SSI Schäfer, a globally leading provider of modular storage and logistics systems with over 7,500 employees spread across 78 locations on 6 continents, commissioned comdivision to create an innovative design for a secure and easily manageable IT multicloud solution.
Costs: Maintaining and managing multiple data centers incurred significant costs, including power consumption, hardware upgrades, and personnel expenses.
Management Complexity: Managing the current globally distributed desktops required a high level of resources. Deploying patches, upgrades, and configuration changes was time-consuming and error-prone, and there was no unified, centralized desktop management.
Security: Especially in times of pandemic and remote work regulations, there was a lack of a concept for an easy and secure way to work remotely.
Scalability: The company struggled to quickly and efficiently scale desktop demand to meet changing requirements. This led to bottlenecks and decreased productivity.
SSI Schäfer opted to implement VMware Horizon on Azure in conjunction with Azure VMware Solution (AVS) to address these challenges. The solution offers the following advantages:
Simplified Management and Scalability: By centrally managing the VDI infrastructure in the Azure cloud, complexity was reduced, and resources were managed more efficiently. Infrastructure scaling can be done easily and quickly to meet the company's demands. Now, the desktop images are centrally managed and automatically distributed across all three cloud hubs. The VDIs from these images can be controlled based on global demand. Resources can be delivered with just a few clicks where they are needed quickly. Thomas Pirlein, CIO of SSI Schäfer, is pleased to say, "For the first time, IT is capable of delivering on demand."
To avoid high latencies, SSI Schäfer utilizes three central Azure cloud hubs. One hub serves North and South America, one serves Europe, and the third hub ensures fast connections in Asia.
Cost Savings: The Horizon on Azure solution not only achieved an efficient VDI solution but also significantly reduced operating costs through central management and global harmonization onto a few images.
Improved Efficiency through Increased Flexibility: The central cloud-based desktop allowed employees to access their virtual desktops and applications from various locations and devices. This capitalized on the strengths of Horizon on Azure, which offers a variety of virtual hardware options, such as VDIs with graphics cards for CAD or high-end CPU VDIs for programmer use cases. This promoted flexible and mobile work, leading to increased productivity and employee satisfaction.
Simplified Management: The central management of the VDI infrastructure simplified the deployment of patches, upgrades, and configuration changes, resulting in improved efficiency and reduced downtime. The central deployment of desktops, including applications, not only facilitated direct software and patch rollouts worldwide without regional deviations but also transitioned the various regional IT teams into a global, centrally operating team in this area.
By implementing Azure VMware Solution (AVS), SSI Schäfer consolidated their data centers. The benefits were diverse, including cost savings, improved efficiency, simplified management, and increased flexibility. The company achieved an agile, scalable, and robust IT environment that meets the needs of employees and the business.
