Cloud OSUK Customer References

Unlocks insightson any data

Empowers people-centric IT

Enables modern apps

Transforms the datacentre

Transformational trends

Modern platform for the world’s apps

What makes the Cloud OS unique

Modern platform for the world’s apps

IntroductionAt Microsoft, we have been hard at work delivering an amazing amount of innovation to help you succeed in this transformational time. What we are

seeing in the industry calls for a different approach. An approach that provides a comprehensive and modern platform for the worlds apps. This

booklet provides you with a list of our early adopter customer references for:

Redefines the server category, delivering hundreds of new features and enhancements spanning virtualization, networking, storage, user experience, cloud computing, automation, and much more

Provides a comprehensive and integrated management platform for

your desktops and devices, sever infrastructure and private, public or

hybrid cloud, which delivers desktop, infrastructure &

application management and service delivery & automation.

For more information on the Microsoft Server and Tools products & solutions, please visit: www.microsoft.com/server-cloud.

Finally, you can view our full list of case studies at: www.microsoft.com/casestudies.

Customers

Aeriandiwww.aeriandi.com

Aeriandi offers hosted services to leading high-street banks and major retailers in the UK.

It provides web services, voice over IP (VoIP), predictive dialling, interactive voice response,

and web-based line-of-business applications—serving thousands of clients simultaneously

24 hours a day, seven days a week. Under Chief Executive Matthew Bryars, the firm is

making innovative use of cloud-based technology to help stockbrokers, customers in retail

banks, and private banks reduce costs while maintaining optimal levels of service.

Problem

To underpin its business strategy, Aeriandi needed to design a reliable, scalable, and secure

platform that was easy to maintain and PCI accredited. Bryars says: “We needed to have

clearance from a compliance perspective to host PCI-sensitive data on behalf of our

customers in financial and retail services, where strict standards of security apply.”

However, given the economic climate, it also needed to improve customer service while

keeping operational costs as low as possible. Bryars says: “Our time to market for new

systems was running at up to two months. We also wanted to deploy software updates

more quickly. Our system works hard. We serve thousands of simultaneous users

processing hundreds of web requests and initiating tens of thousands of phone calls every

second.”

”Microsoft System

Center 2012 SP1 helps

us to offer customers

much more complex

environments over

greater distances for

data centres and the

public and private

cloud, while

maintaining full PCI

compliance.”

Matthew Bryers,

Chief Executive

Aeriandi

SolutionAeriandi implemented Microsoft System Center 2012 SP1, taking advantage of the

Operations Manager and Virtual Machine Manager components, as well as Hyper-V

virtualisation software. Aeriandi also deployed the Windows Server 2012 operating

system.

With System Center 2012 SP1, another advantage for Aeriandi was the ability to

pool its data-centre resources into a private cloud while using the IT assets it

already owned, including earlier versions of Microsoft software.

Robbie Roberts, IT and Infrastructure Manager, Aeriandi, says: “The new operations

platform needed to integrate with the automated deployment of services, both

software and hardware, to ensure software updates happen with no downtime to

hosted customers. System Center 2012 SP1 offered us a complete operations

management solution and with Hyper-V as part of the package at no extra cost it

was a more resilient solution than VMware.”

Aeriandi licensed the System Center 2012 SP1 software under a Microsoft Services

Provider License Agreement—the premium offering for service providers and

independent software vendors that charges a monthly fee.

Benefits• Customer service boosted as time to market cut from two months to 48

• System Center 2012 SP1 improves customer service with no extra costs.

• Automation reduces time spent on manual processes

• Servers expand fivefold with only one extra technician required

• PCI DSS accreditation helps to win new customers

Anglia

Support

Partnershipwww.sercoasp.com

Anglia Support Partnership wanted better business intelligence (BI) tools to

help healthcare organizations in England cut costs and improve efficiency, so it

implemented a solution from Microsoft and Ascribe. As a result, its clients can

improve operations and adapt to healthcare reforms while keeping the focus

on patient care. The solution has also improved efficiency for end users, who

can access data more easily and produce reports within minutes.

Problem

In the U.K. healthcare services are identified and procured on behalf of local communities

through primary care and NHS trusts. Commissioning organizations need access to both

business and clinical data to monitor costs and billing practices. To support the

commissioning process, ASP provides a shared informatics service, which supplies

aggregated data sets from hospitals, clinics, and other healthcare providers.

The commissioners then analyze the data and generate reports. However, they often used

manual processes that were time-consuming and offered limited business insight. In 2010,

the government announced that most NHS commissioning activities would move from

primary care trusts to groups of general practitioners. “We needed to deliver data to

general practitioners and practice managers whose main role is not analyzing data,” says

Jeremy Lane, Data Warehouse Manager at Anglia Support Services. “They’ve got the far

more important job of looking after patients.” ASP sought an enterprise-level BI solution

that would simplify access to data. Lane says, “We wanted a more automated, centralized

solution so that people could find the right information more quickly.”

“If you want to create a

better National Health

Service with less

money... you need to

put the right

information in front of

the right people. A BI

solution based on SQL

Server 2012 helps us do

that in a managed,

straightforward, and

intuitive way.”

Jeremy Lane

Data Warehouse Manager

Anglia Support Partnership

Solution

ASP turned to Microsoft partner, Ascribe, to help design a centralized BI

platform with self-service tools based on Microsoft SQL Server 2012 data

management software. ASP decided to implement the Ascribe

Commissioner Accelerator data warehouse and BI solution with Microsoft

SQL Server 2012 Enterprise. The Ascribe platform provides the

contracting and budgetary information required in the commissioning

process.

ASP wanted enhanced BI tools and a database solution it could rely on.

“We were already using SQL Server 2008 R2 internally, and we knew that

Ascribe worked with it too,” says Lane. “And with all the new BI features

available, it seemed like a good opportunity to implement SQL Server

2012.”

In December 2011, the ASP and Ascribe team ran a proof of concept that

included SQL Server 2012 and Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 running

on the Windows Server 2008 R2 operating system. The team completed

the proof of concept within two weeks and was ready to deploy the

solution to healthcare commissioners by February 2012.

Benefits

• Enhances Operational Efficiency

• Improves Flexibility and Insight

• Eases Management and Speeds Reporting

Aston

Martinwww.astonmartin.com

Behind every luxury sports car produced by Aston Martin is a sophisticated IT

infrastructure. The goal of the Aston Martin IT team is to optimize that infrastructure so

that it performs as efficiently as the production line it supports. To meet that goal, Aston

Martin is standardizing on Microsoft technology. The IT team chose the Windows Server

2012 operating system, including Hyper-V technology to virtualize its data center and build

four private clouds to dynamically allocate IT resources to the business as needed. For

cloud and data center management, Aston Martin uses Microsoft System Center 2012. With

a single viewpoint into the company’s entire infrastructure, the IT team can ensure that PCs

in the company’s headquarters and production facility are running reliably at peak

performance. Aston Martin is a more cohesive, productive organization as a result.

Problem

Previously, business units made their own IT purchases for their projects. If a production

engineering team wanted a new piece of machinery—and these machines all have an

embedded PC with a UI that has to be monitored to ensure optimal production lines—the

team would have to buy the machinery and then ask the IT team to install it on a server

and connect it to a database and the network. “Sometimes, we would get a call saying the

production line is about to go down because there’s a problem with a system, and we

wouldn’t know about it because we hadn’t provisioned it,” says Roach-Rooke.

“The IT team’s purpose

is to enable Aston

Martin to build the

most beautiful sports

cars in the world. So,

from servers, to

desktops, to production

line PCs, Microsoft

technology is behind

everything we do.”

Daniel Roach-Rooke,

IT Infrastructure Manager,

Aston Martin

Solution

With the introduction of the Windows Server 2012 operating system, which includes the

latest version of Hyper-V virtualization technology, and the launch of Microsoft System

Center 2012 Service Pack 1, Aston Martin saw a solid IT foundation that aligned with its

goals of pushing the boundaries of contemporary sports car manufacturing.

“The 2012 iteration of Microsoft products is a very, very strong portfolio,” says Roach-

Rooke. “As a customer, the 2012 refresh year demonstrated Microsoft’s commitment to

building interoperable products that just work seamlessly together. It was an easy

decision to go with Windows Server 2012 and System Center 2012.” System Center 2012

is a product for managing data center resources, private clouds, and endpoint devices.

“Hyper-V is such a good product that we want to get everything moved over as soon as

possible,” says Roach-Rooke. “For example, we compared Microsoft SharePoint Server

2013 running on a physical Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 cluster with SharePoint Server

2013 running on a virtual SQL Server 2012 environment. Then we ran searches on

SharePoint Server 2013, a very intensive SQL operation, in both environments and saw

performance increases of between 20 to 30 percent with the virtual environment

compared to the physical SQL Server 2008 R2 cluster.”

