hyper-V
4. Other Virtualization Solution Accelerators

Cheers,

Baldwin Ng (Sr.Product Manager, Microsoft)