Like many successful companies, Wipfli was looking to expand their reach. "A significant strategy for Wipfli is around growth. Growth both organically with our current client base and current geographic footprint, but we also have a strong interest in expanding our geographic presence," explains Wipfli Chief Information Officer Mark Baker.

Wipfli has built its reputation on providing customers with best-in-class services in a cost-effective and timely manner. Having appropriate network infrastructure in place is key to these aims. This is especially true during peak business periods like tax season. This need led to existing IT systems nearing capacity. Add the companys growth plans to the mix, and as Wipflis Director of IT Infrastructure Tom Lenz knew, Wipflis IT team was in for a challenge.

"We realized that in order to reach these growth goals that the company had, we needed to find a way to do things differently than the traditional model. We needed to react quicker. We werent able to grow further and were going to need to make some significant infrastructure investments even to maintain where we were at," Lenz observed.

Strategizing how to support the current and future business needs of the company introduced questions such as how to support a mobile workforce, how to manage applications and data in remote offices, and how IT could respond to increasing demands for flexibility and fast turnaround.

Simply put, Wipfli knew their traditional methods of rolling out IT services were not sustainable.

Wipfli first addressed capacity issues at their primary data center in Green Bay, WI. Physical capacity had approached its limit. Similarly, cooling capacity had already exceeded acceptable levels, hitting 84 degrees, and the uninterruptible power supply (UPS) capacity had neared 75 percent.

Initially, Wipfli looked at solving this cooling problem by upgrading their heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC). In fact, they had a quote in hand for $55,000 to do just that. But they knew that even after the upgrade, further steps would be required to address the power and space issues and to prepare for future growth demands. Wipfli began to research a more cost-effective alternative that would provide greater value – server virtualization.

When Wipfli sought further information and action on virtualization, they turned to CDW. The two businesses had already built a strong relationship over the course of previous projects. "CDW and their technical expertise can help us get there quicker and with a lot more confidence when we run into issues that they can solve" notes Baker.

CDW assessed Wipflis environment and illustrated how server virtualization would positively impact the entire network. Rather than attempting to fix just one symptom of the problem, Lenz realized the greater benefits achievable with server virtualization. "We redirected that $55,000 toward the initial install of VMware with CDW and were able to decrease the temperature in the server room by 15 degrees and eliminate the need for spending more on cooling. The UPS also decreased from about 75% to about 35%. So we saw significant changes in the infrastructure space."

CDWs sever virtualization solution provided immediate, significant benefits including:

• Eliminated the need to add power capacity
• Delayed the need to address cooling capacity
• Better utilization of installed physical servers
• Decommissioning of 24 physical servers, freeing data center real estate
• Redeployment of recommissioned servers to branch offices, saving on future hardware procurement costs
• Increased maintenance task flexibility, such as the ability to patch a machine without taking it down
• Failover from one server to another
• Reduction of hardware replacement time from hours or days to minutes
• One interface to manage multiple servers, including remote monitoring capabilities
• Increased level of redundancy

For IT staff constantly confronted with changing technology, having an IT solutions partner assist in implementing the solution and provide training made an immense difference. Troy Kowalski, analyst for Wipfli, felt much more at ease working with CDW. "Personally, it was a much better experience being able to work with somebody that knows something as opposed to just getting a manual and saying 'Here you go...good luck. CDW got it up and running, trained me well enough to get going on my own, and now six months later, Ive done most of it without any help. And to me, that shows CDW got it right the first time."

After solution implementation, Wipfli ran into a snag. But the knowledge transfer between CDW and Wipfli during the project ensured quick resolution of the issue without performance issues for end users. A new IT system may experience an occasional hiccup, but in Baker's mind, the success of a project is measured by how those hiccups are addressed. "Thats my definition of success. Run into issues. We know what they are, they can be solved, and were not going to run into them again. I think that is some of the value CDW has helped bring to Wipfli."

The Bottom Line

Server virtualization required justification to the CFO. Once implemented, the project demonstrated immediate cost savings by reducing both hardware and cooling needs while increasing the IT teams efficiency. Long term, Wipflis IT team can now support the company's growth. Wipflis Manager of Infrastructure, Hardware Group Josh Anderson finds this fact comforting, "We can standardize the hardware, we can virtualize and expand disc as needed, we can throw another server in for redundancy...and that helps us with growth."

As an example, after implementation was complete, a consulting server failed. The IT team created a new virtual server, loaded applications and data, and put it into production – all within 24 hours. They had no need to procure new hardware or licensing.

Kowalski insists that such ease would not be possible before. "When someone wanted a new server, they had to ask for approval, which took a few days, took one to two weeks to get the server, then at least one or two days for me to set it up and rack it. Now, I can have a new server up and running for a request within two hours of their request versus three weeks. On top of that, we're not spending $5000 on hardware; we're just using our infrastructure that we already have in place."

A Partnership for Success

Wipfli is preparing to extend the server virtualization model to other branches. With data and systems backed up at a central location, IT will have immediate failover and redundancy. If a critical application goes down, IT can restore it without any noticeable downtime. To facilitate this process, Wipfli will engage CDW where appropriate.

For Baker, the virtualization project proved once again that the relationship between Wipfli and CDW makes good business sense. "There are a number of reasons CDW makes sense for Wipfli. Again, that reputation for the deep technical expertise. The geographic coverage for Wipfli makes a lot of sense. And I think most importantly, CDW has a relevant 'been there, done that' set of expertise that we can tap into very quickly to help accelerate our projects."