Benefits

• Improved production efficiency

• Increased flexibility with hybrid cloud

• Simplified IT management

• Self-service software deployment

• Cohesive, efficient operations

At The

Raceswww.attheraces.com

At The Races provides live horse-racing coverage, news, and analysis through its website and

TV channel. To manage sudden surges in demand online during key events in the horse-

racing calendar, the firm needed a cost-effective, cloud-based environment that would scale

up and down easily and reliably. At The Races chose Windows Azure, and since 2011 has

experienced 50 per cent growth in users on its website.

Problem

Until 2011, the company was using a third-party hosting service to manage its website. The

provider found it difficult to cope with surges in demand for predictable events, so At The

Races decided to bring the service in-house. Miguel Garcia, Head of Technical, At The Races,

says: “We tried to find a different hoster, but the quote we received wasn’t cost-effective for

us. The website had grown to the point where a dedicated in-house developer team seemed

the right strategy.”

At The Races was worried that when there were spikes in traffic to the website—for

example, during events such as Royal Ascot—operating costs could escalate with a

traditional hosting platform. Conversely, during quiet periods in the racing year, demand

would fall. Garcia says: “During the Cheltenham Festival, we get a 100 per cent jump in

traffic for the duration of the festival. The core company is quite small and managing a

traditionally hosted site would have been beyond our current capacity.”

“Windows Azure is

critical in helping us

scale up to meet

predictable surges in

demand, such as

during Royal Ascot

and the Cheltenham

Festival. It also works

for us during

unpredictable spikes

in traffic.”Miguel Garcia,

Head of Technical,

At The Races

Solution

At The Races, which was already using the Microsoft .NET Framework, migrated

from Microsoft SQL Server 2000 to Windows Azure, merging data from four

databases into one. Previously, servers could be inactive for 70 per cent of the

time, racking up considerable costs.

With a small developer team, At The Races benefited from the third-party

AzureWatch tool—which automatically monitors traffic on the website—supplied

by Paraleap Technologies, a Microsoft BizSpark startup specialising in cloud

computing software services.

At The Races experienced a seamless transition from its previous hosted service

to Windows Azure, which offers flexibility and performance reliability. Garcia

says: “We have an extremely stable platform. The site is simple to configure and

the few challenges that we encountered during migration were simple to solve.

Windows Azure is fast and incredibly easy to deploy.”

Benefits

• Windows Azure scales easily to meet demand

• Website experiences 100 per cent growth in users in first year

• Windows Azure helps lower operating costs compared to hosted service

• Developer team concentrates on new services for race goers

Bet on

Softwww.betonsoft.com

BetOnSoft develops and manages more than 110 online casino games, played every day by

thousands of players worldwide. To ensure that its games are highly available BetOnSoft

wanted to prepare for business growth by scaling its database while maintaining application

responsiveness. In addition, its applications must perform key business-critical analytics in

real time. So the company deployed a hybrid application solution that takes advantage of the

high-availability features in Microsoft SQL Server 2012 AlwaysOn and the scalability of SQL

Azure. Now, the company’s infrastructure can exceed 10 times its previous peak loads while

running intensive real-time data analytics.

Problem

To be competitive, BetOnSoft must be able to be agile and innovative in its technology

approach, so it can handle rapid growth in the number of users playing its games. In fact, as

the number of operators using BetOnSoft services increases, it is likely that aggressive

marketing on any given day would create sudden high demand. To handle such scenarios,

BetOnSoft needs the ability to rapidly scale up or down. “We have more than doubled the

number of operators in the last 12 months,” says Thomas Pullen, Database Administrator,

BetOnSoft. “And our expectations are that we will continue to grow. We needed to make

sure that our database software and servers had the capacity to scale rapidly.”

BetOnSoft also sought to out-innovate its competitors by implementing rich functionality

for operators and players alike, much of which depends on complex data analysis to

produce results in real-time. To increase availability, scalability, and performance for its multi-

terabyte database, in early 2011 BetOnSoft decided to implement a new technology

solution.

“We now have the

capacity to add more

players and operators

while not losing any

application

responsiveness. If our

customer base grows

by 10 times, we know

we’ll still have great

performance with SQL

Server 2012 AlwaysOn.”

Thomas Pullen

Database Administrator

BetOnSoft

Solution

In July 2011, the company implemented Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 x64

Enterprise data management software on two Dell PowerEdge R810 server

computers with four 8-core processors and 256 megabytes of RAM.

In late 2011, BetOnSoft decided to upgrade further to Microsoft SQL Server

2012 Enterprise. “We had been very happy with SQL Server 2008 R2 overall,”

says Pullen. “But we saw features in SQL Server 2012 that we knew would

help us with availability, scalability, and performance.”

One of those features is SQL Server 2012 AlwaysOn, a new high-availability

and disaster-recovery solution through which customers can query data in

replica databases and conduct backup operations from those replicas. “SQL

Server 2012 AlwaysOn was the key driver for us,” Pullen says. “Between the

availability groups, the readable mirror for offloading reporting and

database checking, and the listener, we knew we would increase our

availability with SQL Server 2012.”

Benefits

• Processes 10 Times Previous Workload While Running Real-Time

Analysis.

• Increases Availability for Mission-Critical Applications.

• Provides Hybrid IT Structure to Accommodate Scalability.

• Simplifies Administration.

• Enhances Service to Operators.

Calyx

Managed

Serviceswww.calyxgroup.com

To support growth and provide customers with more choice in how they

consume their services, Calyx Managed Services deployed the Operations

Manager component of Microsoft System Center 2012, the first in a phased

roll out of the Microsoft System Center 2012 suite. The solution has cut

total cost of ownership through licensing, better resource allocation, and

automation of critical monitoring and management tasks.

Problem

Calyx provides outsourced IT to customers across the United Kingdom (U.K.) and

has offices in London, and Didsbury and Hyde in Manchester. The business is focused

on medium-sized organisations, employs around 230 staff and supports more than 700

public and private sector customers from its three U.K. offices.

The firm’s business strategy requires a highly flexible IT platform, and a set up that

ensures it can develop, deliver, and monitor a range of services efficiently and cost-

effectively. To increase agility, Calyx wanted to replace its incumbent monitoring

solution in Manchester. Tim Clegg, Head of Transformation, Calyx Managed Services

says: “We had a variety of tools of varying effectiveness. We wanted a solution that

could provide us with a range of functions and benefits—from development to

monitoring and maintenance—and support us in expanding our managed service

business.”

“We wanted a solution

that could provide us

with a range of

functions and

benefits—from

development to

monitoring and

maintenance—and

support us in

expanding our

managed service

business.”

Tim Clegg

Head of Transformation

Calyx Managed Services

Solution

Calyx evaluated a number of proposals to find the right solution for its

managed and development services strategy. “While we need a single

view of network operations, we also want to provide first, second, and

third-line support teams with access to the tools they need for their

roles,” says Clegg. Calyx engaged with specialist Microsoft System Center

Partner Apajove to assist in evaluating the Microsoft System Center 2012

product set. It worked with Apajove to support the phased deployment of

the suite once product selection was completed.

The Microsoft System Center 2012 suite brings together a range of

modules with a common thread built around Orchestrator, a tool that

supports workflow and process automation across data centres and end-

user devices.

Calyx is now in the process of deploying Microsoft System Center 2012

Configuration Manager to support management of its customers’ devices

from the Manchester service operations centre.

Benefits

• Firm distributes resources cost-effectively.

• Calyx cuts total cost of ownership.

• Business responds rapidly to market demand.

• Operations centre supports all business lines.

• Staff develop their expertise.

Coventry

Universitywww.coventry.ac.uk

W hen the Coventry University IT team was asked to cut £1 million from its

budget as part of a strategic initiative, it re-evaluated virtualisation

technologies. A previous foray into virtualisation had proved to be expensive,

with the team finding it a challenge to make the most of the technology. After

comparing several solutions, it chose to deploy W indows Server 2008 R2

Datacenter because the licensing model immediately saved the university

£129,000. The IT team is now using Hyper-V technology—included in the

solution—to virtualise as many virtual machines onto one server as it needs,

without requiring licences for each virtual machine.

Problem

Several years ago, the university’s IT team purchased VMware licences and technology,

with the goal of reducing server sprawl and centralising IT management. Stephen Booth,

Head of Central Computing Services, Coventry University, says: “We’d looked at

virtualisation to improve control over the network and save money through optimising

our existing investments. But our VMware distribution was small scale and piecemeal, and

we never fully used the technology because of the high direct costs of licensing it, coupled

with minimal use of the extended feature capabilities of the product.”

But, in 2010, the university moved quickly forward with its strategic plan to improve

university services. As part of this, the executive management team requested that the IT

department make savings of £1 million across the campus. Booth says: “We revisited

virtualisation and cloud technologies because in just a few years they’d changed a lot, and

there were different options available to us.”

“With Windows

Server 2008 R2

Datacenter, we

gained precisely the

features we needed

to achieve savings,

standardisation, and

greater control over

the network.”

