Databalance preserves its position as a leader in cloud hosting services

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Working under the slogan “always available”, Databalance B.V. is a data center hosting service provider based in the Netherlands that offers high availability, backup and replication solutions. Employing 18 people, Databalance uses its size to its advantage – it is large enough to have extensive technical expertise in-house, and small enough to maintain an intimate knowledge of its customers’ environments. The company operates data centers in Nieuwkuijk and Utrecht and achieves annual revenues of 5 million USD.

Tackling barriers to growth
Since its inception in 2001, Databalance has enjoyed rapid growth. Expansion inevitably creates challenges because it puts pressure on existing resources. As its client list grew, Databalance discovered that its two data centers were approaching full capacity, and it would soon run out of floor-space for new servers and storage systems. To ensure it could fully exploit new business opportunities, the company needed to move fast to find more space and install more computing resources.

Rob Blom, Chief Executive Officer at Databalance, explains: “Every company wants to see its client list growing, and we are no different. But when we began running out of space in our data centers, we realized we needed to come up with a solution quickly or risk losing out on new business.”

Reducing time-to-value with IBM PureFlex
Databalance decided to rent data center space at a colocation center, and needed to quickly find and roll out a new IT infrastructure at this location. IBM PureFlex System, delivered as an expert integrated, built-for-cloud package of computing nodes, storage, networking and systems management software, proved to be the ideal solution.

“At Databalance, constant innovation is high on the agenda,” comments Blom, “As a result, when we heard about the IBM PureFlex System we were very excited. We felt it had come at the perfect time for us. Rather than spending time on designing, procuring, installing, cabling and configuring the infrastructure for our colocation space, we could just plug in the IBM PureFlex and get moving on our new opportunities.”

The company became the first in the Benelux region to deploy IBM PureFlex solution, completing the basic implementation in just three days. Blom states “Databalance is happy to run the risk of being an early adopter to ensure we retain our position at the leading edge. In this case, we felt the risk was well mitigated by the exceptional support provided by IBM during the implementation process. It is also important we get to grips with the latest technology as soon as possible, since we provide consulting services to customers. We feel that our clients will recognize the same benefits in the PureFlex System that we do, so we need to be prepared.”

High flexibility, low complexity
Databalance chose to deploy an IBM PureFlex System Standard solution enabling both Intel and IBM POWER processors within the same chassis ­– IBM Flex System x240, p24L and p260 compute nodes, respectively – and with integrated IBM Storwize® V7000 virtualized storage technology and IBM Flex System Manager™ software. Uniting x86 and POWER7® architecture within a single chassis, the solution enables the company to run a wide range of customer environments on the same platform, with IBM Flex System Manager providing a single point of control.

“Our business model is built on a relatively small IT team leveraging the latest technology to manage complex virtualized environments effectively,” says Blom. “IBM PureFlex is the ideal platform to support this because it doesn’t force us to compromise on flexibility in order to ensure easy management.

“IBM Flex System Manager offers us a comprehensive, centralized management tool for the entire PureFlex platform. It automates common administrative tasks, allowing our IT team to shift their focus away from IT maintenance and concentrate on finding ways to enhance service levels.”

Maximizing performance
With its single-chassis architecture, IBM PureFlex minimizes network latency and delivers better performance. As a result, Databalance expects customers hosting their environments on the PureFlex platform to benefit from faster response times. Moreover, due to lower energy requirements, this performance improvement can be achieved at a lower total cost of ownership.

“One of the key selling points of the IBM PureFlex System is that it packs a lot of computing power within a small footprint,” comments Blom. “In fact, we think it offers twice the application density of our existing server environment within the same floor-space, while using considerably less energy. We can host a much larger number of virtual machines on the same system, allowing us to maximize our utilization of the available space.”

He continues: “We were impressed to discover that the cost of the IBM PureFlex System was about the same as if we had bought separate compute, storage and networking components. When you take into account the time and effort saved on configuration, and the efficiency gains we make through simplified management, the IBM PureFlex System clearly delivers excellent value for money.”

Databalance also plans to extend its existing IBM SmartCloud® Provisioning environment – a low-cost, low-touch infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) solution that offers the company a comprehensive service management foundation – to the IBM PureFlex System.

Equipping the company for the future
Blom concludes: “Moving forward, we feel confident that the IBM PureFlex System will play a central role in our technology strategy. As a cloud services provider committed to staying at the forefront of technology, IBM PureFlex enables us to move fast on new opportunities while delivering exceptional performance to users.”