Hyper-V R2 Case Study - Podravka

Hello again!  I’m back with another Microsoft Virtualization case study.  Here is another great real-world example of how much impact Microsoft virtualization can have on your business.  This time, it’s Podravka, a Croatian food company competes with global giants like Kraft and Nestlé.  Competing in this space means Podravka must be incredibly agile and lean. But, because every time Podravka rolled out a new product it needed additional infrastructure, its IT staff had a hard time keeping pace with business needs.

Its growing servers were gobbling up energy and cooling resources, floor space, and management time, and it was very close to filling its data center space. And the more dependent Podravka became on its servers, the more management worried what would happen if they failed.

Podravka had used VMware GSX in its test environment, but VMware ESX Server was too expensive for a large-scale production environment. Instead, it deployed Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise with Hyper-V and Microsoft System Center. The benefits are pretty impressive: IT staff respond quickly to business needs by deploying virtual machines in hours instead of weeks. It created a low-cost disaster-recovery facility, and reduced its data center footprint by 93 percent, which opens up growing room and eliminates the need for an expensive new data center.

I think these two quotes really sum up the impact of Microsoft Virtualization.

“We were able to reduce our server holdings by 76 percent and our energy costs by 78 percent. We can funnel this $2 million savings into other areas of the business, such as new product development, that will make us more competitive.”

“Our staff is 20 to 40 percent more efficient. Only six people manage our infrastructure, and we will be able to accommodate more growth without increasing our headcount.”