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Windows Server 2022 Essentials
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Act HeadQuarter Media GmbH (Act HQ) is one of Germany's largest post-production houses. The company handles post-processing tasks for TV stations and film studios including editing, color correction, sound mixing and post-dubbing. It also has a green screen studio for in-house productions. The company is headquartered in Cologne. Act HQ also has a second, fast-growing branch office in Berlin.
As a service provider for broadcasters and production companies, Act HQ must ensure availability at all times – after all, the world of film and television never sleeps. Moreover, the work often involves the storage and transfer of large amounts of data. For a long time, the company was able to manage its basic communications structure with MS Exchange, Fileserver and co. running on a Microsoft Windows Small Business server. After the available licenses for virtual machines were used up, ensuring an optimal server connection proved to be increasingly difficult and a new solution had to be found. Today, a hyper-convergent vSAN cluster from Thomas-Krenn.AG is ensuring smooth operations.
From the first consulting session to designing the system and its hiccup-free commissioning, the entire project was in good hands with Thomas-Krenn from day one.
The decision was made to go with a true hyper-converged solution with integrated software-defined storage. The key requirements for the system were easy management along with high performance, scalability and availability. A cluster of three certified vSAN nodes with all-flash storage was set up to meet these needs.
A specialist for automotive glass replacements and repairs, Zentrale Autoglas GmbH is the European market leader for such services with buses. Zentrale Autoglas employees are on call 24/7 to fix buses with damaged windows or windshields. To provide this service as quickly as possible, the company has 25 locations in Germany and Austria and a sophisticated warehousing and logistics network for 12,000 different panes for nearly every type of bus imaginable. The technicians are available around the clock, 365 days a year.
Virtualization has long been a major topic at Zentrale Autoglas GmbH. However, virtualized or centralized storage had been lacking until now. After support for Windows Server 2008 expired, it was clear that a central, software-defined storage solution was needed for all business-critical applications. The idea was jointly implemented in a hyper-converged cluster.
The entire project fully met my expectations. The cluster arrived at our site ready to use. Commissioning with remote support was a straightforward and smooth process.
Zentrale Autoglas describes a smooth transition to virtualized, centralized storage that increases resilience, reduces operational overhead and eliminates maintenance windows. All thanks to a hyper-convergent system with maximum flexibility.
With 230 employees working across three locations, Hermann Bantleon GmbH is a manufacturer of high-performance lubricants for the metalworking, construction machinery, food production and medical technology sectors.
Bantleon's IT staff wanted to virtualize the ERP system to improve data availability and reliability. Together with Thomas-Krenn, they replaced the previous shared storage system with StorMagic SvSAN. Here, the company's data is stored redundantly and is permanently available.
Within a day, the cluster was up and running and, thanks to a remote training, we quickly had the know-how to administer it on our own. When we purchased another StorMagic system, we were able to install it ourselves and later scale it on the fly.
In the report, the IT Director at Hermann Bantleon GmbH talks about the benefits of StorMagic and how easy it is to install and administer. He also explains why maintenance windows have been superfluous since the changeover – and why there is no more downtime.
As an independent service provider for IT security and managed services, MAWOH GmbH puts a particular focus on the reliability and security of its IT systems. Customers receive all backend services from a single source and can thereby fully concentrate on their day-to-day business. The portfolio also includes detailed consulting and support services for new or existing environments, customized IT security solutions, and comprehensive license and configuration management.
To expand its range of services, it was imperative for MAWOH GmbH to invest further in its own IT infrastructure – an important step towards technological and systemic independence. Previously, managed services for major customers had to be carried out customer-provided environments. The establishment of a dedicated service platform at the Frankfurt am Main site was intended to end this dependence on external IT infrastructure and ensure fully autonomous capabilities.
Thanks to Thomas-Krenn.AG, the project was completed on time and within budget, as well as with the quality we had hoped for. The flexibility and expertise of Thomas-Krenn.AG were a decisive factor for the success of the project.
Powerful and reliable hardware was needed for the new VMware-based platform. In addition to high-performance components, the company also required optimal compatibility with the software solution. Six rack servers with four switches and two firewalls were commissioned for this purpose. The VMware-based platform on servers from Thomas-Krenn met all the requirements of the company and its customers to their complete satisfaction.
X-Net Services GmbH is an international, independent IT service provider with 30 employees. Its specializes in developing sustainable, innovative and custom-built solutions.
X-Net attaches great importance to supporting regional value chains, developing solutions regionally and relying as little as possible on know-how and products from Asia. Open knowledge transfer is the top priority. The company has been implementing a wide variety of open source projects with Thomas-Krenn for 20 years.
What I appreciate most about Thomas-Krenn.AG is the transparency. Working with open source enables knowledge sharing as well as constant, uncomplicated optimization. Together, we can develop and implement projects quickly without having to rely on knowledge from Asia.
In the report, X-Net describes the collaborative development of various open source projects. The joint implementation of innovative solutions, such as a data gateway for the simple, secure transfer of third-party data, is also discussed. Moreover, the Managing Director addresses the topic of independence from Asia through knowledge sharing.