Highlighed Technologies: HP Servers, Citrix XenServer, Double-Take Move

Introduction

In 2009, Innovative Business Systems, Inc. responded to a RFP for IT services from The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Amherst. The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art is an internationally known museum celebrating the art of the picture book. In addition to three exhibition galleries, the 40,000 square foot facility contains a Reading Library, Cafe, Auditorium, Art Studio and Gift Shop. Since opening in 2002, they annually welcome more than 50,000 visitors. The Museum was seeking proposals to maintain their current computer network, analyze the current infrastructure, assess and propose necessary upgrades, outline the implementation, and detail post installation support options and training.

Assessment

The museum had 6 aging physical servers in production that were all out of warranty. The network consisted of 35 users with some aging PC equipment, Microsoft Exchange 2003 for email and collaboration, and key SQL server applications such as a donor database and ticketing software, and a gift shop Point-Of-Sale (POS) and inventory application.

Solution

IBS proposed replacing the existing servers with a single new server leveraging server virtualization technology. Server Virtualization allows multiple Virtual Machines (VMs - also known as Virtual Servers) to run side by side on the same physical piece of hardware acting completely independent reducing total cost of ownership by lowering both hardware and operating expense. Different virtual machines can run different operating systems and multiple applications on the same physical computer - sharing the CPU, RAM, hard disk and network controllers to create separate, fully functional virtual machines that can run their own operating systems and applications.

The proposal included installing a new HP ML370 Generation 6 Server and installing Citrix XenServer 5.5 for server virtualization. New Windows Server 2008 virtual machines were created for a new Domain Controller, Microsoft Exchange Server and Backup Server. In addition, two existing physical servers were migrated into the virtual environment using Double-Take Move. As part of the implementation the existing Microsoft Exchange environment was migrated to Exchange Server 2007 where SPAM and antivirus filtering would occur in the "cloud", or via Software as a Service (SaaS). Once installed, the virtual environment was backed up to a Network Attached Storage Device daily encrypting backups using 256 AES encryption technology, as well as being synchronized to external hard drives for rotation off-site.