VMware Helps Alta Genetics Beef Up the Cattle Industry
Worldwide Leader in Herd Management Now Runs Oracle Apps on VMware Infrastructure to Reduce Costs, Increase Flexibility and Eliminate Need for Outsourced Hosting
PALO ALTO, Calif. – March 24, 2009 -- VMware, Inc. (NYSE: VMW), the global leader in virtualization solutions from the desktop to the datacenter, today announced that Alta Genetics Inc. has deployed VMware’s industry-leading virtualization and management suite, VMware Infrastructure 3, to help increase business agility and productivity, reduce its IT cost structure, and increase control over its computing assets by bringing all hosting in-house.
Calgary, Alberta-based Alta Genetics is the world’s largest privately owned genetic-improvement company for the cattle industry. Dairy and beef farmers in over 80 countries work with Alta Genetics to improve the yields from their herds. The company has limited datacenter space and had to outsource its server hosting when it was no longer able to house all the necessary hardware to run its business. However, the lack of timely change management, the loss of control over its IT resources, and the cost of outsourcing eventually led the company to search for an in-house solution. This led to the deployment of VMware Infrastructure, which provides a virtualized environment for nearly all of Alta Genetics’ business-critical applications, including Oracle JD Edwards EnterpriseOne.
“When we worked with a hosting provider, we didn’t feel that things ran as smoothly or efficiently as they should have,” said Dan Charlesworth, network manager at Alta Genetics. “The VMware platform allowed us to bring our IT environment back in-house by dramatically reducing the space we needed to operate everything. We’re running dozens of virtual machines on eight blades. And, we don’t have to risk any miscommunications with a hosting company. We can shift resources on the fly to optimize performance and availability, and we can provision new virtual servers in as little as 30 minutes. VMware is allowing us to do much more with much less hardware.”
In addition to JD Edwards, Alta Genetics is running Oracle Application Server, Microsoft Exchange and SQL Server, and its core lab-management software system on the VMware platform. The entire virtualized environment can be managed by one person via VMware vCenter Server. When application patches, updates or maintenance are required, Alta Genetics uses VMware VMotion to move virtual machines across blade systems and eliminate the need for downtime.
“VMware offers the most complete virtualization solution, hands down,” said Charlesworth. “Not only is its toolset more advanced than other companies, but its desktop solutions are just as valuable as its datacenter offering. For instance, our development is completely virtualized. We run VMware Workstation. It gives us tremendous flexibility to do testing that we couldn’t do in a hardware-based environment. That accelerates time to market, increases developer productivity, and helps protect our data regardless of where a developer is physically located.”
Charlesworth himself is a VMware Certified Professional. He and other members of the Alta Genetics IT staff have attended courses led by the VMware Customer Education group. He described the VMware certification course as “one of the best courses I’ve ever attended -- for the content as well as the knowledge of the instructor.” He noted that his experience in the classroom was consistent with the overall outstanding customer experience he’s had in all his interactions with VMware.
About VMware
VMware (NYSE: VMW) is the global leader in virtualization solutions from the desktop to the datacenter. Customers of all sizes rely on VMware to reduce capital and operating expenses, ensure business continuity, strengthen security and go green. With 2008 revenues of $1.9 billion, more than 130,000 customers and more than 22,000 partners, VMware is one of the fastest growing public software companies. Headquartered in Palo Alto, California, VMware is majority owned by EMC Corporation (NYSE: EMC). For more information, visit www.vmware.com.
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