TM
Company
Microsoft Technology Center Munich
Location
Munich and Cologne, Germany
Type of business
Computer software and services
Web site www.microsoft.com/mtc
Business Needs
Build an infrastructure that would simplify server administration and operating system installation, while offering a highly secure environment for client systems.
Solution
Avocent DSView® 3 management software
Avocent DSR® KVM over IP switch appliance
ACS advanced console server MergePoint® service processor manager
Avocent Power Management Distribution Unit
MergePoint Infrastructure Explorer software
Business Benefits
• DSView 3 software provides a single point of access to all server consoles within the data centre via DSR digital KVM switches, enabling technicians to remotely install new operating systems without the need to visit individual servers.
• The solution even enables management of servers which are not connected to any network, such as those which are running virus-infected systems in a quarantined environment. This enhances security and offers segregation of client systems and data.
Overview
Microsoft Technology Centers provide a wide range of dynamic resources to help
Microsoft’s enterprise customers, ISVs and partners envision, plan, build, deploy, operate and optimize customized solutions based on Microsoft technologies. There are 20 Microsoft Technology Centers worldwide–eight in North America and 12 across Europe, the Middle East and Asia.
Germany is served by Microsoft Technology Centers in Cologne and Munich, which offer customers an integrated enterprise approach that bridges the gap between personal productivity and business process automation software. Solutions developed and tested at the Microsoft Technology Center enable IT environments to better support evolving business requirements.
Unlike most data centers, which tend to run the same software on the same servers for several years, the Microsoft Technology Center is constantly handling different projects, which have an average duration of two weeks. Each time a new project is started, a fresh operating system needs to be installed on the relevant servers.
With hundreds of servers to manage, reinstalling operating systems is a daily task for Microsoft Technology Center employees–so it was important to design the data center using technologies that would make this process easier to manage. Also, to manage its complex server infrastructure, Microsoft Technology Center Munich used to rely on a simple analog KVM system, with a terminal based in the data center itself. The solution was outdated and no longer supported by its manufacturer, because the company had gone out of business. A range of solutions from Avocent helped provide answers to all these issues.
“In addition to the lack of support, the existing infrastructure had a number of pain points for us,” explains Michael Kalbe, Head of Microsoft Technology Centers
Germany and Manager of Technical Evangelism. “Unlike most data centers, we run very short projects, which means that our servers need to be wiped and rebuilt every few weeks. We need access to the server console to install a new operating system, and with an analog KVM system, this meant spending long hours working in a cold data center.”
As a secondary issue, the Microsoft Technology Center wanted to build up a fully ITILcompliant set of documentation for its computing center–but with so many servers running ever-changing projects for multiple clients, keeping track of this information was a major challenge. This sometimes made life difficult for new staff, who needed considerable training before they were able to fully understand the complexities of the infrastructure.

TM
A Beneficial Partnership
The Microsoft Technology Center decided to rebuild its server management infrastructure completely, using technology from a new partner–Avocent. Avocent has been chosen as one of Microsoft’s
11 Global Technology Partners and supplies end-to-end solutions– including hardware, software, support and other services–for all
Microsoft Technology Centers worldwide. “Avocent is an excellent partner for the Microsoft Technology Center,” comments Kalbe. “The support that the Avocent team provided was absolutely first-class–they helped us plan the new solution very thoroughly and gave us excellent advice on how to get the maximum benefit out of the capabilities of their technology. As a result, the implementation itself was child’s play.”
Seamless Implementation
The Avocent and Microsoft Technology Center team quickly installed a number of DSR digital KVM switches, defined the access rights in the
Microsoft Technology Center’s Microsoft Active Directory System and set up the DSView 3 management software. The DSView 3 software provides a Web-based portal that enables remote access to any server in the data center and allows technicians to install new operating systems and perform other server management tasks from the comfort of their own office, with no need to visit the data center itself.
“Without the DSView 3 software, our lab would simply not be viable,” says Kalbe. “It covers 100 percent of our non-network server access requirements; we can do everything from operating system installation to power management and service processor monitoring via a single, simple interface. We no longer need to spend hours in the data center, and the ease of management is absolutely critical for the effective operation of the Microsoft Technology Center.”
Security
The solution is also highly secure; a critical requirement since the
Microsoft Technology Center often needs to enforce segregation between systems.
“We usually have several projects running at the same time, using confidential customer data, so it is critical that each customer can only access their own data. We are also often asked to investigate systems that have been attacked by viruses, and of course, we keep these separate from the main network to avoid the spread of infection,” says Kalbe. “We trust the Avocent solution to give us access to all our systems, without having to worry about data security or the threat of viruses.”
Dynamic Documentation
Avocent has also provided an answer to the documentation challenge by helping Microsoft Technology Center Munich deploy MergePoint
Infrastructure Explorer. This solution provides a browser-based tool that enables the Microsoft Technology Center to map the floor plan and rack configuration of its entire data center using a simple drag-and-drop interface. This not only provides a simple visual representation of the infrastructure that makes it easy for staff to understand which resources are being used by which projects, but it also delivers insight into resource consumption (electricity, cooling, floor space, weight, etc.), which helps the Microsoft Technology Center to more effectively plan the physical layout of the data center.
“We are continually changing our setups and configurations within the data center, so it is very important to have good documentation,” comments Kalbe. “At the same time, the dynamic nature of the operation makes it very difficult to keep documentation up-to-date, especially if we had to rely on traditional paper-based methods.
Avocent MergePoint Infrastructure Explorer is a fantastic tool, because it gives us a sophisticated, accurate and detailed view of the whole data center, while remaining extremely easy to use. It is also fully ITILcompliant, giving us a standardized way to manage the infrastructure and making it easier to train new staff.”
He concludes, “The Global Technology Partnership between Avocent and Microsoft is critical to the success of Microsoft Technology Center
Munich–providing infrastructure management solutions that make it possible for us to offer a flexible, responsive service to our customers and help them develop and test solutions that deliver real business value.”
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