Steve Rogers

Server Team Leader

Coventry University

Solution

The team looked at Hyper-V, Citrix VirtualBox, and VMware, comparing

each solution and evaluating the best combination of price, performance,

and tools. Steve Rogers, Server Team Leader at Coventry University, says:

“With Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter, we gained precisely the

features we needed to achieve savings, standardisation, and greater

control over the network.” The evaluation resulted in the university

choosing to deploy a virtualised infrastructure based on Windows Server

2008 R2 Datacenter and Hyper-V. “There was no question that it was the

best total infrastructure solution for Coventry University,” says Booth.

“Not only is the licensing cost-effective, but we can also use Microsoft

System Center tools to manage the infrastructure efficiently from one

location.”

Benefits

• University Saves £1 Million.

• IT Team Improves Business Services.

• University Reduces Ongoing Research Costs.

• End-Users Gain Better Experience.

• University Hits Carbon Savings Goal.

• IT Protects Valuable Data with Disaster Recovery Solution.

EMIwww.emigroup.com

Record company EMI Music wanted to integrate the large amount of

information it uses—including massive consumer surveys, demographic,

and partner data from companies such as iTunes—to gain a single global

view for its artists. By deploying Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Fast Track

Data W arehouse technology, EMI now has an accessible single source of

country, consumer, and partner insight data to support decision making

about the needs of consumers in 25 countries.

Problem

EMI Music is the world’s fourth-largest record company in terms of market share. It

manages artists and distributes CDs, digital music, ringtones, and merchandise. The

firm operates in 25 countries through three regional divisions, including the United

Kingdom and Ireland.

The music company has a wealth of complex information from both internal and

external sources, but, until recently, decision makers were unable to exploit the value

of this “Big Data” store. David Boyle, Senior Vice President of Insight, EMI, was

determined to launch a suite of projects to derive value from the data and generate

insight in three key areas: County data, consumer data and partner data.

Boyle says: “The overall solution is split into the three key insight areas, but the

primary objective was to unify all the information into one consistent subject area. We

wanted it to be easily accessible to every EMI decision maker in 25 countries.”

“In the early days, we

made great progress with

Excel Services. But to

meet the massive

demands of the business,

we had to shift focus.

With Microsoft SQL Server

2012 Fast Track Data

Warehouse, our users can

access the business data

they need using standard

Microsoft desktop tools.”

David Boyle

Senior Vice President of Insight

EMI

Solution

EMI deployed Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Fast Track Data Warehouse based on

an HP hardware platform. The solution presents users with data, visualisations,

and insights through Microsoft SharePoint technology and desktop business

intelligence (BI) tools. Microsoft Gold Partner for business intelligence Adatis

implemented the solution using SQL Server 2012 Fast Track Data Warehouse

best practice methodology.

EMI decided to process the data into Microsoft SQL Server 2012 data

management software using SQL Server Integration Services and SQL Server

Analysis Services cubes—both Multidimensional and Tabular, the new model

introduced in SQL Server 2012.

SachaTomey, Owner and Director, Adatis, says: “Adatis was the ideal Microsoft

Partner because of its role as an early adopter of SQL Server 2012 technology,

domain knowledge, and specialism in best practice BI methodologies.”

Benefits

• Firm gets global insight.

• EMI gains single source of information.

• Data warehouse unifies disparate information across the business.

• Partner helps improve performance and manageability.

• Company promotes global music industry through innovation.

Essex

County

Councilwww.essex.gov.uk

Part of Essex County Council, Target Tracker develops software for schools. Its

Primary Target Tracker application—which provides information to support

learning—ran on Microsoft Excel spreadsheet software. To stay ahead of its

competitors, Target Tracker rebuilt the solution using SQL Database in

W indows Azure. The firm now has an application that scales to meet the needs

of thousands of schools in England and overseas.

Problem

More than 2,000 schools in the U.K. have adopted the Primary Target Tracker solution. This

helps them to support each child’s learning with the right teaching, and identify issues or

trends in the classroom. It provides access to critical information, such as teacher

assessment and test results.

Schools are subject to regular and vigorous inspection by the Office for Standards in

Education, Children’s Services and Skills (Ofsted). Green says: “Primary Target Tracker helps

schools meet Ofsted requirements to understand children’s progress and quickly identify

and resolve any gaps in learning.”

Darren Cole, Project Manager, Target Tracker, Essex County Council, says that the

organisation has always sought to be highly innovative in its use of technology. This, and an

increase in market competition, inspired it to re-develop Primary Target Tracker, which ran

on Microsoft Excel spreadsheet software. Cole says: “Each school’s data was stored locally,

so users needed to carry information on memory sticks if they wanted to access it outside

the school. We wanted to update our application to reflect the very latest in IT—the use of

the cloud to store data.”

“With Primary Target

Tracker storing more

than 150 million

individual

assessments in the

cloud, teaching staff

can quickly and

securely access

critical data from any

location.”

David W ilde

Chief Information Officer

Essex County Council

Solution

The Target Tracker team considered a few different options, including Amazon Web

Services, but found they couldn’t meet the application’s exact needs. The

organisation turned to Windows Azure SQL Database, a cloud database service built

on SQL Server technologies. With it, companies can scale to multiple databases

quickly and easily, while paying only for what they use. Cole says: “We chose to

develop Primary Target Tracker on Windows Azure because it manages rapid

changes in demand and we don’t have to introduce expensive servers in-house that

remain idle for long periods of time.” Windows Azure is a managed service, saving

Cole and his small team of 25 the time-consuming tasks of installing, updating, or

maintaining hardware and software.

Most schools using Primary Target Tracker now run the new SQL Database version.

For these schools, data is held in the cloud. The Microsoft .NET Framework 4 client

application offers an intuitive interface based on familiar Microsoft Office tools, and

information is presented graphically, making it easy for users to interpret, add to, or

share with colleagues.

Benefits

• Scalable system supports rapid growth.

• Cloud solution accelerates setup.

• Managed solution keeps costs down.

• Trusted technology drives new business.

• Data availability is assured.

Fasthostswww.fasthosts.co.uk

Fasthosts is a fast-growing UK hosting provider that has expanded due to

its focus on offering better and more economical services than its

competition. To continue to stay in front, Fasthosts is upgrading to

W indows Server 2012. It will take advantage of new features, such as

storage migration, Hyper-V Replica, and “shared nothing” live migration,

that will simplify data center administration and increase availability.

Fasthosts will be able to offer several new services based on W indows

Server 2012 capabilities that will generate new revenues. It can also

improve availability by managing customer workloads with more flexibility.

Problem

Fasthosts focuses on the mainstream hosting market, selling directly to end customers

and also through an extensive partner channel network. In July 2010, Fasthosts

launched a virtual private server offering (dedicated servers running as virtual

machines) using the Hyper-V technology in the Windows Server 2008 R2 operating

system. Within two years, the company was serving thousands of customers on an

infrastructure of 4,000 virtual machines running on 12 16-node clusters.

Fasthosts also used Microsoft System Center data center solutions to automate much

of the management of the environment. However, Fasthosts still had to manually

manage and monitor host server workloads, as it felt that System Center Virtual

Machine Manager 2008 R2 was too cautious in virtual machine placement.

“With the many new

features in Windows

server 2012, we can

create richer services

that generate revenue.

There’s a real opportunity

to ‘productize’ the

Hyper-V Replica feature,

for example, to offer a

‘replication as a service’

offering.”

Jonathon Royle

Chief Technology Officer,

Fasthosts

Solution

Because it had thousands of servers running Windows Server 2008 R2,

Fasthosts was closely watching its successor, the Windows Server 2012

operating system. “We were really interested to find out what would be in

Windows Server 2012, particularly in the new version of Hyper-V,” says Lee

Harrison, Lead Virtualization and Storage Engineer on the Infrastructure Team

at Fasthosts. “The more we heard about it, the more excited I became. The new

version of Hyper-V offered us the scalability and flexibility that we needed.”

Fasthosts joined the Microsoft Rapid Deployment Program (RDP) and created

a proof-of-concept environment by using a Dell M1000e Blade Chassis

populated with Dell PowerEdge M610 blade servers. It used a NetApp FAS6280

storage system and the Cisco Catalyst 4948 switch for server switching within

the rack. “We did a lengthy storage review and the NetApp relationship with

Microsoft was key in our decision to select NetApp,” Harrison says. “Good

vendor communication is key in resolving support issues.”

Benefits

• Boost IT Efficiency and Business Agility.

• Reduce Costs Internally and for Customers.

• Create New Revenue Opportunities.

Hogg

Robinson

Groupwww.hrgworldwide.com

Hogg Robinson wanted to extend its core travel platform to work

seamlessly on mobile devices. It created a mobile version of its application

using W indows Azure—including Cloud Services, Service Bus, and SQL

Database—to deliver travel information and booking services to mobile

users. The company has already saved up to 80 per cent in start-up costs

and improved the development team’s productivity by 25 per cent with

W indows Azure.

