ISP Adix Installed Cisco UCS and NetApp Cluster

Proact Group, European storage integrator, is supplying the Groningen-based Internet service provider Adix BV with a Cisco UCS and NetApp FAS 2040 cluster solution.

Adix, established in 2004, is an Internet service provider for Netherlands businesses and offers a range of solutions for the hosting of websites or web applications. Besides standard services such as shared hosting, co-location and the registration of domain names Adix also offers specially-designed services including hosting on dedicated servers and Virtual Private Servers. In order to offer its clients the best service, some time ago Adix set out its vision, at the heart of which was the aim to "take the load off the client".

However, the current IT infrastructure was no longer up to this vision and therefore Adix drew up a number of selection criteria for the new environment. These were: an environment which is both horizontally and vertically scalable, which offers continuous availability and at the same time enables costs for the power supply to be cut. Proact came out on top with its solution based on a Cisco UCS platform and a NetApp FAS 2040 cluster including snapshot technology and thin provisioning.

Lucas den Os, Managing Director Proact Benelux, elaborates: "Since the end of 2010 we have been able and proud to call ourselves a Cisco partner and Adix was one of our first clients that we supplied with a solution based on a UCS platform. The xSP industry is a market that places very high requirements on the IT infrastructure so we are extremely pleased that such a young, innovative and professional player as Adix should opt for Proact".

Besides efficiency and scalability, the solution offered by Proact also provides the foundation for maximum risk spreading by means of automated failover and redundancy. The solution is simple to manage and ensures that the number of manual actions in the area are reduced. Adix wanted to manage the environment itself, and apart from Proact this was not something offered by many of the parties involved in the selection process. With the new solution Adix can guarantee clients in its portfolio, such as Akzo Nobel and KPMG, a ‘direct-time-to-market’.

John Tomasowa, General Director Adix, says: "The need for a new IT infrastructure arose because of the strong growth of Adix together with the increasing demands of the market. Accessibility and availability in the use of Internet applications and the provider itself have increased rapidly. An environment which is both horizontally and vertically scalable, which offers continuous availability and at the same time enables cutting costs for the power supply was just what we were looking for. Proact gave us equally the confidence that they had what we were looking for and proved that it is a player which is well up with the developments in the market. Implementation of the Cisco UCS platform and the NetApp FAS cluster has gone successfully and one of the results of this is that in the time since its launch we have already been able to realise an energy saving of 40%."