1. Kulacom
Broadens
Its REach
Technology company increases datacentre capacity by up
to 15 times with virtualization solution from Dell
Internet use in the Middle East grew by more than 1,360 per
cent between 2000 and 2009 – compared to just 282 per
cent in Europe1
. However, broadband coverage remains low,
with European and Asian countries dominating the top 20 for
broadband penetration.
Solutions:
• BACKUP, RECOVERY AND
ARCHIVING
• VIRTUALIZATION
CUSTOMER PROFILE
Company: Kulacom
Industry: Technology
Country: Jordan
Founded: 2006
Employees: 120
WEBSITE: www.kulacom.jo
Challenge
Emergingcommunicationscompany
Kulacomneededarobust,scalableIT
infrastructuretodeliverthereliability,
securityandperformancedemandedby
itsexpandingcustomerbase.
Solution
KulacomworkedwithDelltodesignand
deployavirtualizedinfrastructurebased
onDell™
PowerEdge™
bladeservers
andDellEqualLogicstorage,withDell
ProSupportforIT.
Benefits
GetITFaster
• Simpledeploymentminimiseslaunch
time
• Virtualserversdeployedandconfigured
inlessthan30minutes
RunITBetter
• Virtualizationincreasesdatacentre
capacitybyupto15times
• Solutionminimisesenergyconsumption
• Managementtoolssimplifymaintenance
• Redundantserversandstorageprotect
customerdata
GrowITSmarter
• Peerprovisioningallowscost-effective,
on-demandstorageexpansion
• DellProSupportforITenhances
customerconfidence
1
http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm
2. Jordan has set a target of 50 per cent
broadband coverage by 2011, creating
a host of opportunities for companies
offering broadband technology and related
services. Kulacom is establishing a foothold
in this burgeoning industry with its wireless
broadband service, WiMAX. But, to achieve
its goal of a 10 per cent market share, it
needs to balance the running costs of
its IT infrastructure with the guaranteed
performance that will inspire a loyal,
expanding customer base.
While WiMAX produces 80 per cent of the
company’s revenue, Kulacom is also building
its capabilities as a host. Solutions will vary
in size and type, from websites running
on dedicated servers, to entire company
infrastructures managed end-to-end by
Kulacom engineers. The Jordan division will
be a blueprint for the company’s presence
across the Middle East, as Hazim Alaeddin,
Chief Executive Officer of Kulacom, explains:
“In time, you’ll see us in every country in
the region, but right now our focus is to
establish a robust operation in Jordan. Our
IT systems form the basis of our offerings, so
flexibility, reliability and predictable costs are
fundamental to our business model.”
Virtual solution rises
to the challenge
Kulacom has two distinct requirements.
First, a sturdy platform for its line-of-business
applications and the software used to monitor
the WiMAX infrastructure. Second, hardware
that meets the rigorous requirements of its
hosting activities – efficiency, scalability and
high availability.
Working with sister company and Dell
Enterprise Partner Mabco, Alaeddin and his
colleagues began exploring the benefits of
server and storage virtualization. “Our sister
company has a very positive opinion of Dell,
which encouraged us. We looked at a number
of technology providers, but Dell also had
the best price–performance ratio, which was
important given the relatively high cost of
hardware in Jordan,” says Alaeddin.
For the hosting environment, the goal was
to maximise the number of customers per
square metre, which meant that processing
power had to be as high as possible. “We
saw that virtualization was a much more
efficient approach – from an energy, space
and management perspective – than
stacking up dedicated servers for each
client. We reinforced this by choosing Dell
blade servers, which give us excellent
performance combined with energy
efficiency,” says Alaeddin.
How it works
Services
• Dell ProSupport for IT
– Mission Critical option
Hardware
• Dell™
PowerEdge™
M805 blade
servers with AMD Opteron™
Processors 2384
• Dell PowerEdge M600 blade servers
with Intel®
Xeon®
Processors E5440
• Dell PowerEdge M1000e modular blade
enclosure
• Dell EqualLogic PS6000XV and PS6500E
storage area networks (SANs)
SOFTWARE
• VMware®
vSphere™
4 Enterprise
• VMware ESX server software
• VMware vCenter™
Server
– VMware VMotion™
• Dell OpenManage™ Systems
Management
For storage, Dell experts recommended
Dell EqualLogic PS6000XV and PS6500E
storage area networks (SANs). These
will complement the virtualized server
infrastructure with a scalable, virtualized,
internet Small Computer System Interface
(iSCSI)-based SAN.
Dell solution optimises
efficiency and density
The Kulacom datacentre now runs entirely
on Dell servers housed in two Dell™
PowerEdge™
M1000e modular blade
enclosures. These operate in a VMware®
vSphere™
environment, using VMware ESX
server software as a hypervisor. VMware
vSphere is a cloud operating system that
simplifies datacentre management and
improves flexibility. It delivers a virtualized
environment that cuts server sprawl and –
crucially for Kulacom – maximises availability.
It also includes a VMware vCenter™
Server,
which provides tools for monitoring and
day-to-day management.
Two Dell PowerEdge M600 blade servers
with Intel®
Xeon®
Processors E5440 will run
VMware vCenter and VMware consolidated
backup, while four Dell PowerEdge M805
blade servers with AMD Opteron™
Processors
2384 run VMware ESX server software.