Problem

Based in the UK, Hogg Robinson provides corporate travel booking services to

customers worldwide. To deliver its services, Hogg Robinson integrates systems and

data from third-party suppliers, customer business systems, and in-house software,

using Microsoft BizTalk Server 2010 Enterprise. The software creates a connection

layer between the web, mobile, and desktop applications that comprise its core

platform. Customer data is always protected behind either the company or customer

firewalls.

With the increasing popularity of smartphones and tablet PCs, it was important for

Hogg Robinson to extend its platform to mobile devices. Paul Saggar, Director of

Technology and Product Development, Hogg Robinson, says: “Most customers need to

access booking services while they’re travelling, so we wanted to develop a mobile

version of our solution.” But to deliver its services on mobile devices, Hogg Robinson

needed to address scalability, performance, and security challenges.

“The team has increased

productivity by about 25

per cent for projects

that use or are hosted

on Windows Azure, and

we’re already starting

on phase two of our

mobile strategy. This is

testimony to how

quickly we can develop

and extend services with

the cloud platform.”

Paul Saggar

Director of Technology and Product

Development, Hogg Robinson

Solution

Saggar and his team created the HRG i-Suite mobile application incorporating a

mobile gateway based on Windows Azure. No personally identifiable information

is stored on the device. The gateway uses Cloud Services, Service Bus, and SQL

Database to create a hybrid solution comprising cloud and on-premises services.

Some functionality is delivered directly from the cloud, while a reliable and

secure message and relay infrastructure connects information from the on-

premises booking platform to Cloud Services.

Jon Simpson, Technical Architect, Hogg Robinson, says: “Using Cloud Services and

delegating frequently accessed data to SQL Database helps us deliver excellent

performance through the HRG i-Suite mobile application, regardless of user

location.”

Several corporate customers are currently piloting the HRG i-Suite mobile

solution, and the development team is taking advantage of the scalability and

flexibility of Cloud Services to reduce the time and complexity of development.

Benefits

• Development lead time is 25 per cent faster.

• CAPEX is reduced by up to 80 per cent.

• Remote performance and security are increased.

• Service innovation is enhanced.

Knight

Frankwww.knightfrank.co.uk

Global property consultancy Knight Frank wanted to enhance client service

by helping its experts successfully combine geospatial data with other sources

of information. In 2012, it upgraded its existing data management software to

Microsoft SQL Server 2012, and combined this with use of Bing Maps for

Enterprise. The firm has already seen an increase in productivity, with new

application development time reduced from months to weeks.

Problem

Knight Frank, which is headquartered in London, is a leading independent global property

consultancy, which relies on geospatial data to run its business. However, its London

residential development team found it difficult to share geospatial data with both internal

and external sources. Adam Siejka, Database Development Manager, Knight Frank, says:

“Geospatial support is a key concern for us because we deal with properties and use

both external and mobile applications.”

Until recently, the company’s knowledge about residential development opportunities was

gathered from local authorities’ town planning information, combined with the firm’s own

data. It used manual processes, which were often inconsistent. The needs of the London

residential development team corresponded with a review at Knight Frank of its existing

data management software. The firm wanted to improve mobile working, ease

collaboration, and guarantee always-on data availability.

Joseph Megkousoglou, Lead Software Architect, Knight Frank, considered several

alternatives to upgrading the existing Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 deployments,

including Oracle.

“The new features

in Microsoft SQL

Server 2012 will

help us develop

external websites

and applications in

weeks rather than

months.”

Adam Siejka

Database Development Manager

Knight Frank

Working with Microsoft Partner itelligence, Knight Frank upgraded to Microsoft

SQL Server 2012. The advanced integration, reporting, and analysis

capabilities—combined with Bing Maps for Enterprise—provided the platform

for building a reporting and analysis tool for the London residential

development team. Andy Steer, Director—Business Analytics, intelligence, says:

“The Knight Frank team operates only within the M25, but the intention was to

build a proof of concept capable of reuse for other teams, applications, and

websites. We produced a solution based on Microsoft SQL Server 2012 within

15 days.”

The first step in this process was to develop an application based on Microsoft

SharePoint Server 2010 Enterprise, to give access to rich data on residential

development opportunities in London. Steer says: “The interface for both

internal data capture and initial analysis within the solution is delivered by

SharePoint Server 2010, with dynamic maps provided by Bing Maps for

Enterprise.”

Benefits

• Development time for external websites cut from months to weeks.

• Speed, accuracy, and efficiency bolster service to customers.

• AlwaysOn feature in SQL Server 2012 ensures high availability.

• Microsoft Partner delivers knowledge transfer to in-house developers.

London

Borough of

Newhamwww.newham.gov.uk

Newham Council wanted to support staff working remotely and make efficiency

savings by developing systems using cloud-based services. The 2012 Olympic and

Paralympic Games presented an opportunity to use the Windows Server 2012

operating system and Microsoft System Center 2012 to give secure remote access

to information for 1,400 employees. Home working resulted in staff becoming

more productive, paving the way for further cloud services.

Problem

In 2011, Newham Council embarked on a project to share IT and support services

with Havering, aiming to save £11 million (U.S.$16 million) by 2015. Driving down

costs and increasing efficiency are challenges shared by all local authorities in the

U.K., and Newham Council aims to do this through its focus on citizen-centric

services.

In terms of innovation, Newham Council has made a substantial commitment to

remote working, online self-service for citizens, shared services, and collective

procurement—all with the aim of doing more with less. This strategy proved

particularly successful during the 2012 Olympic Games, when home working

relieved pressure on services and staff were more productive.

These innovations—including the shared infrastructure with Havering Council and

a self-service portal for citizens—have created a strong argument for developing

cloud-based systems. Connell has predicted that within five years most Newham

Council IT services will be cloud-based, which will involve close collaboration with

Microsoft.

“Because we’re using

Hyper-V Replica,

which comes with

the Windows Server

2012 operating

system, there’s no

need for us to buy

more expensive

products, thereby

saving money.”

Andrew Woodgate

Principal System Support Analyst

London Borough of Newham

Solution

As a result of these policy changes, Newham Council is now using the Microsoft

private cloud solution to deliver further savings and efficiencies, while at the

same time taking advantage of its existing Microsoft-based estate. Cloud-

optimised IT provided by Microsoft supports the mobile and flexible work style

first adopted by the council in 2012 for the Olympics.

In 2012, the council scaled up its remote access capability to 1,400 concurrent

users and tested it before the Olympics using the Microsoft private cloud. By

upgrading to Windows Server 2012 and Microsoft System Center 2012,

Newham Council delivered a flexible, cost-effective, cloud-based infrastructure

using its existing technology.

Andrew Woodgate, Principal System Support Analyst, London Borough of

Newham, says: “The Service Manager component of System Center 2012 has

replaced the third-party software supporting our help desk, realising

substantial savings. We’re also using other components—Operations Manager

for monitoring, Configuration Manager for the desktop management, and the

Orchestrator component for automating tasks previously conducted manually.”

Benefits

• Council shifts services to the private cloud over five years

• Hyper-V helps council cut costs

• Microsoft private cloud paves the way to the public cloud

• System Center investment supports shared services agenda

LSBwww.laseda.es

LSB needed to improve support across its globally distributed IT

infrastructure. It selected Microsoft Partner Apajove to extend Microsoft

System Center Configuration Manager across all sites and devices, as well

as implement a multilanguage W indows 7 Enterprise “zero-touch”

installation solution. As a result, the firm has cut licensing and antimalware

costs, and enhanced standardisation, support, and performance.

Problem

LSB faced a number of challenges incorporating newly acquired businesses and

modernising its IT infrastructure. To do this, it required a new approach to support

and the provision of services—joining together disparate processes and tools, and

standardising on a single, global service desk.

Solution

Softcat is the European large account reseller for LSB, managing its Microsoft

Enterprise Agreement. And, as the Softcat preferred partner for Microsoft System

Center, Apajove was selected to design, plan, and implement the solution. LSB was

already using System Center Configuration Manager to provide inventory and

software distribution to some of the business. Apajove worked with LSB operations

personnel in Germany to extend System Center Configuration Manager across all

sites and devices. Apajove also implemented a multilanguageWindows 7 Enterprise

zero-touch installation solution to accelerate the adoption of the Windows 7

operating system and Forefront Endpoint Protection across the estate.

“Standardising on

System Center has

allowed us to remove

many point-solution

products from the

environment driving

standardisation,

supportability,

performance and

availability”

Craig Dixon

Corporate IT Director

LSB

LSB had a Lotus Notes-based incident-management solution, which was no

longer considered fit for purpose, so Apajove implemented Microsoft System

Center Service Manager to provide incident and change management. System

Center Service Manager integrates tightly with other elements of the

infrastructure. It provides a seamless configuration management database

experience for service-desk staff and a significantly improved experience for

end users. Previously, all incidents were raised through email, resulting in

compliance and accuracy issues. This approach has been replaced with the

System Center Service Manager Portal rendered in Microsoft SharePoint 2010,

through which users complete a form to raise an incident.

