A Customer Success
from the Experts in
Business-Critical ContinuityTM.
Located in Minnesota’s capital city, Saint Paul Public Schools is the state’s
second-largest school district. Through its highly trained and deeply dedicated
staff, innovative education programs and the support of its community, the
district strives to provide a premier education for its more than 38,000 students.
As a result, many of the district’s schools have been recognized with national
and regional awards from the U.S. Department of Education, US News & World
Report, Newsweek, Johns Hopkins University and other organizations.
Contributing significantly to the district’s success, the IT department at Saint
Paul Public Schools plays a key role in ensuring that the district’s more than 100
schools and learning sites continue to provide an academically rich learning
environment. And, to help them optimize the delivery of that environment, Saint
Paul Public Schools leverages high-performing, cost-effective IT infrastructure
and data center management solutions from Avocent.
The Right Solution at the Best Price
When Saint Paul Public Schools embarked on building a new data center
to house the bulk of the district’s 200 servers, it wanted it built to industry
standards and to utilize management solutions that would enable IT operations
to be more efficient, reliable and secure.
Company
Saint Paul Public Schools
Location
St. Paul, Minnesota
Type of Business
Public School System
Business Needs
Provide remote in-band and out-of-band
management of data center systems in a
secure, efficient and optimized manner
Solution
Avocent DSR® KVM over IP Switches
Avocent Power Management Distribution Unit
Avocent LCD Console Trays
Avocent DSView 3 Management Software
®
Business Benefits
• Enjoy better price/performance on a
complete data center management solution
• Reduce data center traffic by providing
remote out-of-band access to all 200 data
center servers
• Improve efficiency of IT personnel by enabling
a more productive work environment and
simplifying overall data center management
• Increase data center security by limiting
physical access and centrally managing
remote access
• Increase data center uptime and
performance, as well as the ability to deliver
on SLAs
“More important than low price, was getting the right solution for our needs,”
says Bryan DeGidio, IT Manager at Saint Paul Public Schools. “We wanted to
make sure we had solutions that met our standards and delivered what we
needed. The Avocent solutions provided that and happened to be the best
priced products as well. Going with Avocent was a win-win situation for us.”
“Avocent has helped us get the most performance out of their solutions and
our data center, enabling us to work better, faster and deliver on our SLAs.”
– Bryan DeGidio IT Manager Saint Paul Public Schools
As a result, Saint Paul Public Schools worked with an Avocent systems engineer
and its Dell account manager to put together a complete Avocent data center
management solution—a solution that not only could serve as a model for any
school district, but for enterprise business data centers as well.
“We knew what we wanted the solution to do, we just weren’t sure what
components we needed to build it,” DeGidio says. “Avocent and Dell took the
time to work closely with us to help us put together the best solution for our
needs—a solution that allowed us to get exactly what we needed today without
spending more than we needed, as well as allowing us to grow in the future.”
One of the main aspects of the solution consisted of Avocent DSR KVM over IP
switches to provide BIOS-level control of all the district’s data center servers,
letting them remotely access, manage and power cycle the servers over IP. The
district also deployed Avocent Intelligent Power Distribution Units to enhance
its power management capabilities and eliminate the worry of losing servers
due to circuit overloads. The Avocent LCD Single-Rail Rack Consoles provide the
IT group local rack access to its KVM switches and critical servers. The Avocent
DSView 3 management software serves up integrated management of all
the district’s deployed Avocent solutions and connected devices, so they can
securely and remotely access, monitor and control their data center devices at
anytime from anywhere.
A Customer Success
from the Experts in
Business-Critical ContinuityTM.
Simplified Management, Increased Efficiency
With the help of the Avocent solutions, when Saint Paul Public
Schools moved its equipment into its new data center, it was able
to consolidate its 10 racks of servers, 18 monitors and several
keyboards into four rows of cabinets with only one display per
row. But more importantly, the solution enabled the district to
significantly reduce traffic in the data center itself.
“We didn’t want to have a lot of people working inside the data
center,” DeGidio says. “Avocent enables us to touch any server
remotely from outside the data center. We can watch a system post
while it’s booting even when it’s not connected to the network. We
can remotely bring down a server we’re working on and bring up a
new one in its place that looks exactly the same.”
Barb Henry, IT Administrator at Saint Paul Public Schools adds,
“Avocent has enabled us to achieve a key goal of minimizing traffic
into the data center. Rather than having technicians continually
packing up and carry tools, CDs and docs into the data center—and
waiting their turn for a console or keyboard—systems can now be
accessed remotely over IP from the desktop. By providing this ability
to remotely access multiple systems at the same time, Avocent has
provided an effective solution to our traffic issues.”
In addition to reducing data center traffic, Saint Paul Public Schools
has been able to create a more comfortable and productive work
environment for its IT personnel. The district has been able to create
an office workspace just outside the data center where the IT team
can work without the loud distractions of noisy servers and cooling
systems.
“It’s so nice to be able to dial into a server from your desk outside the
data room, without the constant noise and frequent interruptions,”
Henry says. “By simplifying our data center management, Avocent
enables us to be more focused, efficient and productive.”
Enhanced Security, Accessibility and Success
Reducing traffic to the data center also enables Saint Paul Public
Schools to add a layer of physical security to its data center by
minimizing who needs to and who can physically enter the data
center. The Avocent DSView 3 management software adds yet
another layer of security on top of that. The Avocent management
interface requires users to authenticate before they can view or
access a server.
“Avocent not only gives us a common framework for data center
management, but it provides a central point of authentication
to secure access to our systems,” Henry says. “We can closely
monitor who is accessing which systems, how often and for what
reasons. DSView also allows us to group users according to their
responsibilities. For example, we can limit the e-mail technicians’
access to just the e-mail servers. We can also give the service desk
the ability to view certain servers or applications without actually
being able to access or touch them.”
In addition to enhanced security, Avocent has improved overall
availability and accessibility of the district’s systems. In fact, the
Avocent solutions, combined with the new data center’s industrystandard design, has led to 100 percent uptime from initial
deployment to the writing of this story.
“We have been very pleased with Avocent and the solutions they
have provided us,” DeGidio says. “The operation of our data center
is just as critical to us as it would be to any for-profit or commercial
business. That’s why we really value the relationship we’ve been
able to build with Avocent. Avocent has helped us get the most
performance out of their solutions and our data center, enabling
us to work better, faster and deliver on our SLAs.”
About Emerson Network Power
Emerson Network Power, a business of Emerson (NYSE:EMR), is the
global leader in enabling Business-Critical Continuity™ from grid to
chip for telecommunication networks, data centers, health care and
industrial facilities. Emerson Network Power provides innovative
solutions and expertise in areas including AC and DC power and
precision cooling systems, embedded computing and power,
integrated racks and enclosures, power switching and controls,
monitoring and connectivity. All solutions are supported globally
by local Emerson Network Power service technicians. Aperture and
Avocent solutions from Emerson Network Power simplify data center
infrastructure management by maximizing computing capacity and
lowering costs while enabling the data center to operate at peak
performance. For more information, visit www.Aperture.com,
www.Avocent.com or www.EmersonNetworkPower.com.
Emerson Network Power.
The global leader in enabling Business-Critical ContinuityTM.
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