Reseller and cloud service provider, Mason IT has managed to avoid the use of costly storage area network (SAN) architecture, after deploying Nutanix for the cloud.
Mason IT, which partners with Cisco, VMware, Juniper, Huawei and now Nutanix offers managed services within its UK and Icelandic datacentres.
Using Nutanix's Complete Cluster, Gisli Helgason, technical director at Mason IT, told Computer Weekly that the platform reduces power and cooling requirements by 40%, when compared with typical server, storage and networking equipment.
Helgason explained that each 2U Nutanix Complete Block replaces one full rack of traditional storage and a half rack of servers. Expansion is achieved by adding complete blocks to the cluster. Each of these blocks contains four nodes and a total of eight Intel Xeon processors (48 cores), four Fusion-io PCIe solid-state drive (SSD) cards, four SATA SSDs and 20 SATA hard disk drives (HDD).
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"We needed to scale out as a customer and, with Nutanix, we found that there is no limit to how many nodes we can add. Before it was a case of rip and replace as we grew. With this solution we have eliminated the use of a SAN, but have retained the level of performance that we had previously," he added.
The project has been rolled out across the company's new customers and there has been no disruption. "Eventually we will move our older customers over too, but it has been deployed with just new ones so far," Gisli Helgason said
Nutanix Complete Cluster also comes preloaded with VMware Hypervisor and supports VM High Availability and Live Migration.
Mason IT offers Nutanix technology to its own customers
The reseller has also chosen to offer Nutanix's technology as a private cloud offering to its customers. Pitching the technology as a "SAN-free, zero-carbon, private cloud", the value-added reseller (VAR) offers two private cloud options, built on the Nutanix Cluster architecture – A UK-based datacentre with full infrastructure and a private cloud option in the company's Icelandic datacentre."
Helgason said the Iceland-based datacentre is completely powered by renewable energy: "The energy is cleaner and greener in Iceland, so it's carbon-free."
For Mason IT customers looking to deploy a virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) environment or move away from legacy SAN/server architecture, the reseller is offering private cloud or on-premise options for a converged storage and compute platform.