Apajove deployed Microsoft System Center Operations Manager to provide

operational monitoring of the distributed LSB infrastructure. All servers at all

LSB sites across the world now submit telemetry and health status to a central

console, giving the operations and support teams insight into the performance

and availability of servers, services, and applications.

Benefits

• Existing service-desk licensing savings

• Existing malware solution savings.

• Deployment time improvements.

• Toolset rationalisation.

• Foundation for future.

Menzies

Aviationwww.menziesaviation.com

MenziesAviation is a global provider of passenger, ramp, and cargo handling services.

Its rapid global expansion through business acquisitions contributed to an increasing

number of employees and devices, a growing amount of data, and a complex

network—complicating employee authentication, identity, and information access

management. MenziesAviation deployed Windows Server 2012 so that IT staff can use

its centralized, flexible tools to build an easily managed employee identity framework.

The company can easily control employee access to file data, enhance data security,

and achieve compliance—all from its two, U.K.based data centers.

Problem

MenziesAviation is now a major force in the international ground handling industry.

Operating at more than 132 airports in 34 countries and supported by a global team

of more than 17,000 people, MenziesAviation serves more than 500 airline customers

that handle more than 800,000 flights and 1.7 million tons of cargo annually.

Maintaining the flexible, reliable, and secure IT infrastructure that is necessary to

support the company’s global operations is an ongoing challenge. MenziesAviation

worked with longtime partner Dell, a member of the Microsoft Partner Network, to

complete the data center project in 2007 and improve business continuity and

customer service level agreements. Together, there are 300 Dell PowerEdge 2950,

R710, and R720 servers across the two data centers. MenziesAviation uses a Cisco

network and an EqualLogic storage solution. MenziesAviation maintains a VMware-

based virtualized environment that includes 350 virtual machines that run mission-

critical business systems.

“We have a lot of

data across the

globe, but with Active

Directory and

Dynamic Access

Control, we can make

sure the right people

get access to the

right data and help

keep our information

secure.”Alan Yin

Senior Engineer,

Enterprise Systems Team

MenziesAviation

Solution

MenziesAviation sought to centrally manage employee identity and access to

information based on business and compliance needs. It chose the Identity and

Access Management scenario in the RDP so that IT staff can benefit from

improvements to Active Directory and the introduction of Dynamic Access

Control, a file-system authorization mechanism.

“Why the RDP? There is always pressure to reduce costs,” says Apps. “At the

same time, service quality, customer safety, and data security are all paramount.

The RDP gives us the ability to test the latest operating system from Microsoft

and see how we can use it to reduce costs without impacting service or safety.

Dell has been our technology partner for 10 years now, so we were excited to

participate. We were able to work closely with Microsoft, which has been a

great experience.”

IT staff also like the simplified licensing that comes with a Microsoft solution.

“The licensing is amazing,” says Apps. “ It’s another reason that I can see us

moving to Hyper-V across the infrastructure. We get more value out of every

pound we spend on IT.”

Benefits

• Improves Identity and Access Management to Boost Security.

• Increases Business Agility to Support Growth.

• Simplifies IT Platform.

miicardwww.miicard.com

Online identity-as-a-service (IDaaS) provider miiCard (My Internet

Identity Card) wanted a secure platform to allow customers to prove their

identity online in just a few minutes. It is using W indows Azure to power its

service, increase competitiveness, and offer a global service to an industry

that demands resilience and scalability. Customers in nine countries

already use miiCard, which can support 100,000, or 10 million users as

required.

Problem

Founded in 2011 and based in Scotland, miiCard is the first global platform for real-

time online identity verification to Level of Assurance 3 (LOA 3) that complies with

anti-money laundering and “Know Your Customer” standards.

With both the risk and value of web transactions increasing, miiCard has developed a

way to prove identity purely online. James Varga, Chief Executive Officer, miiCard, says:

“miiCard brings trust to the Internet and control of our online identities.

As a small team with a global proposition, miiCard knew it had to do something

different to succeed in an industry traditionally dominated by large IT companies.

Using a cloud-based platform-as-a-service (PaaS) model rapidly emerged as the best

option. Varga says: “We needed to take a fresh approach. It wasn’t enough to copy a

relational database and port it over to the cloud—we had to design it for the cloud

with a highly reliable, secure, and scalable solution.”

“Windows Azure

offers us scalability,

resilience, and

flexibility. This means

that as a startup we

can compete in an

environment

dominated by large

systems integrators

and technology

companies.””James Varga

Chief Executive Officer

miiCard

Solution

miiCard chose Windows Azure for the IDaaSoffering because its developers

could take a new approach to supporting the demands of the Internet. Initially,

miiCard considered using Amazon Web Services, but decided that Microsoft

offered the best value proposition with high availability, security, and scalability.

Varga says: “ It is the Microsoft approach to cloud computing that makes this

possible and has changed the way we build software. Administrators no longer

face the challenges of load balancing, failover, resource planning, and scaling. We

just build it and it works.”

As a startup, miiCard qualified for support through Microsoft BizSpark—a global

programme that helps software startups succeed. It gives them access to

Microsoft software development tools, connecting them with key industry players,

including investors. miiCard also has a Windows Azure Enterprise Agreement,

which helps the company compete and scale globally without the need for

expensive physical infrastructure.

Benefits

• Windows Azure offers miiCard competitive advantage

• miiCard revalidates identities every night, easing compliance.

• Cloud-based IDaaSfrees developers to create strong user experiences.

• Windows Azure offers fast time to market.

• Microsoft helps startup face future challenges.

NetBenefitwww.netbenefit.com

NetBenefit is a managed hosting provider in the UK that continuously

refreshes its technology to stay competitive. It recently upgraded to

Microsoft System Center 2012 so that it could meet demand for its public

and private cloud offerings and continue to reduce costs. Because it

embraced cloud computing, NetBenefit has been able to trim data center

costs—including power consumption—by 40 percent and pass those

savings on to customers. It can also meet customer needs faster.

Problem

NetBenefit specializes in providing tailored managed hosting solutions that deliver

security, resilience, and online performance for business-critical websites, applications,

and online advertising campaigns. NetBenefit is headquartered in London and is part

of Group NBT LTD.

In 2008, NetBenefit deployed the Windows Server 2008 R2 operating system with the

Hyper-V virtualization technology and began to virtualize its physical servers to

reduce costs and expand its offerings. By using Hyper-V, NetBenefit was able to add an

entry-level virtual offering to its managed hosting services. The company used

Microsoft System Center data center solutions, particularly Microsoft System Center

Virtual Machine Manager, to efficiently manage both physical servers and virtual

machines.

In 2009, NetBenefit used the same suite of Microsoft software to create its first cloud

computing offerings, offering both public and private cloud environments. The virtual

server and cloud offerings were a success with customers, so much so that the

NetBenefit IT staff had a difficult time keeping up with demand.

“NetBenefit wants to

be a niche provider

of premium

virtualization and

cloud services, and

with System Center

2012, we have the

tools we need to

reach our goal.”

Michael Green

Senior Product Manager

Managed Hosting

NetBenefit

Solution

In January 2011, NetBenefit joined the Technology Adoption Program for

Microsoft System Center 2012 Virtual Machine Manager, an upgrade designed

specifically for creating and managing private cloud environments. It also

supports clustering of Virtual Machine Manager instances.

“Upgrading to System Center 2012 was another sign of our commitment to

Microsoft as our chief cloud computing partner,” Green says. “We have both

commercial and technical reasons for partnering with Microsoft for our cloud

endeavours. On the business side, Microsoft licensing is far simpler than

VMware licensing. If we had a VMware platform, we would have to charge

customers a fee for every virtual machine. With Windows Server 2008 R2

Datacenter, the host operating system license covers the licensing for every

virtual machine on the server.”

Benefits

• Data Center Costs Reduced by 40 Percent.

• Lower Costs for Customers.

• Higher Availability of Cloud Environment.

• Customer Needs Met Five Times Faster.

• Faster Business Growth.

Newgrovewww.newgrove.com

In partnership with the Financial Times, Newgrove wanted to use platform as a

service (PaaS) to build a cloud application for advertising customers of FT.com to

analyse digital media spend. Using W indows Azure, Newgrove built an application,

which analyses data from millions of pages of advertisements. FT.com is using the

solution—rebranded Deep View—to provide better-quality analytics, justifying

premium-priced advertisement rates.

Problem

Microsoft Partner Newgrove specialises in providing software solutions, customised spatial

information management systems, and software consultancy. The independent software vendor

wanted to develop a robust platform using PaaSinfrastructure for customers in the media and

retail industries to monitor their return on online advertisement budgets. Digital advertising is

a data-centred business, so

understanding what’s working and what’s not in some depth, is critical to both publishers and

advertisers.

The global digital publishing channel of the Financial Times—FT.com—was particularly

interested in a solution to provide better analytics, gaining maximum value from its data

assets. The challenge for Newgrove in developing a reporting solution was to provide feature-

rich functionality, allowing publishers, advertisers, and agencies to analyse key metrics through

a browser-based dashboard. Through the Orpheus platform, publishers can identify whether

they’re in touch with their audiences and whether campaigns are targeting the right people—

injecting even more transparency into relationships. Craggs says: “We wanted to show the

media the types of company their audience works for, where they’re from, their socio-

economic background, and they type of creative advertisements they click onto.”

