Host Europe to support around 20 per cent of business with virtual private cloud service based on Hyper-V from Microsoft

1. Host Europe to support
around 20 per cent of
business with virtual
private cloud service based • Cloud computing
• Management
on Hyper-V from Microsoft • Security
• Virtualization
“We were impressed with
the contact among Dell,
Microsoft and Intel. They
addressed all our concerns
and helped us put a great
solution together.”
Severin Braun,
Head of Managed Hosting Service,
Host Europe
Customer profile
Company: Host Europe
Industry: Hosting Solutions Benefits
Country: Germany • ripartite collaboration ensures
T
Employees: 200 project success
Website: www.hosteurope.de • nvironment delivers up to 100
E
more virtual machines compared to
Business need previous hardware solution
Host Europe wanted to create a virtual private cloud service for its • ustomers gain new flexible virtual
C
customers, with tight security and low costs. private cloud service
• mproved security maintains
I
Solution
customer confidence
Working with Dell, Microsoft and Intel, Host Europe designed a
virtualized environment and created a new cloud service for customers. • latform set to support around 20
P
per cent of the business
• implified management allows
S
resources to be used more
effectively

2. When your business is built on managing other people’s
information, data security is a top priority – this is
especially true at Host Europe, the third-largest hosting
provider in the market in Germany. Since 1997, Host
Europe has delivered a highly available and secure
environment to customers across the continent, with
more than 200,000 business and residential customers
relying on its services today.
Patrick Pulvermueller is Managing Dell and I know that Dell and Microsoft
“Now customers Director at Host Europe and has
developed one of Europe’s most
have a strong partnership. Dell not
only worked with Microsoft to develop
can adjust the environmentally friendly datacentres. Hyper-V, but demonstrated a lot of
“We’ve developed a green datacentre, experience in this sort of migration.”
virtual servers to which consumes 30 per cent less
Host Europe ran tests internally with
their needs within energy than a conventional datacentre.
Now our main challenges are systems
VMware, Hyper-V and its existing
infrastructure, before confirming the
minutes and only management, data security and
decision to move to Hyper-V. Host
improving our customer offering,”
pay for what they he says.
Europe saw that a three-way project
including Dell and Microsoft was the
use. A virtual Host Europe mainly hosts private best approach, and so brought Dell
servers for customers, giving and Microsoft together to design
private cloud is the them complete control over their
perfect solution for environments, including the operating
system. This empowers customers,
customers that need but makes tight data security essential.
Technology at work
Severin Braun, Head of Managed
flexibility.” Hosting Services, Host Europe, Services
Severin Braun, says: “Customers can break things
Dell Consulting Services
Head of Managed Hosting Service, unintentionally, and there’s always a risk
Host Europe that someone might try to sabotage our Dell ProSupport Enterprise-
environment. We wanted customers Wide Contract
to share a single platform, but to be – Service Delivery Manager
separated from one another without
Hardware
compromising each other’s access to
the virtual machines.” Dell™ PowerEdge™ R810 servers
with Intel® Xeon® processors
Braun decided to move Host Europe L7555
from its previous virtualization
environment to Hyper-V™ virtualization Dell EqualLogic PS6000XV
storage area networks (SANs)
technology from Microsoft. He says:
“We looked at the Microsoft solution and
Software
it offered significantly better security for
individual virtual servers. Plus, Microsoft Dell Management Console
brings out useful updates and patches – Dell Performance and Resource
for our environment.” Optimisation Pack (PRO-Pack)
Microsoft® Dynamic Datacenter
Working in partnership inspires Toolkit for Hosters
confidence in project success
Microsoft System Center
For more than six years, Host Europe
Operations Manager
has worked with Dell for its IT
infrastructure and spoke to the Dell Windows Server® 2008 R2
Consulting team about changing – Hyper-V ™
the environment. Braun says: “We’ve
always had a great relationship with

