Lenovo’s Hyperconverged InfrastructureEnsures PartnerIT is Aligned to its Customer

LENOVO SUCCESS STORY

“The Lenovo-Nutanix solution delivers the high levels of reliability and performance we need to keep client services running seamlessly—freeing them to focus on running their businesses.”

Chris Boudreau, Co-owner and CTO, PartnerIT

The Skinny

To keep its cloud services running like clockwork even as its clients’ data exploded, PartnerIT wanted the ability to scale its infrastructure rapidly. By embracing a hyperconverged compute and storage environment based on the Lenovo Converged HX3500 Appliance and Nutanix Enterprise Cloud Platform software, PartnerIT boosts performance, increases reliability and enables straightforward scalability—helping it provide outstanding services now, and in the future.

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What Does PartnerIT Do?PartnerIT is a regional leader in IT services, offering everything from private cloud to managed print services. Its aim is to make IT adoption and management easy for its customers.

Headquartered in London, Canada, PartnerIT is a

regional leader in IT services, offering everything from

private cloud to managed print services. The company

partners with businesses of all sizes to deliver cost-

effective and transparent IT support and services.

Keeping ClientService Levels HighFor many small businesses, taking advantage of the latest IT innova-

tions isn’t always easy–or affordable. PartnerIT delivers cloud services

that help companies big and small get the most out of their IT with-

out breaking the bank.

Chris Boudreau, Co-owner and CTO of PartnerIT, begins: “We work

with a lot of small companies–from non-profit organizations to local

insurance firms–that don’t have their own dedicated IT departments.

We’re here to help companies like these make the most of new tech-

nologies, such as cloud computing, to help their businesses

run smoothly.”

Headquarters:

London, Canada

“We work with a lot of small companies that don’t have their own dedicated IT departments. We’re here to help them make the most of new technologies, such as cloud computing, to help their businesses run smoothly.”Chris Boudreau, Co-owner and CTO, PartnerIT

Founded: 2013

Managed IT Services

Managed Print Services

Cloud Services

Backup/Disaster Recovery

24/7 Support

Co-Location

IT Project Consulting

Network Administration

Private Cloud Hosting Services

Proactive 360 Device Management

Technology Consulting

Virtual CIO Services

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The Challenge: Infrastructure at Full StretchPartnerIT’s infrastructure was unable to keep pace with its customers who began to adopt digital business processes and move to the cloud.

Increasing numbers of PartnerIT’s clients are

embracing digital business processes. The

company recognized that its compute and storage

infrastructure could only support the fast rate

of data growth for so long before service levels

began to suffer.

“Our existing hosting infrastructure was starting to show its age,”

says Chris Boudreau. “Although the infrastructure could support

operations as they stood, there wasn’t room for growth. And with

more and more clients looking to move to the cloud, we knew we

needed to take our infrastructure to the next level to ensure we

could meet increasing demand.”

Selecting a Future-Ready SolutionIn search of a highly available and easily scalable infrastructure

for its managed services business, PartnerIT turned to long-term

partner Lenovo.

Chris Boudreau recalls: “We’d looked at various hyperconverged

architectures available on the market and were very impressed with

Nutanix’s solutions. When Lenovo announced that it was partnering

with Nutanix to create a pre-integrated hyperconverged infrastruc-

ture, we couldn’t have been happier. We’ve worked with Lenovo

for many years and know from experience that Lenovo servers are

robust, reliable and high-performing.”

“Our existing hosting infrastructure was starting to show its age. Although the infrastructure could support operations as they stood, there wasn’t room for growth. We needed to take our infrastructure to the next level to meet increasing demand.”Chris Boudreau, Co-owner and CTO, PartnerIT

As PartnerIT’s clients increasingly adopted digital business processes, it put a strain on the company’s compute and storage infrastructure. Soon service levels would start to suffer.

To learn more, please visit4 \

The Solution: A Hyperconverged UnderstructurePartnerIT implemented a three-node Lenovo Converged HX3500 Appliance integrated with Nutanix Enterprise Cloud Platform software as the foundation for its new cloud service platform.

Working closely with Lenovo, PartnerIT implemented

a three-node Lenovo Converged HX3500 Appliance

integrated with Nutanix Enterprise Cloud Platform

software and powered by the Intel® Xeon® E5

processor family as the foundation for its new cloud

service platform.

“We installed the cluster in just half a day,” says Chris Boudreau.

“Because the nodes come pre-tested and pre-integrated with Nutanix

software, it was simply a matter of plug and play. In fact, it was so

quick and easy that I kept asking whether something was missing!”