“Deep View running

on Windows Azure

gives us the ability to

understand campaign

performance as it

progresses. As a

result, optimisation of

the advertiser’s spend

becomes easier and

more accurate.”

Jon Slade

Global Digital and Strategic

Advertising Sales Director

Financial Times

Solution

For its Orpheus reporting and analysis tool, Newgrove offers its

customers PaaS with the Windows Azure cloud platform. The solution

comprises Microsoft Silverlight browser plug-in for the user-interface,

Microsoft SQL Azure for data management, the Windows Azure Virtual

Machine role, as well as Windows Azure Table and Blob storage services.

Windows Azure provides the business with rich demographic data on

FT.com users that far exceeds conventional demographics. Stuart Hayes,

Head of Database Marketing and Analytics at FT.com, says: “Because

we’ve layered in third-party data matching in Deep View, we can analyse

to a depth significantly beyond the basic FT.com registration data level,

which in itself is very powerful. This is something that’s only possible

because of the technology and the direct relationship we have with our

audience.”

Benefits

• Windows Azure offers reliability and scalability

• Pay-as-you-go solution minimises upfront investment

• Rich data sets help advertisers monitor success during campaigns

• Publishers offer greater transparency to advertisers and better

customer service

Outsourcerywww.outsourcery.co.uk

To help change its business model from a traditional web hosting company

to a cloud services provider, Outsourcery is taking advantage of the latest

improvements in the W indows Server 2012 operating system and Hyper-V

virtualization technology. No longer hampered by a four-core-per-virtual-

machine limit, Outsourcery can accommodate partners and customers that

demand high-performance virtual machines. Data center administrators are

running 67 percent more virtual machines per server. Administrators can

build an eight-node W indows Server 2012 Hyper-V cluster in just a few hours

instead of a week, and they can perform simultaneous live migrations 10

times faster than before. Outsourcery expects to save more than £50,000 a

year in IT costs as well as growing its business.

Problem

Outsourcery provides a broad range of cloud offerings, including hosted software

applications, virtualized infrastructure, and unified communications solutions. They are a

member of the Microsoft Partner Network with four Gold competencies, and also a

member of the Presidents Club, an elite group of strategic partners whose sales

achievements rank them as the highest in the Microsoft Dynamics global partner

network.

Recently, Outsourcery took a step forward in its strategic plans to expand its existing

cloud services to include a larger portfolio of next-generation cloud products. From the

perspective of a cloud service provider, public cloud computing incorporates the

automated and on-demand delegation of compute, storage, and networking resources to

partners and their customers as needed through a shared physical infrastructure

maintained by the cloud provider.

“With Windows

Server 2012, the

list goes on as to

how we can use it

to increase our

business.... We

can't wait until we

are fully deployed.”

Dan Germain

Director of Hosting Infrastructure

Outsourcery

Solution

Outsourcery chose to focus on a specific scenario within the RDP that

concentrated on Hyper-V density and scale. This scenario introduces

enhancements in the Windows Server 2012 hypervisor that Outsourcery can

use to increase the density of virtual machines per host server through an

improved architecture and better support tools. Windows Server 2012

supports virtual machines with up to 64 virtual processors and 1 terabyte of

memory and clusters with as many as 64 nodes.

“We joined the RDP because we are interested in new technology and in being

on the leading-edge of IT developments. We love the feedback and involvement

from Microsoft in learning about and shaping a new product,” says Germain.

“The scenario made sense to us because it is aimed at service providers, and it

focuses on increasing platform density. We want to reduce our capital outlay on

hardware and gain more density from our platform, so it was perfect.”

Benefits

• Increases Density, Promotes Business Growth.

• Lowers Costs.

• Improves Agility, Customer Service.

Paul Smithwww.paulsmith.co.uk

British fashion designer Paul Smith wanted to expand its virtualized

environment and embrace cloud computing to further increase efficiencies

and contain costs. It used W indows Server 2012 and Hyper-V to virtualize

business-critical applications—and achieved a 10 percent improvement in

their performance. Data center administrators can run almost triple the

amount of virtual machines per server and provision new servers in a day,

instead of four weeks. Paul Smith expects to virtualize 30 percent more of

its servers by the end of 2012 and to save more than £840,000 (US$1.8

million) a year in IT costs.

Problem

The Paul Smith IT department consists of 15 people who support the business on a

global scale from the Nottingham head office. “Our core business has more than 1,200

employees and from an IT perspective our team is relatively small for the services we

provide to the business,” says Lee Bingham, Head of IT at Paul Smith.

From its inception, Paul Smith has worked with Risual, a member of the Microsoft

Partner Network with Gold competencies, to build a cost-effective, interoperable IT

infrastructure that delivers real business value. To that end, the company has

standardized on Microsoft technologies. “Aligning our business with Microsoft and

working with Risual has been an extremely successful strategy,” says Bingham. “While

we have made great progress with optimizing our data centers, and the level of service

that IT delivers to the business is already high, we are always interested in the latest

technologies to improve efficiency, lower costs, and better serve the business.”

“We are using

Windows Server

2012 to gain a high-

density, scalable

environment that’s

easier to manage.

Now we can save

time in the data

center and focus on

supporting strategic

business goals.”

Lee Bingham

Head of IT, Paul Smith

Solution

In March 2012, Paul Smith joined the Rapid Deployment Program (RDP) for the

Windows Server 2012 operating system. The company wanted to use the more

flexible and powerful virtualization technologies within Windows Server 2012 to

improve IT service to the business, realize cost savings, and boost operational

efficiencies. Paul Smith IT staff members worked with Risual to evaluate Hyper-V

in Windows Server 2012 and work out a strategy to transform the data centers

into a cloud platform capable of supporting large, high-performance virtual

machines.

“The RDP was a perfect way for Paul Smith to see how the latest version of

Windows Server could help them take their virtualization plans to the next

level,” says Proud. “The new version of Hyper-V has capabilities and features that

Paul Smith can use to increase the density and performance of virtual machines

per server. It also has better memory management capabilities and efficient tools

to further optimize their data centers and reduce administration overhead.”

Benefits

• Created Scalable Virtualization Platform.

• Increased Performance by 10 Percent.

• Increased Density by Almost 200 Percent.

• Reduced Costs by $1.8 Million in First Year.

• Improved Business Agility, Innovation.

Principality

Building

Societywww.principality.co.uk

Founded in 1860, Principality Building Society, the largest building society in Wales, has

500,000 members and more than £6 billion (US$9 billion) in assets.

Principality believes in delivering maximum value for its members by providing a lean,

agile IT environment to support its data centre operations and a wide range of third-

party software.

Problem

Marc Jones, Technical Services Manager, Principality Building Society, says: “We wanted

a single management system to reduce licensing costs, cut manual administration, and

get a clear, centralised view of performance across our IT infrastructure.”

While satisfied with the original implementation, by 2012, Jones and his colleagues

were interested in an environment refresh. He says: “We needed to automate

repetitive, manual tasks that were subject to error. We wanted to handle server

provisioning more effectively and track the automation through a web portal. There

was also a need to monitor our web applications and VMware 5.0 deployment.”

“With Hyper-V as part

of the offering at no

extra cost, it was a

more competitive

solution than VMware.

We’re saving tens of

thousands of pounds,

mainly through

centralised

management of

VMware.”

Marc Jones,

Technical Services Manager,

Principality Building Society

SolutionMicrosoft Partner AK Computer Services—a long-term strategic IT adviser to

Principality—handled the original design and architecture using the Microsoft

System Center suite of products. Graham Davies, Senior Consultant, AK Computer

Services, who was awarded the honour of Most Valued Professional by Microsoft in

2012, says: “As a trusted adviser to Principality for more than 10 years, we’re highly

tuned to the refresh cycle for Microsoft servers, including Windows Server 2012 and

Microsoft System Center 2012. As a result, we recommended our customer to

Microsoft for the early Technology Adoption Programme for Microsoft System

Center 2012.”

Principality has now implemented Microsoft System Center 2012 SP1 and Windows

Server 2012, which includes new and improved features in areas such as

virtualisation, networking storage, user experience, and scripting. Specifically, the

building society is using several components of System Center 2012 that were

previously separate products.

The Operations Manager component oversees performance and availability

reporting. It integrates with System Center Global Service Monitor, a cloud service

that provides a simple way to manage the availability of external web-based

applications from multiple locations.