3. and deploy the environment. Braun Strong project management keeps
the deployment on track
says: “We quickly realised that due to
our long-term relationship with Dell – As the deployment progressed, the
“I think that over
plus its strong ties with Microsoft – a value of Dell’s expertise was proved the next year or
three-way partnership with Dell doing to Braun. The team received on-the-
the project management was likely to job training and also had access to two, we’ll provide
create the most successful outcome.” experts from Intel. “Dell consultants are
experienced in a variety of technologies
around 20 per cent
Tested hardware delivers up to 100 and the Dell Project Manager helped of services through
virtual servers per host system us to keep on schedule. We were
Host Europe, Dell and Microsoft put impressed with the contact among Dell, this model. It’s better
together an environment consisting
of Dell™ PowerEdge™ R810 servers
Microsoft and Intel. They addressed all
our concerns and helped us put a great
value for customers
with Intel® Xeon® processors L7555, solution together,” says Braun. due to Microsoft’s
connected to Dell EqualLogic
PS6000XV storage area networks Host Europe’s customers can competitive
concentrate on what they do best
(SANs). Hyper-V provides server
virtualization and the environment With the new environment in place,
licensing model
is managed with Microsoft Dynamic customers can order their own virtual for Hyper-V.”
Datacenter Toolkit for Hosters. Braun machines, scale resources as needed
says: “The PowerEdge R810 servers and benefit from up-to-the-minute Severin Braun,
allow us to operate a high density of billing. Host Europe has direct access Head of Managed Hosting Service,
virtual machines. With them, we can to Microsoft System Center Operations Host Europe
run about 100 virtual machines per Manager through Dell Performance
physical server. We tested the Intel and Resource Optimisation Pack (PRO-
Xeon processors and the performance Pack), part of the Dell Management
was excellent.” Console. This gives administrators an
overview of the hardware, operating
Foundation for 10,000 virtual system and applications hosted by
servers Host Europe. Braun says: “We have
The virtualized servers form the basis customers that want to move away
for Host Europe’s new virtual private from a rigid service to a more flexible
cloud model. With PowerEdge architecture. This environment will
servers connected to EqualLogic give customers administrator rights for
SANs, Host Europe expects to launch their virtual servers, without the cost or
approximately 5,000 virtual servers hassle of an in-house system.”
within a few months, and around
Braun explains: “In the past, it was
10,000 within 12 months, as demand
difficult for customers to cover load
for this type of model grows. Braun
peaks. Now customers can adjust the
says: “We’ve had a great experience
virtual servers to their needs within
with Dell EqualLogic storage. The more
minutes and only pay for what they
EqualLogic units we add to the system,
use. A virtual private cloud is the
the higher the performance – it’s the
perfect solution for customers that
opposite with most other products.”
need flexibility.”

4. Host Europe plans to move around Issues solved in less than two
20 per cent of business hours with ProSupport Enterprise-
to the Hyper-V environment Wide Contract
Even though this environment is a With customers’ livelihoods at stake,
relatively new addition to Host Europe, Host Europe takes no chances. To
it’s proving popular and growing quickly. help ensure maximum uptime, the
And it’s a trend that Braun anticipates environment is protected with Dell
will grow further. “I think that over the ProSupport Enterprise-Wide Contract.
next year or two, we’ll provide around This means that in the event of a major
20 per cent of services through this problem Dell provides a four-hour on-
model. It’s better value for customers site response. For day-to-day issues,
due to Microsoft’s competitive licensing the Host Europe team is trained in Dell
model for Hyper-V,” he says. Online Self Dispatch, and can diagnose
problems and order replacement
Environment could allow more parts without calling out Dell. Braun
effective use of resources says: “Ensuring maximum uptime for
Another reason that Host Europe our customers is our top priority. We
has been so impressed with this have a four-hour response with Dell
environment is its simplicity. A single ProSupport Enterprise-Wide Contract,
system administrator can look after and a Service Delivery Manager who
around 200 physical servers, which monitors our environment. This gives us
can run approximately 66,000 virtual a feeling of security.”
machines using Microsoft System
Read more about Host Europe going
Center and the Dynamic Datacenter
green
Toolkit for Hosters. This creates a
central hub, where Braun and his team Read more about the Host Europe
can control every aspect of the virtual enterprise wide story
private cloud service. “This is a simpler
way of running our environment. We’re
looking at cutting our physical server For more information go to:
footprint in the future, possibly freeing dell.com/casestudies/emea and
up one or two server administrators for dell.de
other areas of the business,” says Braun.
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