A Customer Success
from the Experts in
Business-Critical ContinuityTM.
Securing and Managing Police Operations
Best known for its tulips, windmills and clogs, the Netherlands is also one of the
most technologically advanced countries in Europe, the world’s eighth largest
exporter of goods and capital, the world’s third largest exporter of food and a
major contributor to science, the arts and sports. To ensure the public safety and
security of the more than 16 million Dutch people, the Netherlands relies on the
law enforcement efforts and services of its Dutch Police Force. In turn, to ensure
the efficient operation and management of its IT data centers, the Dutch Police
Force relies on comprehensive data center management solutions from Avocent,
a leading global provider of IT infrastructure management solutions.
A Complete Data Center Management Solution
With security being a primary concern for the Dutch Police Force, when it
redesigned the architecture of its IT infrastructure that supports its operations
and processes, the Dutch Police Force Region Northwest decided it needed to
implement lights-out data centers to secure and manage its 600 servers. Based
on its ability to provide a complete, comprehensive data center management
solution, the Dutch Police Force Region Northwest turned to Avocent to achieve
its lights-out objective.
Company
Dutch Police Force
Location
Netherlands
Type of Business
Law enforcement
Web site
www.politie.nl/english
Business Needs
Secure and improve data center management
through implementation of a lights-out
environment.
Solution
Avocent DSView® 3 management software
Avocent DSR® KVM over IP Switches ACS
advanced console servers
Busines Benefits
• Enjoy a secure, lights-out data center
environment with remote in-band and out-ofband management via KVM over IP and serial
over IP
• Reduce the number of individuals who need
physical access to the data center through
remote, centralized management of all
connected data center devices
• Save the equivalent of two full-time
employees through simplified provisioning
and streamlined, centralized management
• Reduce studio setup time while improving
overall system reliability
The Dutch Police Force Region Northwest relies on DSView 3 management
software from Avocent for secure, remote centralized management of all
connected IT devices in its data center, including support for KVM, serial,
integrated power and service processors, including iLO, and IPMI service
processors. It also employs Avocent DSR KVM over IP switches for multiplatform
and multi-location access and BIOS-level control of multiple devices. For secure,
remote access and console port management of its serial-based servers and
appliances, the Dutch Police Force Region Northwest leverages ACS console
servers from Avocent.
“Avocent provides us a total data center management solution,” says
Edward Van Loon, Infrastructure Architect for the Dutch Police Force Region
“Avocent is the one and only supplier that provides a
complete data center management solution. If I had to do it
over, I would definitely choose them again.”
– Edward Van Loon Infrastructure Architect Dutch Police Force
Region Northwest
Northwest. “Several other suppliers deliver related solutions, but they have
weak performance or an incomplete product set. Avocent offers the most
complete software management solution that I’ve seen, complemented with
high performing, easy-to-provision KVM over IP switches and serial over IP server
consoles. Additionally, their out-of-band management capabilities provide us a
last-resort connection if a device loses network connectivity.”
Achieving Secure Lights-Out
“Avocent was key to helping us reach a lights-out environment for our data
centers, enabling us to secure IP-level access over both serial and KVM ports,”
says Van Loon. “The Avocent solutions enable our people to easily manage from
their office desktops or even from their homes after hours. And, with DSView 3
A Customer Success
from the Experts in
Business-Critical ContinuityTM.
software they only have to rely on a single management interface to
connect to any port.”
By leveraging Avocent to implement its lights-out data center, the
Dutch Police Force Region Northwest was able to limit physical
access to its data centers to a small group of 10 managers. The
rest of its managers access data center devices remotely from their
desktops using either Avocent’s KVM or serial over IP solutions.
a supplier, data center management puts it in and connects it, and
then the appropriate managers can configure it remotely from their
desks using DSView 3 software.”
In addition to facilitating provisioning, the centralized management
that DSView 3 software provides the Dutch Police Force Region
Northwest for its entire data center environment saves the
organization considerable time and money.
The level of access and authorization is governed and granted using
Avocent DSView 3 software and is based on the individual managers’
roles.
“One of the main benefits of the Avocent solution is that we can
eliminate the risk of unauthorized persons accessing the data center,
and we can limit access based on expertise and responsibility,” states
Van Loon. “With DSView 3 software, we can easily implement our
data center security model, which gives managers authorized access
only to the ports they need to manage. Network managers only
have access to network console ports. Windows managers only have
access to the Windows server ports. UNIX or OpenVMS managers
only have access to their authorized ports.”
Facilitating Data Center Consolidation
“Avocent makes it very easy to manage our data center,” Van Loon
says. “DSView 3 software gives us a single point of contact that
knows exactly where every system is in our data center, how each
system is configured and how they are connected.”
“The centralized management provided by DSView 3 software
enables us to more efficiently use our resources,” Van Loon adds.
“Thanks to Avocent, we can run the data center with a smaller group,
saving us the equivalent of two full-time employees.”
While securing its data center was a top priority for the Dutch Police
Force, the Avocent solutions enabled it to do much more than that—
facilitating its consolidation efforts, simplifying provisioning tasks
and streamlining management activities for an overall more efficient
use of resources and cost savings.
In addition to aiding the Dutch Police Force Region Northwest
in achieving a lights-out data center environment, the Avocent
solutions helped the organization recognize hardware, cooling and
power consumption savings from consolidating its data centers from
seven geographically disbursed locations down to two.
“Avocent is the one and only supplier that provides a complete data
center management solution,” Van Loon concludes. “If I had to do
it over, I would definitely choose them again. We’ve enjoyed an
excellent return on investment with Avocent.”
“Avocent helped us reach our goal of consolidation in a very short
time,” Van Loon explains. “Since we had Avocent at all of our
sites, we could start the consolidation process by doing all of our
management centrally from one site, so we no longer needed local
people at the other sites. Also, as we achieved full consolidation,
Avocent made it easy to quickly switch off the remote locations we
no longer used.”
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.
Simplifying Provisioning and Management
The Avocent solutions have also simplified the organization’s
provisioning efforts.
“Avocent has saved us a lot of time in deploying new servers and
other networked devices,” Van Loon says. “We no longer have to
wait for a network manager or an OS manager to configure a system
before we can put it in the data center. When equipment arrives from
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Emerson, Business-Critical Continuity and Emerson Network Power are trademarks of Emerson Electric Co. or one of its affiliated companies. ©2010 Emerson Electric Co.
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