Virtua used Data Center Interconnect solution to cost-effectively transfer virtual servers between data centers.
Business Challenge
Virtua is a multihospital healthcare system in New Jersey. Its two existing data centers were strained by new applications, a new regional health information exchange, and ever larger digital images. Virtua decided to outsource certain data center services to a remote facility approximately 60 miles away, and use one of its existing data centers for disaster recovery. The company needed a cost-effective way to move virtual servers and logical unit numbers (LUNs) between data centers. Solution reliability was a paramount concern, because no Virtua IT staff work at the outsourced data center.
Solution and Results
The Cisco® Data Center 3.0 solutions were key components of Virtua's plan. Using the Data Center Interconnect (DCI) Layer 2 extension capabilities of the Cisco Catalyst® 6500 Series Switch in combination with the Cisco ONS 15454 Multiservice Transport Platform, the IT department can transfer virtual machines and LUNs between data centers. This arrangement avoids the expense and downtime of physically moving servers. The primary and backup data centers use dual Cisco Catalyst 6509 Switches with Virtual Switching System (VSS) technology. If one switch in a pair fails, the other takes over in less than 200 milliseconds, unnoticeable to users, compared to a full minute without VSS. Cisco MDS 9509 Multilayer Director Switches connect servers to the storage area network (SAN).
To support disaster recovery and business continuance, Virtua uses one 10 Gigabit Ethernet port on the Cisco ONS 15454 platform for LAN traffic and four 2-Gbps Fibre Channel ports for SAN traffic. As traffic increases, Virtua can simply add more optical modules to the Cisco ONS 15454 platform, avoiding chassis replacement.
"We expect to pay back the investment in less than 12 months by eliminating service provider fees and reducing moving expenses."
-Paul Krihak, Manager of Enterprise Infrastructure, Virtua
Virtua is moving 200 servers to the new data center, 40 servers at a time, plus 229 terabytes of data. The first 40 servers were moved physically, and the next 160 will be moved virtually, using DCI. "We expect to pay back the investment in less than 12 months by eliminating service provider fees and reducing moving expenses," says Paul Krihak, Manager of Enterprise Infrastructure, Virtua. Benefits of the Cisco Data Center 3.0 solutions include:
• Lower connectivity costs: The 10 Gigabit Ethernet links between data centers are saving $360,000 in annual service provider fees. Savings will increase to $576,000 when Virtua connects another data center.
• Less costly move: Physically moving the first 40 servers took 25 IT people 12 hours. Logically moving the next 40 servers over the network took 10 people four hours, saving approximately 260 man-hours for each of four moves, or 1040 hours. "When we factor in fully burdened IT salaries as well as hard costs like trucks, we estimate that moving 160 servers virtually instead of physically will save nearly $100,000," says Lou Dignam, Director of Information Security and Server Platforms, Virtua.
• IT resource savings: DCI Layer 2 eliminated time-consuming IT activities associated with the data center move, including server readdressing (four hours for each server), testing new addresses (40 hours for each group of servers), and network interface card (NIC) teaming (45 minutes for each server). When all 160 servers are moved, the IT group will have saved approximately 1160 hours, or 29 weeks of labor, compared to a physical server move.
• Avoidance of downtime: Departmental servers are offline for only 1.5 hours during the virtual move, compared to four to eight hours during a physical move. Virtua replicated data to the new data center in advance of the virtual server migration. "We were operational within minutes of the migration," says Cathy DeFreitas, Manager of Data Center Operations and Platform Systems.
• Business continuity: If a core switch fails, the other takes over before hospital users notice any difference. VSS also eliminates the need for spanning tree, previously a source of outages. "In the event of a disaster, we can logically move virtual machines to the disaster recovery data center in minutes, compared to a minimum of four hours for a physical move," says Krihak.
• Faster application and storage provisioning: The Virtua IT department is currently working on 150 projects, including a new document imaging system and upgrades to the pharmacy and radiology systems. The VSAN capability in the Cisco MDS 9509 Switches accelerates provisioning. "Provisioning storage for our new clinical information system took just one hour with VSAN technology, compared to an estimated seven hours without VSANs," says DeFreitas. "When you multiply the time savings by the 150 projects that we are currently working on, the savings amount to more than 1000 man-hours."
"When we factor in fully burdened IT salaries as well as hard costs like trucks, we estimate that moving 160 servers virtually instead of physically will save nearly $100,000."
-Lou Dignam,Director of Information Security and Server Platforms, Virtua
In the future, Virtua plans to implement Cisco Nexus 5000 Switches, taking advantage of Fibre Channel over Ethernet to consolidate cabling from multiple Gigabit Ethernet data cables and Fibre Channel cables to two 10 Gigabit Ethernet cables from servers.
"Provisioning storage for our new clinical information system took just one hour with VSAN technology, compared to an estimated seven hours without VSANs. When you multiply the time savings by the 150 projects, that we are currently working on, the savings amount to more than 1000 man-hours."
-Cathy DeFreitas, Manager of Data Center Operations and Platform Systems, Virtua
