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Guest Post: Today we are pleased to welcome Bill Hurley, the CTO of our partner Westcon Group, speaking to the passion and philosophy our businesses share around the topic of server virtualization.
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One of the best things about my job is I get to have some great conversations with partners. Working together, we float potential ideas, collaborate, and share best-practices. It’s also a nice way to validate some of our own strategies.
I love talking with the team at Carousel, because we have very like-minded philosophies and ideas. That’s why I wasn’t surprised to hear about their own virtualization 
project. You may have already read about the company’s path to virtualization. In 2010, Carousel set on a strategy to keep pace with the company’s own data center resources. The plan was to create a server virtualization strategy for its Rhode Island headquarters. Not surprisingly, this wasn’t long after Westcon set out on a similar journey.
project. You may have already read about the company’s path to virtualization. In 2010, Carousel set on a strategy to keep pace with the company’s own data center resources. The plan was to create a server virtualization strategy for its Rhode Island headquarters. Not surprisingly, this wasn’t long after Westcon set out on a similar journey.When I joined Westcon in 2008, the company was running two data centers – one outside London, the other right here in Tarrytown, NY. In all, they ran approximately 325 servers. Our team knew that two data centers was overkill. Clearly the job could be done a lot more smoothly – and less expensively – by virtualizing. Frankly, our engineering team was getting a little worn down being woken up in the middle of the night as old servers failed.
At first, it really wasn’t the goal to become 100% virtualized — as we are today. We thought if we could get to 60%, it would be OK. But much like Carousel, we found the more we virtualized, the better our return. Powering through the process, it became less a question of “Why do we have to virtualize?” – but rather, “Why don’t we keep going?” Similarly, Carousel found virtualization was a way to achieve greater flexibility for applications – opening the door for expansion and lowering power and cooling costs.
And for Westcon and Carousel, the results speak for themselves. In 2008, it wasn’t uncommon for us to take two weeks and spend about $12,000 every time we deployed a new server. Now, we can do it in four hours for about $2,000. In all, we’ve easily saved more than $1 million in the past two years. Today, we’re running 350 virtual servers on 22 Cisco UCS blades. Some blades host 3 or 4 VMs, while others handle up to 30. Similarly, Carousel has cut 100 physical servers to five machines. The company has virtualized more than two-thirds of its enterprise server infrastructure to date.
So, why not virtualize? Clearly it’s a “no-brainer.” Trouble is, a lot of companies get stuck on the road to virtualization. They start strong, but usually stall at about 10-20%. That’s a real shame, because this leaves real cost-savings and efficiencies behind. The problem is the initial idea for virtualization originates in IT. It seems like the right thing to do at the time. After all, virtualization is hot. But there’s no buy-in from the executive suite. No justification on why the project is important, or how it helps the company save money. That’s the primary reason most virtualization projects are in trouble.
At Westcon, we’re actively helping partners and their customers get over this “virtualization stall.” Our teams try to raise the discussion beyond “speeds and feeds” and translate it into ROI. We specifically train our representatives in “executive-relevance selling,” or ERS. We’ve developed a unique methodology and enablement tool that helps partners sell virtualization as a business tool, providing real return. It’s been so successful that Cisco’s Global Data Center go-to-market team specifically chose our ERS tool to drive their network assessment program.
Now no one said the road to virtualization was going to be easy. It takes knowledgeable partners to get through the stall to realize its real value. Both Carousel and Westcon have worked through the issues. And now we’re both here to help you succeed.
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William Hurley, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer – Bill joined Westcon Group as CIO in
April 2008, and in his current position is responsible for all IT and technology matters in the organization. Prior to joining Westcon, he was a Managing Director with Marsh & McLennan for 5 years, where he was Global CIO/CIO Americas responsible for global sales, marketing, and finance systems, as well as brokerage systems for the Americas. In addition, he oversaw the development of the company’s global internet, intranet and extranet presence. Bill received his undergraduate degree in Computer Science from SUNY Albany and has a Masters in Finance from Fordham University.
April 2008, and in his current position is responsible for all IT and technology matters in the organization. Prior to joining Westcon, he was a Managing Director with Marsh & McLennan for 5 years, where he was Global CIO/CIO Americas responsible for global sales, marketing, and finance systems, as well as brokerage systems for the Americas. In addition, he oversaw the development of the company’s global internet, intranet and extranet presence. Bill received his undergraduate degree in Computer Science from SUNY Albany and has a Masters in Finance from Fordham University.
