Effective IT Server Infrastructure Support to Printing and Imaging Industry

Client Information

The client is one of the world’s leading hardware manufacturers with expertise in printing, imaging and related products. Besides years-long experience in manufacturing and supply operations, the company’s service offerings also include business process, document and enterprise content management, among others.

Client Requirements

The client required IT development and related support for physical and virtual infrastructures and AWS cloud with a key focus on development and system support administration for IT infrastructure (AWS, Physical, VMware, UCS, NetApp and Nimble).

Challenges Faced by the Client

1) Server Patching and Configuration Management

The client faced significant challenges with server patching and updating configuration management tools, leading to production issues and system downtimes. Regular patching without causing operational disruption was critical for the client’s infrastructure.

2) Manual Intervention in IT Infrastructure Management

The client’s day-to-day IT infrastructure tasks, such as server maintenance, patching, and reconfiguration, required extensive manual intervention. This approach led to inefficiencies, slower production cycles, and a higher risk of human error, which affected system stability and performance.

3) Maintaining Physical and Virtual Server Infrastructure

Given the scope and intricacy of operations, managing physical and virtual servers, including AWS cloud infrastructure, was challenging. The client needed a streamlined process for managing these diverse environments to ensure optimal performance and minimal downtime.

4) Storage and System Maintenance

The client’s storage systems, including NetApp and Nimble, required ongoing maintenance and efficient management. Any disruption in storage could impact user access and the overall performance of the IT infrastructure.

Solutions Provided by Veritis

1) Automated Server Patching and Configuration Management

Veritis implemented automation tools like Puppet and Spacewalk to handle server patching and configuration management with minimal downtime. This eliminated the need for manual intervention, ensuring servers were patched regularly and efficiently without impacting production activities.

2) Workflow Automation for IT Infrastructure Tasks

Veritis developed new workflows that automated daily infrastructure tasks, including server building, patching, and reconfiguration. This automation significantly reduced manual efforts, minimized errors, and streamlined operations for faster, more reliable system performance.

3) Effective Management of Physical and Virtual Servers

Veritis provided comprehensive IT support for physical and virtual servers, including AWS cloud environments. By utilizing advanced tools like VMware vSphere, Cisco UCS, and Puppet, Veritis ensured seamless infrastructure management and minimized system outages.

4) Optimized Storage and System Maintenance

Veritis managed and maintained the client’s storage systems, including NetApp and Nimble, ensuring consistent performance and reliability. Through regular updates and proactive maintenance, Veritis helped the client avoid storage-related disruptions and ensured continuous access to data for users.

Veritis Approach

Veritis approach to address the client requirements involved automation tools. Our team of experts worked on client’s issues such as server patching and updating configuration management tools for easing production activity. Veritis Research and Development Services (RDS) team ensured effective server maintenance that reported no downtimes for very minimum maintenance activity.

Key Responsibilities Held

As part of the project, Veritis team of technical experts were responsible for:

• Building and maintaining IT infrastructure
• Developing new workflows that automate day-to-day infrastructure-related tasks such as building, patching and reconfiguration
• Developing new tools for an automation solution for monthly patching with minimum/no outage
• Hardware and software maintenance, and OS updates
• Developing and writing new puppet modules as per business requirement
• Managing NetApp and Nimble storage for users

For all these activities, Veritis used tools such as Puppet, CFEngine, Chef, Salt, Altiris and performed scripting activity on Perl, BASH, PHP, Python and VMware and advanced computing system management and advanced storage environments.

Environments Used

Cisco UCS, VMware vSphere, NetApp, Nimble, AWS, Puppet, Chef, Altiris, Spacewalk, FreeIPA, Elastic Search, Jenkins, Gerrit, Nagios and CA tools.

Value Delivered

Veritis ensured an all-round managed IT infrastructure support with a key focus on effective server functioning and configuration management to ease the client’s operational tasks.