Menigo, Swedish Culinary Arts Supplier, Selects DH2i Virtualization

DH2i Company a provider of hypervisor-less application virtualization solutions, announced
that Menigo Foodservice AB, Sweden’s premier provider of
culinary arts products and supplies, has deployed its DxConsole 2012R2
application virtualization solution to ensure ‘always-on’
availability, as well as to simplify management, increase application
resiliency, and increase productivity of Menigo’s most business,
revenue-generating applications – all while lowering related costs by over 50%.

Menigo’s recent deployment of
DxConsole took place during a technology refresh initiative. A key
element of the overall strategy had been to find a HA SQL Server solution to
replace its current PolyServe clustered file system technology from
Hewlett-Packard, which had been end-of-life.

After a period of research and testing, the project leader, Martin
Persson, IT technician Server/Storage, compiled and presented a detailed
Decision Matrix to management. It included a description of
the recommended solution, backed-up by a detailed analysis of
each individual technology that was evaluated by him and his team, along with
all associated costs. DxConsole was identified as the solution for maximizing Menigo’s SQL Server environment – even over
Microsoft and other third party solutions that were considered. While
DxConsole’s initial appeal was that it would ensure the same enterprise-class
‘always-on’ capability offered by SQL Server 2012 product, at a
fraction of the cost, the deal was sealed after Persson witnessed DxConsole’s
additional benefits, including simplified storage management, increased
application resiliency, a productivity increase and a cost reduction of over
50%.

"It
was really no contest," commented Persson. "DH2i’s DxConsole software won across the board – starting with cost –
it’s usually about the money, right? 
However, DxConsole completely beat the competition on features and
functionality as well."

"DH2i’s
DxConsole has helped to take our data center to the next level,"
Persson continued. "While server
virtualization helped us to control hardware acquisitions and maintenance
costs, it did nothing for the basic deployment model for our enterprise
applications – which was previously, one instance per host. With DxConsole, we
are able to reduce the overall host software stack, and enjoy the resulting
advantages such as the creation of a centralized cloud platform to support our
most business critical, revenue generating applications, as well as increased
application instance mobility, ease of management, and a dramatic decrease in
related expenditures." 

He
concluded: "I am happy to report that DxConsole has performed exactly as
promised."

"While
the over 50% cost reduction certainly caught Martin’s attention, as well as
that of his executive management, ultimately DxConsole was chosen as it would
help to ensure Menigo continued to provide its restaurant, public, chain and
convenience store customers with 24×7 ordering access; as well as its employees
with uninterrupted access to its business critical data warehouse – this was
especially important as one of Menigo’s specialties is fresh food,"
said Don Boxley, co-founder and CEO of DH2i. "Moreover, as application instances can now be automatically or manually
moved to any server in less than 30 seconds, maximum HA is
achieved, without the need to double-up on hardware. Menigo can simply specify
the physical, virtual or cloud server on which the application instance should
be restarted, in the event of a failure, in order to eliminate downtime and
ensure BC."

Menigo’s refreshed data center, which
serves more than 1,000 users across over 650 clients, is now comprised of
DH2i’s DxConsole application virtualization software, SQL Server, SharePoint,
HP BladeSystem Servers, HP LeftHand P4000 disk storage and clustered VMware.
This infrastructure supports both non mission critical, as well as
Menigo’s most mission critical applications – including its website,
e-commerce and logistics system. In order to stay dynamic, DxConsole was
deployed virtually, as opposed to on a physical platform, as was previously the
case with the PolyServe technology.