DCI, a bank technology company, implemented a highly virtualized server and storage environment using NetApp and VMware technologies, resulting in significant cost savings and operational efficiencies. The investment of $1.3 million is projected to deliver a 40% ROI over four years with total benefits of approximately $2.1 million, including improved disaster recovery capabilities and reduced energy consumption. This modernization aligns with DCI's strategic goals, enabling scalable IT services for future cloud computing initiatives.

1. DCI CASE STUDY
NETAPP BENEFITS SERIES
CUSTOMER PROFILE
Company Name:
DCI
Website URL: www.datacenterinc.com
Industry: High Technology/
Financial Services
Employees: 300
HIGHLIGHTS
NetApp Solution:
■■ NetApp®
FAS3140, FA2050, and FAS2020
systems with NetApp Snapshot™ and
deduplication technologies, SnapManager®
for Microsoft SQL Server, SnapManager
for Microsoft Exchange, SnapManager for
Virtual Infrastructure, SnapManager for
Oracle, SnapMirror®
, SnapRestore®
,
FlexClone®
, FlexVol®
, SnapVault®
, SnapDrive®
,
SnapLock®
Enterprise, Operations Manager,
and Protection Manager software
Key Benefits:
Financial:
■■ On track to achieve 40% ROI over four
years on $1.3M investment with payback
within 23 months
■■ Improved storage administration productivity
by the equivalent of one employee;
$95K personnel cost optimization
■■ Avoided hiring two storage administrators,
saving $720K over three years
■■ Saved $47K in annual traveling costs and
lost productivity
■■ Saved $108K in energy costs over four years
■■ Avoided $45K in WAN costs over four years
DCI Contains IT Sprawl, Improves Business Continuity
with Virtualized NetApp Platform; 40% ROI and 23-Month
Payback Projected
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
One of the nation’s first bank technology
companies, Kansas-based DCI, provides
core banking services to nearly 200
community banks around the country. To
satisfy the high-volume data-processing
requirements of its bank clients, DCI’s IT
platform has to be ultradependable and
fast. DCI managed to achieve high
processing performance over the years,
but it took increasing amounts of hardware
sprawled over several data centers.
Eventually, the company realized that
it needed to rein in its server and
storage infrastructure to control costs,
better safeguard data, and support
next-generation Web-based products
and services. With the help of ISG
Technology, Inc., a leading Midwestern
“ Our objective was to ensure rapid data restore and
DR support for our customers, and the NetApp and
VMware infrastructure enabled us to achieve this.”
– Robert Ross, SVP of Network/Technical Services
and Chief Security Officer
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2. DCI CASE STUDY
NETAPP BENEFITS SERIES
computer technology firm, DCI chose
to build a highly virtualized server and
storage environment based on NetApp
and VMware technology. Today, the new
platform supports DCI’s major business
applications, databases, and systems,
including its flagship iCore360®
application,
Microsoft SQL and Exchange servers,
Citrix, Blackberry, and more.
The move to a VMware on NetApp platform
enabled DCI to consolidate its IT infrastructure
on 80% fewer servers, cutting energy
consumption and allowing the company
to administer the whole environment with
significantly fewer resources. Furthermore,
it built a fully automated, centralized disaster
recovery center in Oklahoma City and
adopted consistent data-backup processes
companywide. All of these moves have added
new levels of reliability and scalability to the
firm’s IT backbone, laying the foundation for
the company’s move into IT-as-a-Service
and cloud computing services.
According to an assessment by Mainstay
Partners, the NetApp investment has put
DCI on track to realize total benefits of
approximately $2.1M over four years,
including savings from avoiding outlays
for an alternative high-availability system
and savings from productivity gains,
hardware consolidation, and lower energy
consumption. The result: DCI is expected
to realize a 40% ROI over four years and
to break even in 23 months.
CUSTOMER PROFILE
Formed in 1963 by four Kansas bankers,
DCI was the first bank technology company
of its kind west of the Mississippi and remains
unique in ownership, history, and product
offering. Today, DCI is still a private company
with many client banks as shareholders
and board members, making the company
more directly responsive to the needs of all
their clients.
DCI serves nearly 200 community banks
nationwide and enjoys a consistent contract
renewal rate of over 95%. DCI’s reputation
is one of quality service, innovative develop-
ment, and collaborative focus on the needs
of their community bank clients.
DCI’s product offering includes iCore360°,
their latest ASP .NET system for complete
core processing, bank management, and
automation. Designed by banks to automate
and streamline the workflow, iCore360° is
delivered via an ordinary PC and Internet
browser, requiring no software installation
or costly servers.
THE CHALLENGE
The financial institutions that depend on DCI
are among the most demanding customers
around. They execute millions of dollars of
transactions every day—everything from
checking deposits to loan processing—
using DCI’s computing resources and
iCore360° applications. These banks
can’t afford system downtime or the loss
of critical financial data, which can have
an immediate impact on the business.
