Success
AV & Technology solutions distributor
Reducing IT costs with Oracle Infrastructure as a Service
Customer Profile
Our client is a global, trade-only distributor of audio visual (AV) and technology solutions based in the UK.
Established in 1979, the award-winning company has the UK's largest stock of AV equipment and offers support, knowledge and expertise to resellers and integrators, including some of the world’s leading electronics manufacturers.
The Challenge
Our client used Oracle Database Standard Edition One to underpin its ERP system, Symatrix. During a software review Inoapps discovered that the client deployed this on servers with Opteron Multi-Chip Module processors and therefore needed to upgrade its database to Oracle Database Enterprise Edition to comply with current Oracle policy. This would incur a substantial increase in on-premises license costs.
At the same time, our client was evaluating migrating its IT infrastructure to a Cloud-based one to keep its brand up-to-date and benefit from the cost savings involved. To maintain its current infrastructure, the IT department would have to increase its operating costs and management capabilities, as well as upgrade local users’ machines. Initially the client looked at Microsoft Azure as many of its applications were Microsoft-based. Oracle IaaS was introduced as an alternative by Inoapps during the compliance review
The Solution
The project team selected Oracle IaaS, along with Oracle Database as Service so that the business could benefit from the enhanced performance it would get by using Oracle products at each stage, as well as the simplicity of managing one vendor and one partner. Migrating its infrastructure to the Cloud will reduce license costs and the “full cloud” option has reduced the need for any dedicated hardware in the company’s regional offices as all services are delivered from the Oracle IaaS platform.
Once the selection was made, Inoapps engaged with the business and Oracle pre-sales to understand the customers’ workloads, database versions, Operating Systems and connections and support the client in sizing its requirement for the move from on-premises to Cloud. The IT team also engaged Inoapps’ consultancy services to support the move from
on—premises to Cloud.
Taking place in October 2016, just a month after the launch of Oracle IaaS, this was Inoapps’ first opportunity to assist a customer using the full-service IaaS technical and consulting capabilities, which have led us to become an accredited member of Oracle’s global Managed Service Provider Program.
The Benefits
- Reduced IT costs as the client now only pays for the capacity it needs at a given time
- Lower infrastructure costs – no need to maintain hardware, networking and equipment
- Savings in cost and reduced complexity from purchasing the complete solution through one partner and basing everything on Oracle technology platform
- Immediate consumption of innovation and best practices through automatic updates
- Ability to quickly scale up or down activities in the Cloud to meet future demand