OS, Servers & Data Center Enterprise All-Stars Enterprise System Management Challenges in Big Organizations with Eli Almog: Download now

Guide to the '06 All-Stars Winners alphabetical listing WINNERS BY TECHNOLOGY Applications | LANs & Routers | Network Management | OS, Servers & Data Center | Security | Storage | WAN, VoIP & Convergence | Wireless & Mobility WINNERS BY INDUSTRY Construction | Education | Financial Services | Government | Healthcare | Manufacturing | Media | Retail | Travel/Transportation | Utilities Vendors to the All-Stars

As an early adopter of server virtualization, Subaru of Indiana Automotive has saved a boatload of money and sharply reduced downtime. A three-year project, concluded in January, has become a model of enterprise-scale virtualization. For these reasons, Subaru of Indiana earns distinction as a 2006 Enterprise All-Star.

The project centered on three VMware products: ESX Server, VirtualCenter and VMotion. In the first wave of implementation, which began in May 2003, the Lafayette, Ind., company consolidated about 50 physical servers to 25. In its second wave, it squeezed its data center to 15 physical servers (including three multiprocessor units) supporting 60 virtual servers. At this time, the company also added a 1TB IBM Total Storage DS4300 Fibre Channel storage-area network to support the virtual environment.

Two business drivers pushed the auto manufacturer to adopt server virtualization in 2003 before the technology had achieved widespread corporate acceptance: power consumption and server sprawl. Power use had hit a critical state. "We did a power study on our data center and found we didn't have enough to run the servers we had," says the project's manager, Jamey Vester, a production-control IT specialist for the company. "We couldn't replace the servers, because most newer servers use even more power. If we didn't do something different, we would need to rewire everything."

In the meantime, server sprawl was killing productivity and not just for the IT staff who had to manage the physical servers. Server failures were causing an untenable amount of downtime for workers. "We have hundreds of people working on the production floor. If there is an hour of downtime, we lose about $20,000 in salaries, plus we miss deadlines and need to pay overtime to make it up," Vester says.