To ensure that the company could run its
business without downtime or data loss that
would impact their customers, DCI built a
large IT network spanning data centers in
three states and a disaster recovery site in
Oklahoma. But as DCI’s business expanded,
so did its data-processing and storage needs.
“Storage was just growing all over the
Reduction in
SA server
provisioning time
90%
Reduction in
overall SA time
on maintenance
Reduction in
database recovering
and testing effort
93%
Increase in
data recovery
success rate
99%
Reduction in
DBA provisioning
workload
Reduction in
capacity optimization
cycle times
50%
60%
Reduction in
the number
of servers
Reduction in
the number
of racks
80%
56%
Reduction in
SA server
provisioning time
90%
75%
Operational Benefits
With the VMware on NetApp infrastructure, DCI realized significant operational benefits and improvements,
positioning the company for future growth.
Figure 1
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3. DCI CASE STUDY
NETAPP BENEFITS SERIES
place,” said Robert Ross, DCI’s Senior Vice
President of Network/Technical Services
and Chief Security Officer. The challenge
was compounded by occasional disk-drive
replacement and a backup strategy that
relied heavily on inefficient tape drives at
remote sites.
Maintaining efficient data backup and
recovery capabilities was a key concern,
in part because of new regulatory require-
ments designed to tighten information
management in the financial services
sector. DCI also wanted to improve the
efficiency of IT and thereby control costs.
Administrators were spending too much
time backing up DCI’s data, and recovery
performance was less than optimal. “We
had to offer a better business continuity
environment to give customers the backup
capabilities they needed,” Ross said.
The sprawling infrastructure also burdened
DCI’s environment in Denver with steep
maintenance costs and high energy bills.
Basic IT administration tasks like database
and server provisioning, and data backup
and recovery testing, were becoming a
costly time sink.
All of these factors threatened DCI’s
strategic growth potential and the
company’s plans to deliver services using
new technologies like cloud computing.
“We wanted better growth management,”
Ross said, “including the ability to deliver
a flexible IT solution and offer our version
of cloud computing as an IT service.”
WHY VMWARE ON NETAPP?
DCI engaged ISG Technology, Inc. to examine
the potential of virtualization to overcome the
technical limitations and rising costs of the
existing infrastructure. ISG is an IT solutions
provider and a trusted advisor to DCI. After
reviewing DCI’s architecture and capacity,
the firm proposed a major overhaul, employing
virtualization technology from VMware and
NetApp to consolidate the company’s 28
servers into a lean, flexible platform composed
of just six physical servers connected to a
centralized, shared storage area network (SAN).
NetApp’s network-based shared storage
was an essential component of DCI’s
virtualization plan because without it,
many business-continuity features of
a virtualized environment—including
distributed resource management,
high availability, and advanced VMware
features like vMotion—would have been
impossible to implement. NetApp’s
storage management capabilities also
enabled a cost-effective disaster recovery
model known as virtual-to-virtual DR,
which provides enterprise-class disaster
recovery at a low cost.
DCI ruled out the option of beefing up its
nonvirtualized architecture because of the
prohibitive cost. In fact, an analysis showed
that to match the DR and backup capabilities
of the VMware on NetApp platform, DCI
would need to double the number of servers,
add three employees to administer the extra
machines, upgrade its wide area network
(WAN), and spend significantly more on
energy costs. The total cost of the expanded
platform would have exceeded $1M.
Choosing the virtualization strategy, DCI
moved ahead with ISG’s recommendations,
installing VMware ESX virtual servers and
NetApp FAS systems at its data centers.
According to Ross, “we integrated both
at the same time to give us the ability to
integrate our data, create an extremely
reliable business-continuity environment,
and support the technological innovations
needed to drive new business initiatives
such as cloud-based service delivery.”
With ISG’s assistance, the project moved
quickly: DCI’s Hutchison (Kansas) data
center went virtual in October 2008;
Commerce (California) and Golden (Colorado)
in June 2009; and Oklahoma City in August
2009. “ISG had a fast-start program that
enabled us to complete the project very
efficiently, rapidly, and successfully,” Ross
said. “The implementation speed we were
able to attain was amazing.”
The move to the VMware on NetApp
infrastructure achieved the company’s initial
business and technical objectives, allowing
DCI to virtualize and consolidate its Windows
“ ISG had a fast-start program that enabled us to complete
the project very efficiently, rapidly, and successfully.
The implementation speed we were able to attain
was amazing.”
– Robert Ross, SVP of Network/Technical Services
and Chief Security Officer
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4. DCI CASE STUDY
NETAPP BENEFITS SERIES
environment and then monitor and dynamic-
ally configure the platform to better serve its
customers. The platform’s centrally managed,
virtualized storage infrastructure also allowed
DCI to adopt standard, consistent backup
processes across every site and to automate
disaster recovery processes. DCI now
encounters fewer errors during backups,
despite doubling the backup frequency.
