Gasatacama Chile reduces operating costs by 30% with Dell, Intel and VMware virtualization solution

•  Desktop/Laptop Refresh•  Disaster Recovery•  Storage•  Virtualization 

“ We needed a high-availability server solution with enhanced disaster recovery capabilities and lower operating costs, and that’s exactly what we got from Dell.” Francisco Diaz Neira, Database Administrator and Capacity Planning Executive, Gasatacama Chile

Customer Profile

Company: Gasatacama Chile, S.A.

Industry: Energy (Oil, Gas, Petrochemical, Renewable)

Country: Chile

Employees: 180

Web: www.gasatacama.cl

Business NeedGasatacama Chile needed a high-availability server solution for mission-critical pipeline and administrative applications, and it wanted to rationalize its growing server farms to reduce operating costs. In addition, located in an earthquake-prone region, the company needed a disaster recovery solution that would reduce its recovery time objective in the event of a disaster.

SolutionThe company reduced its number of data centers from four to three and virtualized physical servers with VMware on Dell™ PowerEdge™ servers with Intel® Xeon® processors and deployed Dell EqualLogic™ iSCSI SANs in each of its three data centers as backup and disaster recovery solutions. Dell PowerConnect™ Gigabit Ethernet switches connect the servers to storage and Dell PowerEdge Server Rack Enclosures house the equipment at each location.

  Benefits

•  30% savings in operating costs 

•  30% savings in energy costs 

•  25% savings in rack space

•  50% faster processing with Intel Xeon 5500 series processors 

•  50% more data processed 

•  100% improvement in recovery point objective 

•  100% improvement in recovery time objective 

•  12 to 14 times faster backup times 

GASATACAMA

To supply electric power to the mining industry and Chilean coastal cities such as Antofagasta, Mejillones and Tarapacá, Gasatacama Chile was formed in 1996. The high operating costs of thermal power stations supplying electricity, in addition to their environmental impact and the level of failures that occurred, led the market to seek alternative energy sources that were more efficient, less polluting and more cost-competitive.

Natural gas was the fuel that enabled the diversification of energy through the installation of gas combined cycles, which reuse waste heat. This also took advantage of the proximity of natural gas deposits in the Northwest Basin of Argentina and competitive prices with coal. Gasatacama Chile is controlled by Endesa Chile, the largest electrical company in Chile, with more than 500 employees.

Consolidating four data centers  to three

Gasatacama Chile has employees distributed in offices in Santiago, with central electricity generating in Mejillones, a pipeline operations base in Antofagasta and a pipeline operational base in Jujuy, Argentina. Each of these offices had a data center for local processing, and consolidation took place in the central offices in Santiago.

The Norte Grande region of Chile occupies the farthest northern reaches of the country, a region that borders the widest high plateau outside of Tibet and the driest desert on earth, the Atacama, where some areas have never recorded a drop of rain. In this spectacular but rugged terrain, the Chilean mining industry has flourished in recent years, giving rise to a need for electric power.

“ Dell services were professional and efficient, and they transferred a great deal of vital knowledge to us. We are more confident about managing this solution on our own as a result.” Francisco Diaz Neira, Database Administrator and Capacity Planning Executive, Gasatacama Chile

Technology at Work

Services

Dell™ Hardware Implementation Services

Dell VMware 4.0 Training Services

Dell VMware Installation and Configuration Services

Hardware

Dell EqualLogic™ PS6000XV iSCSI SANs

Dell Latitude™ E6500 laptops with Intel® Core™ 2 Duo processors

Dell OptiPlex™ 780 desktops

Dell PowerConnect™ 5424 Gigabit Ethernet switches

Dell PowerEdge™ R710 and R610 servers with Intel Xeon® 5500 series processors

Dell PowerEdge 4220 42U Server Rack Enclosures

Dell Precision™ M6400 Mobile Workstations

Software

Microsoft® Exchange Server 2003

Microsoft SQL Server® database 2005, 2008

VMware vSphere 4.0

Given this infrastructure, Gasatacama Chile was challenged to optimize its server architecture and to consolidate physical servers that were underutilized. “To maintain high availability, reduce operating costs and reduce response times during contingencies, we consulted with Dell about a server virtualization solution using VMware,” says Francisco Diaz Neira, database administrator and capacity planning executive, Gasatacama Chile.

The resulting plan reduced the number of data centers from four to three with the virtualization of pipeline operations servers in Santiago and Jujuy, and the virtualization of administrative servers in Santiago and Mejillones.

Providing high availability and disaster recovery

The pipeline operations servers are mission critical. They are responsible for maintaining the transport of gas from Argentina and the Mejillones Liquid Natural Gas terminal to customers. Any failure of these machines would cause serious problems for the operations and reliability of the company and interrupt its service to customers. The administrative servers in Santiago and Mejillones host services such as Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft SQL Server, Windows Domain Controller and file services.

The solution consists of three Dell PowerEdge R710 servers with Intel Xeon processors 5500 series virtualized with VMware vSphere 4.0 at each of the three locations: Santiago, Mejillones

and Jujuy. At each location, one server hosts VMware vCenter and the other two physical servers host virtual machines. Approximately 10 virtual servers reside on each physical server. Dell PowerEdge R610 server with Intel Xeon processor 5500 series hosts VMware vCenter.

Also at the three locations there are two Dell EqualLogic PS6000XV iSCSI SANs connected to the servers with Dell PowerConnect 5424 Gigabit Ethernet switches. Gasatacama Chile houses the hardware in one Dell PowerEdge 4220 42U Server Rack Enclosure at each location.

For desktop and mobile environments, Gasatacama Chile purchased 21 Dell OptiPlex 780 desktop computers for user workstations for office and ERP system. Six Dell Latitude E6500 laptops with Intel Core 2 Duo processors are used by field users for installation, configuration and data collection from the sensors, PLC and compressors in the gas and electrical station. Dell Precision M6400 mobile workstations are used by administrators of the virtual platform for administration, configuration and support.

12-14 times faster backups 

“We needed a high-availability server solution with enhanced disaster recovery capabilities and lower operating costs, and that’s exactly what we got from Dell,” says Neira. “The Intel Xeon 5500 processors have increased the

“ The Intel Xeon 5500 processors have increased the productivity and efficiency of the servers by 50 percent and process 50 percent more data.” Francisco Diaz Neira, Database Administrator and Capacity Planning Executive, Gasatacama Chile

productivity and efficiency of the servers by 50 percent and process 50 percent more data. With virtual machines we can set up a server in two to three hours. With physical servers, it takes one-to-two days.”

Having a robust disaster recovery solution is critical to Gasatacama Chile, especially in Chile where the likelihood of natural disasters is high. “The Dell EqualLogic SANs have improved our recovery point object and recovery time objective by 100 percent,” says Neira. “They also reduced backup times from two-to-three days to four-to-five hours,” says Neira.

Dell services provided VMware 4.0 Training Services, physical equipment installation services and installation and configuration of the VMware solution. “Dell services were professional and efficient, and they transferred a great deal of vital knowledge to us,” says Neira. “We are more confident about managing this solution on our own as a result. With Dell Hardware Implementation Services, the Dell professionals involved showed a great ability to understand our requirements and to react to changes upon implementation. Dell VMware 4.0 Training Services met our expectations and provided excellent training tools.”

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© January 2011. Intel, Intel Xeon and Intel Core are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Intel Corporation in the United States or other countries. Microsoft, SQL Server and Windows Server are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. This case study is for informational purposes only. DELL MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS CASE STUDY. Reference number: 10008648

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GASATACAMA