In this picture: Data center at net.DE
A hosting firm in Germany cuts energy consumption by a third while focusing on business growth
Germany-based net.DE provides technology services to customers around the world and, in a competitive industry, needs to stay one step ahead of their demands. Marvin Neumann, Sales and Marketing Director at net.DE, outlines the challenges the company was facing: “New customer business grew by 260 percent in 2013, and around 22 percent of existing customers are migrating to the dedicated private cloud.” Growth is a good thing in business, but IT must keep pace. With two data centers housing all customer servers, net.DE needed to build space and energy savings into its managed-services offering. The solution? Powerful yet energy-efficient cloud servers that would expand to meet customer requirements.
Neumann and his team evaluated a series of test servers before opting for the Dell PowerEdge C6220 with Intel Xeon processors. Now, 38 Dell servers have converted the net.DE data centers into a highly scalable powerhouse of managed services. The cost-effective technology also means that the company can direct resources to other important areas, such as disaster recovery and backup.
Firm builds more reliable IT and passes 40 percent savings on to customers
Neumann explains why the Dell solution was the winner from the outset: “We found that the Dell PowerEdge cloud servers offered much more competitive pricing than other providers. The equivalent solution from HP or IBM costs nearly three times as much.” This allows net.DE to create a more fail-safe infrastructure without additional budget, so savings don’t add up to cut corners in terms of performance and service. Customers enjoy more competitive pricing with 40 percent savings, while receiving 24×7 services and uptime of at least 99.85 percent.
Green standards met and cost of services reduced by a third
net.DE has proved that great technology needn’t, literally, cost the earth. The hosting provider is significantly reducing power consumption and meeting government standards for green IT. Tough national legislation has driven many technology firms into Luxembourg, which offers cheaper atomic energy. But, thanks to its Dell C class servers, net.DE is cutting power consumption of its managed services by a third, so the business can stay within budget and there’s no reason to relocate. And, because the servers can operate in warmer environments than other servers, the company is also saving on cooling costs.
Path to more agile IT leads to the cloud
Neumann sums up: “In short, we’re working much more sustainably.” Indeed, perhaps cloud computing will emerge as the blueprint for all companies that are serious about service and sustainability. To help it focus on business growth, net.DE uses Dell ProSupport with Next Business Day Onsite Service and Dell Online Self Dispatch (DOSD) for fuss-free day-to-day maintenance.
If it’s time to transform employee productivity and service levels, the portfolio of cloud solutions from Dell may be a good place to start. Whether it’s greater agility, capacity or cost savings, Dell has helped many organizations achieve their goals with modular solutions that turn infrastructures for IT into services for people.
For a more in-depth look at the net.DE story, read the case study. Or, for a high-level visual overview of the benefits the firm has achieved with the Dell private cloud, please see the net.DE infographic.
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