“Our objective was to ensure rapid data
restore and DR support for our customers,
and the NetApp and VMware infrastructure
enabled us to achieve this,” Ross said.
Significant efficiency and productivity gains
are being achieved in the consolidated,
virtualized environment through the use
of NetApp software tools, including
SnapManager for Oracle, SnapManager for
Exchange, SnapManager for SQL Server,
SnapManager for Virtual Infrastructure,
Snapshot, SnapMirror, FlexVol, and FlexClone.
These software tools automate storage
management tasks, decrease backup times,
and optimize disk space in support of the
company’s business-critical iCore360°
banking applications, Microsoft SQL
databases, and other systems. Today,
DCI is managing more than 100 terabytes
of storage with one full-time employee.
BUSINESS BENEFITS
Mainstay Partners quantified the benefits
of DCI’s investment in the NetApp storage
solution and has projected more than
$800K in net savings over four years. The
following sections detail these benefits.
Infrastructure Optimization
The VMware on NetApp infrastructure
helped DCI shrink its hardware footprint
and contain server sprawl, enabling the
company to run its systems and applications
using fewer physical servers and storage
devices. For example, using NetApp’s
deduplication technology—which eliminates
multiple copies of data—DCI cut the amount
of storage space it consumes by 50%.1
It cut another 25% through the use of thin
provisioning, a NetApp technology that
lets administrators allocate only as much
storage space as is actually needed by
the operating systems and applications.
Overall, the virtualization project allowed
DCI to consolidate IT operations onto just
14 VMware ESX servers, an 80% reduction
in physical machines, as shown in Figure 2.
The move to VMware on NetApp also enabled
DCI to shut down three smaller processing
centers and helped DCI avoid outlays for
three new physical servers a year to keep
up with data-processing growth.
Improvement in Database
Recovery Time
Figure 3
2
30
NetApp
Environment
Previous
Environment
Time to Recover Database (in minutes)
Decrease in the Number
of Physical Servers
Figure 2
14
70
NetApp
Environment
Previous
Environment
Number of Servers
1
NetApp is the only storage technology that deduplicates primary data at the block level. These primary storage savings are subsequently multiplied and extended across the
storage environment during the backup, replication, disaster recovery, and archiving processes. Deduplicating also results in more rapid data replication routines.
“ We wanted better growth management, including
the ability to deliver a flexible IT solution and offer
our version of cloud computing as an IT service.”
– Robert Ross, SVP of Network/Technical Services
and Chief Security Officer
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5. DCI CASE STUDY
NETAPP BENEFITS SERIES
Real Estate and Energy Savings
Today, the company’s IT infrastructure
consumes about 75% less floor space,
offering DCI the possibility of future savings
from real estate consolidation and sales.
The smaller hardware footprint also takes
less energy to power and cool. After
implementing its virtualized platform, the
company has seen power consumption
fall by 22%, saving an estimated $108K
in energy costs over four years while
also helping to cut carbon emissions.
Productivity Gains
The introduction of automated storage-
management tools like NetApp SnapManager,
SnapMirror, and FlexVol has significantly
boosted staff productivity. For example,
system administrators who used to spend
4–8 hours per day checking and trouble-
shooting backup jobs now use Snapshot
technology to do the same job in half the
time and without impacting system
performance. “NetApp Snapshot copies
eliminate the redundancy inherent in
traditional backups,” said Brock Benard,
DCI’s lead network engineer. “Snapshot
shortens backup windows and provides
100% data validation.” As a result of these
efficiency gains, DCI expects to forego
hiring two new administrators, saving
approximately $720K over three years.
Meanwhile, administrators are using
FlexVol to resize and optimize storage
capacity about 60% faster than before.
These efficiencies have resulted in
smoother-running applications and
have decreased the number of timeouts
affecting its mission-critical ATM
bank-machine applications.
More Reliable and
Rapid Data Recovery
With its NetApp storage infrastructure,
DCI now expects to take 93% less time to
perform Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, and
Exchange Server database recoveries—
from 30 minutes down to just 2 minutes.
NetApp FlexClone technology, which creates
instant data copies, was seen as key to this
improvement. In addition, DCI was able
to start performing database recovery
testing remotely, which is saving the
company $47K over four years in travel
costs,2
as shown in Figure 4.
Data Recovery Time
Figure 4
4
0
1
2
3
4
.25
NetApp
Environment
Previous
Environment
RecoveryTime(inhours)
Figure 5
Decrease in Database
Provisioning Time
1
2
NetApp
Environment
Previous
Environment
Hours to Provision Database (in hours)
Figure 6
Decrease in Server
Provisioning Time
1
12
NetApp
Environment
Previous
Environment
Hours to Provision Server (in hours)
2
In the previous environment, six team members travelled to the Colorado data center for DR testing for one week each year, a trip that is no longer required.