Benefits

• Firm gets cost-effective operations management solution

• IT team makes data centre efficiency gains

• Standardising on System Center 2012 SP1 reduces need for staff training

• Orchestrator component helps make significant time savings

Robust

Detailswww.robustdetails.com

Robust Details Limited (RDL) found it challenging to expand the business and add

new services for customers because of the limitations of its manual systems. It

wanted to give customers the ability to complete assessments and get

certificates online. Microsoft Partner Black Marble built a solution using Microsoft

Dynamics CRM, W indows Azure, and Microsoft Silverlight to keep track of

customer records, automate processes, and store documents online. W ith the

secure, scalable solution, processes are now more efficient and customers can

access services online.

Problem

Through its Robust Details Certification Scheme, RDL offers house builders a means of

demonstrating compliance with minimum sound insulation standards. This is the firm’s core

business and it applies to separating walls and floors between dwellings.

RDL was piloting a new certification service under the government’s Code for Sustainable

Homes scheme, which involved checking and certifying assessments carried out by RDL-

licensed assessors. It was a heavily paper-based process that also relied on spreadsheets and

databases. John Thompson, Finance Manager, Robust Details Limited, says: “We’d dug ourselves

into a hole. We just couldn’t scale the business to offer new products and services without

increasing bureaucracy. The system was holding the business back.”

Thompson wanted to give his customers the tools to interact with the company digitally,

cutting out the paperwork. However, the nine-person organisation didn’t have a large IT

infrastructure or in-house IT staff, so any computer-based solution had to be easy to maintain.

“With Microsoft

Dynamics CRM, the

company now has a

cutting-edge

customer

relationship

management tool.

It’ll help me target

customers and build

my business.”

John Thompson

Finance Manager

Robust Details Limited

Solution

Black Marble—a Windows Azure Circle Member in the Microsoft Partner Network,

recommended a solution that combined:

• On-premises Microsoft Dynamics CRM, with workflow and reporting services

• A website hosted on Windows Azure with a shopping cart and authentication

using Access Control so customers can pay for the services online

• Blob storage to store customers’ PDF files which when printed can run to

hundreds of pages per site

• A secure web service to allow communication between the Windows Azure

hosted website and Microsoft Dynamics CRM using the Service Bus

• A Microsoft Silverlight interface that lets customers self-serve on their PCs.

This combination of on-premises Microsoft Dynamics CRM and Windows Azure

gives RDL customers the information they need to work effectively and allows them

to interact with the company directly through their computers, with fewer paper-

based processes and data rekeying.

Benefits

• Enhanced security

• Better scalability.

• Increased simplicity.

Royal Mail

Groupwww.royalmailgroup.com

Royal Mail Group wanted to upgrade its 27,000 computers to the W indows

7 operating system. However, the cost-conscious organization wanted a

way to streamline and automate the mostly manual, time-consuming, and

disruptive deployment process. Royal Mail Group worked with CSC, a

member of the Microsoft Partner Network, and implemented the

Microsoft System Center 2012 family of products to automate system

management tasks, including software updates, system monitoring, and

virtual machine provisioning. In addition, Royal Mail Group implemented a

private cloud storage solution for data backup, which is built on W indows

Server 2008 R2 with Hyper-V. As a result, they expect to reduce desktop

support costs by 20 percent while increasing IT efficiency, enhance IT

security, and improve the user experience.

Problem

Royal Mail Group has always been cost-conscious, facilitating some of the lowest

postal rates in the UK; however, it wanted to be even more diligent about IT costs as

it prepared to privatize the organization. Specifically, Royal Mail Group wanted to

reduce software licensing costs, IT resource costs, and costs associated with

technology impacts to its employees. To reduce costs and limit its dependency on

physical hardware, Royal Mail Group implemented VMware to run several of its

business-critical applications, such as SAP software. In 2010, after the release of the

Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter operating system with Hyper-V technology, they

also implemented the Microsoft virtualization platform. With more than 600 servers in

the data center and three servers each at 116 remote sites, the organization knew

that a more aggressive approach to virtualization could further increase its cost

savings.

“We expect that, by

using Configuration

Manager combined

with our private

cloud storage

solution, we will be

able to save 15 to

20 percent annually

in desktop support

costs alone.”

Karl Snowden

Infrastructure Manager,

Desktop and Networks

Royal Mail Group

Solution

In May 2011, Royal Mail Group engaged technology partner CSC, a member of

the Microsoft Partner Network, to find a way to better manage its disparate

IT environment and make IT business operations more efficient, particularly in

preparation for the planned upgrade to Windows 7. Together, the companies

decided to launch a large-scale project with the following technology goals:

• Implement Microsoft System Center 2012 as its system management

solution, specifically to enable automated, unattended operating system

deployment, manage desktops, provision virtual machines, monitor systems,

and automate IT workflows.

• Build a private cloud storage solution that would help improve the user

experience for data backup and enhance data security.

• Expand the Hyper-V virtualization environment at Royal Mail Group to

better take advantage of the organization’s Microsoft Enterprise

Agreement.

Benefits

• Reduces Desktop Support Costs up to 20 Percent.

• Increases IT Efficiency.

• Enhances IT Security—Desktops and Data.

• Improves User Experience for Employees.

Sagewww.sage.co.uk

Sage, a major business software solution provider, decided to create an

add-on to its on-premises enterprise resource planning (ERP) product,

Sage 300 Construction and Real Estate (formerly Sage Timberline Office).

It decided to use Windows Azure to take advantage of its elastic capability.

Since creating the Sage Construction Anywhere add-on in Windows Azure

and implementing autoscaling, Sage has increased reliability, expanded

access to data, and pared costs in half.

Problem

The company had previously launched an on-premises enterprise resource

planning (ERP) solution, Sage 300 Construction and Real Estate. It decided to

create another product, Sage Construction Anywhere, as an add-on to Sage

300. Sage planned to build the new add-on to run in a cloud services

environment. In addition to controlling costs and gaining cloud experience, the

company wanted to provide its customers with increased data mobility, reduced

costs, and expanded access to data.

“Customers today, especially on construction sites, are looking for ways to

access the data that’s locked in their back office,” says Chad Busche, Principal

Software Architect at Sage.

Employees at construction sites who needed information from Sage 300 would

typically call their head office and ask for a report. Then, the person there

generated the report from Sage 300 and sent it to the employee by email. This

manual process was inefficient and subject to error.

“Using autoscaling in

Windows Azure means

that we save money by

only provisioning the

resources that we

actually need. It was very

easy to add to our

application—we didn’t

need to make any

significant changes.”

Chad Busche

Principal Software Architect

Sage

Solution

Sage decided to create the add-on for Sage 300 by using the

autoscaling capability in Windows Azure, the Microsoft cloud services

development, hosting, and management environment. Windows Azure

provides on-demand compute, storage, networking, and content

delivery capabilities through Microsoft data centers around the world.

The team at Sage first created an application, called Sage Construction

Anywhere, to run in Windows Azure and then integrated the autoscaling

feature. Sage used the Autoscaling Application Block (part of Microsoft

Enterprise Library) to proactively manage the number of role instances

used by the Sage Construction Anywhere application. Development

work was done using the Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Professional

development system. To test the way that autoscaling responded to

spikes in demand, the team at Sage used Visual Studio Load Test to

simulate different loads on the application. They used this information

to create the initial set of reactive rules. Engineers designed the

application to be stateless, which means that each user request can be

handled by any one of the web role instances.

Benefits

• Reduced Costs

• Gained Cloud Experience

• Improved Product Performance

Skipton

Building

Societywww.skipton.co.uk

Skipton Building Society needed a self-service portal for development environments

for its mortgage services division HML. Its IT Shared Service Centre was tasked with

finding a solution that would allow HML to provision virtual machines to keep pace

with its agile development requirement. By deploying Hyper-V virtualisation

technology, along with the Microsoft System Center 2012 suite of products, the firm

avoided a £42,000 expenditure on a proof of concept and licences from the

incumbent vendor.

Problem

Skipton Building Society, the fourth-largest building society in the UK, was looking for

ways to streamline and accelerate the deployment of new business services through

cloud computing. David Miskell, Solutions Architect, Skipton IT Shared Service Centre,

says: “With a mainly manual process, it would have taken our team three weeks to

deploy new service requests, but HML needed a faster process.” Around 80 per cent

of the server estate in the Skipton IT Shared Service Centre is virtualised. Miskell says

there would have been an extra cost of around £42,000 for deploying the capability

required by HML from the incumbent vendor’s technology. Ongoing costs would also

have risen as the solution was scaled up.

The Skipton IT Shared Service Centre had established a strong working relationship

with Microsoft and Microsoft Partner, Risual. Miskell says: “We took the view that with

its latest releases of Microsoft System Center 2012, the Microsoft offering had

matured significantly. But we still required peace of mind that the product would

achieve the business goals we’d set out for the project.”

“In addition to the

technology aspect,

we chose the

Microsoft solution

because it was

cost-effective and

presented a lower

risk as there was no

cost associated with

delivering the proof

of concept.”

David Miskell

Solutions Architect

Skipton IT Shared Service Centre

Solution

The Skipton IT Shared Service Centre decided to use Windows Server 2008 R2

with Hyper-V and the Microsoft System Center 2012 suite of products. Craig

Hartwell, Commercial Sales Director, Risual, says: “We first engaged with the

Skipton IT Shared Service Centre to assist the team with making savings and

increasing automation in its data-centre environment. We then worked on

providing a solution that would deliver the self-service portal project and

reduce time to market to deliver new services.”

