The challenge
Allan Webb helps organisations support and manage complex assets throughout their lifecycle. Its own business systems relied on a conventional virtualisation environment with separate servers and a storage array. The estate had served the company well, but renewing the hardware and software together was becoming more expensive, and expanding the environment was increasingly difficult.
Original carried out an on-site infrastructure review in 2024. Alongside recommendations on network security and resilience, the review identified an opportunity to consolidate compute, storage and virtualisation using hyperconverged infrastructure. The aim was to simplify the platform while giving the IT team a practical foundation for future growth.
What Original delivered
Original used data from the existing environment to size the new platform and design capacity for anticipated growth. The resulting Nutanix solution combines compute and storage with the AHV virtualisation platform, reducing the number of separate infrastructure components the team needs to manage.
The platform uses all-NVMe storage and a cluster design intended to maintain availability through individual component failures. Cisco switching provides resilient connections between the cluster and the existing network. Original installed and configured the environment, with project management covering the delivery activities.
Nutanix Prism Central provides a central management console for the platform. The design also includes security licensing that supports data-at-rest encryption and leaves scope to consider network micro-segmentation in future. This gives the team options to develop the security configuration as requirements evolve.
To support the transition, Original configured Nutanix Move and demonstrated the migration process. This enabled the Allan Webb IT team to plan and carry out virtual machine migrations at its own pace. Original provided high-level and low-level designs, as-built documentation and knowledge transfer to support day-to-day operation and future changes.
The outcome
Allan Webb has a modern platform designed to support its business workloads, with an architecture that brings compute, storage and virtualisation together. Central management simplifies administration, while the documented design provides a basis for planning additional capacity as requirements develop.
The IT team has the tools, documentation and practical knowledge to manage the new platform and progress its migration activities. The Cisco switching also provides a foundation for further network work with Original, connecting the infrastructure project to the next stage of the company's technology development.
Technology used
Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure with AHV and all-NVMe storage; Prism Central for management; Nutanix Move for migration enablement; Cisco Catalyst 9200 switching.