“Energy costs in Jordan are approximately
three times the average tariff in the
United States,” says Alaeddin. “Keeping
consumption low was our number one
priority. We’re aiming to host 15,000 customer
solutions in a 300-square-metre datacentre,
so we’re looking at a dense infrastructure.
With virtualized Dell PowerEdge blade
servers, we can accommodate between 8
and 15 times more customers than would be
possible with physical servers alone.”
“Keeping consumption low was our number one priority.
With virtualized Dell PowerEdge blade servers, we can
accommodate between 8 and 15 times more customers
than would be possible with physical servers alone.”
Hazim Alaeddin, Chief Executive Officer, Kulacom
3. The Dell PowerEdge M805 is designed to
perform in virtual environments, with an SD
card for embedded hypervisors and AMD
Virtualization (AMD-V™
) technology that
allows Alaeddin and his team to manage
virtual memory more effectively. “Our AMD-
based PowerEdge M805 servers are ideally
suited to our needs because they optimise
the performance of our virtual servers,” says
Alaeddin. “AMD Opteron Processors are
highly efficient, and with VMware we can
deploy additional servers with a negligible
increase in power consumption.”
The Dell PowerEdge M600 combines
energy efficiency and density – the two key
prerequisites for the hosting environment.
It provides up to 60 per cent higher density
than traditional 1U servers , along with high
performance per watt. Alaeddin says: “The
Intel-based Dell PowerEdge M600 blade
gives us maximum resources with a minimal
footprint, which is exactly what we need if
we’re to meet our goals for expansion over
the next two years.”
Performance without
complexity
The Kulacom IT team was surprised by
the solution’s simplicity. Alaeddin says:
“Dell organised VMware training for us,
which was a great help in terms of
deploying and managing the virtualized
blades. Dell OpenManage Systems
Management and VMware vSphere give
us the visibility and control we need,
while automating routine tasks.”
The Dell EqualLogic SAN was easy to deploy.
“Our Dell EqualLogic SAN took a non-
specialist technician just two days to install.
Our core networking people could have done
it in a day,” says Alaeddin.
Scalability supports
growing business
Kulacom can host customer solutions based
on one processor and one gigabyte of storage,
and others requiring hundreds of servers
with terabytes of storage per server. Alaeddin
says: “Without virtualization, it would not
be viable for us to accommodate the range
of solutions on which our business model is
based. It would take too long to deliver the
client’s requirements, and our running costs
would outweigh revenue. With our virtualized
solution from Dell, we can respond to
customer needs almost instantly and control
our costs. Three large companies have asked
us to virtualize their entire infrastructures.
With our solution from Dell, we can say yes
with confidence.”
Alaeddin and his colleagues will use tools
within VMware vCenter Server to provision
virtual servers in minutes, avoiding the lead
times of hardware purchases. VMware
templates will help them to configure virtual
machines quickly and simply. “We can
deploy virtual machines for new customers,
or extend existing solutions, in a matter of
minutes. As well as simplifying capacity
planning, this will allow us to match the
service level agreements that our customers
are used to getting from hosting companies in
the United States. We can provision a Linux
server in just six minutes,” says Alaeddin.
The virtualized servers also provide a risk-free
environment for testing, with easy transition
to a live server. “The fact that we can test
applications on virtual servers is particularly
valuable. It’s a safe, economical way to find
out what works and what doesn’t work, and
we can transfer configurations to a live
virtual server in minutes,” says Alaeddin.
“This will be an advantage for our internal
infrastructure and our hosting platform. We
can test and launch a complete Microsoft
Exchange Server environment in less than
30 minutes using VMware templates. Without
our virtualized Dell solution, this would take
five hours.”
The expandability of the Dell blade servers
also plays a crucial role. Alaeddin says:
“Thanks to the snap-in scalability of the Dell
PowerEdge M600, we can expand our hosting
infrastructure instantly.” In the next two years,
Kulacom will purchase another 1,000 servers,
each running up to 15 virtual servers.
The team can also scale the SAN quickly and
simply, using peer provisioning. “With Dell
EqualLogic storage, we can add capacity on
demand by allocating virtual pools of storage
to specific servers. In other words, we
customise our storage instantly according to
customer requirements, rather than buying
disks in anticipation of future needs. In our
business, this flexibility is invaluable. We have
to be fast to be competitive, and we have to
control our running costs. Our Dell solution
does both,” says Alaeddin.
High availability inspires
customer confidence
For Kulacom, the longevity of customer
relationships is key. Says Alaeddin: “Our aim
is to build long-term customer relationships
by offering solutions that grow as they do.
To do this, we must show that we can match
the reliability and quality offered by our
competitors.”
In addition to rapid scalability, high uptime is
essential. “Customers in Jordan are not used
to seeing commercial datacentres here – it’s
a new experience for them. To win their trust,
we need to have total confidence in our IT
infrastructure. That’s what Dell is helping us
achieve,” says Alaeddin.
2
http://www.dell.com/us/en/gen/servers/pedge_m600/pd.aspx?refid=pedge_m600s=gen
“We can test and launch a complete
Microsoft Exchange Server
environment in less than 30 minutes
using VMware templates. Without
our virtualized Dell solution, this
would take five hours.”
Hazim Alaeddin, Chief Executive Officer, Kulacom