Risual made a high-level proposal to deliver a self-service capability using

Hyper-V technology with the Virtual Machine Manager and App Controller

components of Microsoft System Center 2012. Hartwell says: “A vital

distinction was that Microsoft didn’t charge the customer for the proof of

concept, whereas the incumbent supplier asked for £12,000.”

Benefits

• Skipton gains agility with virtualisation solution.

• Firm saves £42,000.

• High-level advice helps make best use of existing Microsoft licences.

• Skipton looks forward to lower long-term management costs for the entire

virtualised server estate.

Unileverwww.unilever.com

Unilever expects to double in size in 10 years and to ensure that its IT

organization could support this growth, Unilever worked with Avanade to

migrate from VMware to Hyper-V technology in W indows Server 2008 R2. It

then used Hyper-V and Microsoft System Center 2012 to create a private

cloud environment that contains 3,175 virtual machines. W ith its private

cloud, Unilever will deliver IT services 40 percent faster and be more agile

in the marketplace. It also expects to achieve its growth goals with no

increase in IT costs. By eliminating hundreds of servers, Unilever realized

significant savings and became a better environmental citizen. It is

upgrading to W indows Server 2012 to gain even more IT efficiency.

Problem

In 2008, Unilever began virtualizing servers by using VMware ESX software and reduced

its physical servers by 65 percent. However, VMware was too expensive to proceed

with. Meanwhile, Unilever closely tracked the progress of Microsoft virtualization

software, and in late 2009 engaged Avanade to create a proof of concept around

migrating to the Hyper-V technology in the Windows Server 2008 R2 operating system.

The business case for moving to Hyper-V focused on increasing data center

consolidation, extending virtualization to remote office locations, and reducing

management costs.

The proof of concept was a success, and between 2009 and 2011, Avanade used its

Next Generation Datacenter model and Migration Factory methodology to migrate

most Unilever VMware virtual machines to Hyper-V and converted hundreds of physical

servers to Hyper-V virtual machines.

“With a Microsoft

private cloud

infrastructure, we can

provide IT at a lower

cost and provide IT

capacity faster. In

short, we can react

faster, which helps

the business react

faster”

Mike Royle

Director of Enterprise Computing

Unilever

Solution

In January 2012, Unilever again engaged Avanade, this time to help it explore

private cloud computing—a pool of virtualized server, storage, and networking

resources that dynamically flex to accommodate ever-changing business needs,

and is dedicated to the use of a single organization. “When you put Microsoft

System Center 2012 and the Windows Server 2012 operating system together,

you have a really good story to tell in terms of cloud management,” says Garry

Meaburn, Operational Effectiveness and Tooling Manager, IT Infrastructure

Services, at Unilever. “We suddenly saw a way to do rapid deployment,

automation, and orchestration of IT services.”

Windows Server 2012 is a cloud-optimized operating system, and Microsoft

System Center 2012 is a cloud management platform, with virtual server

creation, monitoring, and management integrated in one tool set and console

Benefits

• Speed IT Service Delivery by 40 Percent, Move Faster in the Marketplace.

• Double Company Size without Increasing IT Costs.

• Reduce Server Costs and Environmental Consequences.

• Deliver IT Resources as Needed with Hybrid Cloud Model.

Volvowww.volvocars.com

W hen Volvo Car Corporation split off from Ford in 2010, it needed to develop

its own stand-alone IT environment in some areas. At the same time, the

company wanted to improve its business intelligence (BI) capabilities and

operational efficiency. So Volvo decided to prototype a Microsoft data

management solution that simplifies its IT environment, provides graphical

self-service reporting capabilities, and improves collaboration.

Problem

By the time that Zhejiang Geely Holding Group completed its acquisition of Volvo Car

Corporation in 2010, the IT environment at Volvo had become complex, difficult to

manage, and expensive. Over the years, a variety of data management and business

intelligence products had been deployed. Volvo wanted to reduce the number of these

products to make the overall system easier to manage and to reduce licensing and other

costs. “

Volvo also wanted to improve its business intelligence capabilities to achieve greater

insights into such things as assembly and product development costs and to help

employees produce reports more quickly and easily.

To ensure timeliness and accuracy and to foster collaboration, Volvo sought to improve

data management. The company has relied on IT personnel to generate many data

reports, which can be slow and inefficient. Also, there is no central location for storing

reports, so information often is distributed by sending a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet or

other attachment in an email message.

“With SQL Server

2012 and

SharePoint Server

2010, we can use

one technology and

have one place to

get information, so

there’s a lot of time

saved—and

money.”

Business Analyst

Volvo

Solution

To address these challenges, Volvo is deploying a pilot solution based on

Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Business Intelligence data management software

and related BI technologies, including Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 and

Microsoft Office 2010. One of the big reasons for choosing Microsoft is that

Microsoft products are designed to work well together. “We strive to keep

down the number of technologies, and since Microsoft ensures the

interoperability of those applications, we don’t have to worry about that,” says

a Volvo IT architect.

Volvo also is implementing the new Power View feature in SQL Server 2012

Reporting Services. Power View is a self-service reporting tool that helps data

consumers visually explore their data themselves and answer ad-hoc questions

with ease. The new system includes a SharePoint portal where people can

access and use the tools and information they need and collaborate with fellow

employees. Volvo expects that it will gradually implement the new system for up

to 5,000 users, dramatically increasing the number of Volvo employees who will

be able to make data-driven decisions.

Benefits

• Simpler IT and Reduced Costs

• Better Business Intelligence

• Richer Collaboration

Wiltshire

Councilwww.wiltshire.gov.uk

Wiltshire Council wanted to upgrade its IT service delivery platform to Microsoft System

Center 2012 to support its public and private cloud technologies . Its Microsoft Gold

Partner Silversands managed the upgrade, using Orchestrator—an automated workflow

deployment tool—to migrate data from a customised line-of-business application to the

new platform. The Council is saving £2 million a year with its highly automated IT

solution, while also improving services for its internal clients.

Problem

The Council’s long-term vision for IT service delivery includes using both private and

public cloud technologies to provide the best performance and service to its users at the

most cost-effective price. Integration and flexibility are key factors in the public–private

network. For example, Microsoft Office 365 is currently used by 4,500 staff to access

their Microsoft Office Outlook emails on personal computers and mobile devices, while

Windows Azure hosts a content management solution. Other line-of-business

applications are hosted and managed in the Council’s own data centre.

In 2011, Wiltshire Council decided to upgrade its successful service-desk and integrated

IT asset management solution to meet new business requirements. Andy Spurway, Head

of Service Fulfilment, Wiltshire Council, says: “We wanted to make the most of the

improvements available in Microsoft System Center 2012. For example, the latest version

of Service Manager has enhanced the way incidents and changes can be managed. This

function would help us to fix system breaks effectively and ensure we meet our internal

service-level agreements.”

“Bringing our IT in-house

has helped Wiltshire

Council save more than

£2 million a year. Service

Manager, along with

Provance, is a major part

of our solution, giving us

the tools to automate

many routine processes

and ensure our team

runs IT services

efficiently.”

Andy Spurway,

Head of Service Fulfilment,

Wiltshire Council

Solution

In 2012, Wiltshire Council again turned to Microsoft Gold Partner Silversands to

manage the deployment and upgrade to Microsoft System Center 2012 and

new version of the Provance IT Asset Management Pack. The software suite

provides the council with an integrated platform for managing applications and

services across its public and private cloud infrastructures. Service Manager

provides built-in processes for incident and problem resolution, and change

control. Asset life-cycle management is provided by the process management

pack from Microsoft Gold Partner Provance. As a result, users can now log on to

Service Manager through a service-desk portal and log a change request.

As part of the upgrade, Silversands used Orchestrator, a component of System

Center 2012, to create a bridge between the data held in the central

management database—such as change records and Active Directory

configuration details—and the new service desk. Workflow management

solution Orchestrator provides the means to automate the creation, monitoring,

and deployment of resources in the Council’s IT environment.

Mark Newton, System Center Consultant, Silversands, says: “With Orchestrator,

we were able to carry out a complex migration cost-efficiently without causing

any downtime for users.”

Benefits

• Solution helps save £2 million annually

• Council extends existing investments

• Tools support internal service-level agreement reporting

• Control of IT costs and increased service efficiency

© 2012 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Microsoft, Windows, Windows Vista and other product names are or may be registered trademarks and/or trademarks in the U.S. and/or other countries.

The information herein is for informational purposes only and represents the current view of Microsoft Corporation as of the date of this presentation. Because Microsoft must respond to changing market conditions, it should not be interpreted to be a commitment on

the part of Microsoft, and Microsoft cannot guarantee the accuracy of any information provided after the date of this presentation. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, AS TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS PRESENTATION.

Case Studies