Nutanix AHV virtualization solution gives Mexico’s leading electrical equipment distributor the e ciency and support to succeed
INDUSTRY
Manufacturing
BENEFITS
30% savings on data center related expenses
Access to inventory quickly and in real time
Higher availability of critical services and improved reliability for customers across Mexico
Increased operational efficiency and stability leading to a decrease in customer support tickets and calls
SOLUTION
BENEFITS BENEFITS
By implementing Nutanix AHV as their virtualization solution, Grupo Alcione has been able to realize the result they sought to achieve—to find a high performance multi-cloud system that would improve performance for customers while requiring a lower-cost investment than their current solution.
The initialization process included a three-node cluster during ERP migration. Once completed, the implementation to production was carried out soon thereafter thanks to the benefits provided by Nutanix.
Juan Hernández, IT Infrastructure Manager at Grupo Alcione
CHALLENGES
Grupo Alcione is the leading company in the sale and distribution of electrical supplies and equipment in Mexico. With 30 years of experience, the company has successfully built its reputation by providing high-quality products from the best manufacturers in a timely manner.
Today, Grupo Alcione serves the needs of customers across Mexico, with 22 branches and a total of 800 employees in 11 Mexican states. The business operates both in wholesale and retail through different channels: direct contact, through its website, mobile application, and its call center.
In order to maintain its competitive advantage and to serve customers better than ever, Grupo Alcione realized they needed to access inventory quickly and in real time to provide customers with pricing and budget based on their daily requests.
SOLUTION
The company’s journey to find the right technology solution began in 2015, when they started looking for a new software provider that could help them optimize their processes and address their infrastructure challenges.
“Our main objective was to find a high-performance, multi-cloud system that required a lower-cost investment,” explained Juan Hernández, IT Infrastructure Manager at Grupo Alcione.
After receiving a proposal concept from Nutanix, they contacted Dicipa, a solutions integrator specialized in the health industry, to learn how successful Nutanix software solutions were—given the fact they had been operating in the Mexican market for only a year.
Group Alcione’s new technological strategy was based on three pillars: availability, performance, and reliability, based on a lower-cost investment. The hypervisor they chose was Nutanix AHV, making them the first company in Mexico to use this type of virtualization.
“The initialization process included a three-node cluster during ERP migration. Once completed, the implementation to production was carried out soon thereafter thanks to the benefits provided by Nutanix”, said Hernández.
Now, the company’s infrastructure is built on 9 nodes split into two clusters. The first cluster, with 6 nodes, is used as a production environment where the ERP was implemented. The second cluster, consisting of 3 nodes, serves the DRP, where the most important operational virtual servers are replicated on an hourly basis to enable higher availability of critical services.
CUSTOMER OUTCOMES
Substantial Savings
After three years working with Nutanix’s solution, Grupo Alcione has been able to achieve savings of more than 30% in data center related expenses.
As well as a significant reduction in licensing costs, they’ve also seen savings in hosting and infrastructure, such as air conditioning, electricity, and administrative systems. In addition, the company has also enjoyed significant savings when comparing the local infrastructure with what they had stored in the cloud.
Excellent Support
Even after three years of working together, the level of service provided by Nutanix continues to impress. “I have always said it: there is no perfect technology. For us, the most important thing is that we receive an immediate response from suppliers whenever an incident occurs. What we have seen with Nutanix has surprised us every time. If I had to rate their level of service, I would give them a 10”, said Hernández.
Increased Operational Efficiency
Both Grupo Alcione and the customers they serve have seen the benefits of Nutanix’s efficient operating system. Hernández points out: “Our system is very stable as far as performance, availability, and reliability. Today, our end user can operate continuously and obtain higher levels of performance. We have even noticed that the number of tickets and calls related to the use of the system has decreased considerably. The solution has definitely helped the end user, which means better service.”
CUSTOMER OUTCOMES
Through the implementation of Nutanix’s solution, Grupo Alcione is now confident about the importance of technology to drive their business forward.
“With the adoption of this technology, we are ready to keep facing new growth challenges and market demands,” explained Hernández. “Hyperconvergence has been the best decision to achieve the goals required for our IT infrastructure and being able to have the data center always available means we can give our customers the best performance possible without much stress.”