Delivering Stellar Services Cost-EffectivelyAs storage and compute nodes in the cluster are pooled as a single

virtual structure, PartnerIT gained a flexible, scalable, easy-to-man-

age hyperconverged infrastructure. Today, the company runs all its

client solutions, services and cloud environments, as well as its own

back-office systems, on the Lenovo-Nutanix solution.

Chris Boudreau comments: “We’ve seen a big boost in perfor-

mance since migrating all of our systems to the Lenovo-Nutanix

solution. Better still, we’ve received a great deal of positive feed-

back from clients who have noticed a significant difference in the

responsiveness of our services.”

By virtualizing, managing and orchestrating its compute and storage

resources from a single point of control, it is now easier than ever for

PartnerIT to onboard new clients to its cloud platform.

The NeedHighly-available, and reliable

infrastructure that scales easily

Why Lenovo“When Lenovo announced it was partnering with Nutanix to create pre-integrated hyperconverged infrastructure, we couldn’t have been happier. We’ve worked with Lenovo for many years and know that Lenovo servers are robust, reliable and high-performing.”Chris Boudreau, Co-owner and CTO, PartnerIT

Quick Implementation 0.5 Days: That’s all the time it took to install

the Lenovo HCI cluster because the hardware is pre-tested, and pre-integrated with Nutanix software, making it a matter of plug and play.

“It was so quick and easy that I kept asking whether something was missing!”Chris Boudreau, Co-owner and CTO, PartnerIT

The SolutionHardware

Lenovo Converged HX3500 Appliance with Intel® Xeon® E5 processor family

Lenovo RackSwitch G8052 Lenovo Rackswitch G8142E

Software Nutanix Enterprise Cloud

Platform Nutanix Acropolis Nutanix Prism

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Business Benefits

Happier Customers:“We’ve received a great deal of positive feedback from

clients who have noticed a significant difference in the

responsiveness of our services,” says Chris Boudreau,

co-owner and CTO, PartnerIT.

Steadier Business: With Lenovo, PartnerIT has flexible, scalable, easy-to-

manage HCI solution on which it runs all its client solutions,

services and cloud environments, as well as its own back-

office systems.

Quicker Onboarding: Nutanix Prism allows PartnerIT to manage virtualization,

compute and storage resources via a single pane of

glass. “This has helped to streamline the onboarding

process, enabling us to get new clients’ environments

up and running more quickly and easily.”

IT Benefits

Lower Overheads: The three-node Lenovo-Nutanix cluster replaced four

servers and two SAN storage systems, halving PartnerIT’s

physical footprint (from 24 units of rack space to just 10).

This results in saved costs associated with data center

space and energy.

The Benefits:A Future-Ready BusinessPartnerIT’s HCI solution from Lenovo ensures it is better prepared for spikes in customer demand, is more aligned to customer needs, and can lower both overhead costs and IT management complexity.

50% Estimated savings in

management time

during a single operating

system update.

75%How much faster

PartnerIT estimates it can

scale up infrastructure,

driving up agility.

Peace of Mind: “The biggest benefit, from our point of view, is that we have

complete peace of mind that the platform won’t suddenly go

down in the middle of the night. The Lenovo-Nutanix solution

delivers high levels of reliability and performance,” says Chris

Boudreau, co-owner and CTO, PartnerIT.

Chris Boudreau elaborates: “With the Nutanix Prism

tool, we can manage virtualization, compute and

storage resources via a single pane of glass. This

has helped to streamline the onboarding process,

enabling us to get new clients’ environments up and

running more quickly and easily.

What’s more, we also save so much time on day-to-day maintenance by using Nutanix Prism. During a recent operating system update, we estimate that we saved 50 percent in terms of management time. And, because of the plug-and-play nature of the Lenovo-Nutanix solution, we predict that we’ll be able to scale our infrastructure 75 percent faster, enabling us to react fast to spikes in demand.”

By replacing four servers and two SAN storage systems with the three-node Lenovo-Nutanix cluster, PartnerIT more than halved its physical footprint, going from 24 units of rack space to just ten. As well as saving data center space, the company expects to see considerable reductions in energy costs.

Chris Boudreau concludes: “We–and our clients–are very happy with our Lenovo-Nutanix hosting infrastructure. The biggest benefit, from our point of view, is that we have complete peace of mind that the platform won’t suddenly go down in the middle of the night. The Lenovo-Nutanix solution delivers the high levels of reliability and performance we need to keep client services running seamlessly–freeing them to focus on running their businesses.”

© 2018 Lenovo. All rights reserved.

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