“ NetApp Snapshot copies eliminate the redundancy
inherent in traditional backups. It shortens backup
windows and provides 100% data validation.”
– Brock Benard, Lead Network Engineer
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6. DCI CASE STUDY
NETAPP BENEFITS SERIES
Data recovery performance has also
improved since moving to NetApp. With
NetApp Snapshot and SnapManager
for Virtual Infrastructure, DCI backs up
data faster and more frequently with little
impact to system performance. It also
improved average data recovery time
by more than 90%.
Faster Provisioning,
Easier Maintenance
Efficiency gains were reported by data-
base administrators who are now using
automated storage-management tools
to provision databases 50% faster. DBAs
also use NetApp FlexClone to rapidly
reload more than 30 databases during
disaster recovery testing. Over three
years, the company expects to save an
estimated $16K in DBA labor costs from
using these storage-optimization tools.
Similarly, system administrators in DCI’s
virtual environments are provisioning
servers in less than an hour — a job that
used to take 12 hours in the previous
environment. They are also spending 75%
less time performing routine maintenance
on servers, a productivity improvement
(valued at about $95K per year) that lets
SAs devote more time to higher-level tasks
like capacity planning, user support, and
data recovery.
Supporting Growth and
New Initiatives
A key driver behind DCI’s investment in
virtualization and NetApp was to create
a modern IT platform that could scale
to accommodate DCI’s strategic goals
and growth trajectory. The launch of a
dedicated disaster recovery center in
Oklahoma City, based on NetApp
technology, was a critical step in building
the new platform. The DR center provides
every office with reliable, consistent DR
capabilities and eliminates single points
of failure in the storage environment.
The enhanced DR environment, combined
with virtualization, is providing the foundation
of a high-availability platform that DCI needs
for future initiatives, including moving its
iCore360º product to a Web-based service
in 2010 by using .NET and Silverlight
technology.
DCI also hopes to utilize the virtualized
platform to launch IT-as-a-Service (ITaaS)
and private cloud service offerings, which
will depend on efficiently partitioning and
allocating parts of its infrastructure to
customers. As DCI’s Ross said, “Our
NetApp and VMware infrastructure is
the cornerstone for our future private
cloud and ITaaS initiatives.”
THE BOTTOM LINE
According to Mainstay’s assessment,
DCI will achieve 40% ROI in the first
four years on a $1.3M investment in
the NetApp platform and will realize
$2.1M in total benefits. The assessment
projects that the company will achieve
payback on its investment within 23
months. Figure 7 breaks down the
investment costs between hardware,
software, consulting, and other costs,
which include business and internal IT
resource costs for design, development
and training, and asset write-off costs.
Figure 8 summarizes the cost and benefits
over four years, and Table 1 breaks out
these figures on a yearly basis.
Figure 7
Investment Cost Breakdown
Other
9%
Software Cost
5%
Consulting
4%
Hardware Cost
82%
“ Our NetApp and VMware infrastructure is the
cornerstone for our future private cloud and
ITaaS initiatives.”
– Robert Ross, SVP of Network/Technical Services
and Chief Security Officer
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7. DCI CASE STUDY
NETAPP BENEFITS SERIES
Summary of Costs and Benefits Over 4 Years
Figure 8
Financial Summary
Table 1
Initial Investment
2007 2008 2009 2010 Total
Hardware Cost $1,036,537 $0 $0 $0 $1,036,537
Software Cost $42,645 $8,295 $8,295 $8,295 $67,530
Miscellaneous Cost $62,000 $100,000 $0 $0 $162,000
Total Cost $1,141,182 $108,295 $8,295 $8,295 $1,266,067
Hardware Savings $0 $523,500 $268,500 $268,500 $1,060,500
Productivity Savings $0 $292,580 $292,580 $292,580 $877,740
Miscellaneous Savings $0 $51,000 $51,000 $51,000 $153,000
Total Benefits $0 $867,080 $612,080 $612,080 $2,091,240
Summary
Total Cost $1,266,067
Total Benefits $2,091,240
ROI 40%
Payback 23 months
Net BenefitsHardware
Savings
Productivity
Savings
Miscellaneous
Savings
Total
Investment
Miscellaneous
Costs
Software
Cost
Hardware
Cost
-$1,500,000
-$1,000,000
-$500,000
0
$500,000
$1,000,000
$1,500,000
-$1,036,537 -$67,539
-$162,000 -$1,266,067 $1,060,500
$877,740
$153,000
$825,173
$2,000,000
$2,500,000
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8. NETAPP BENEFITS SERIES
DCI CASE STUDY
NetApp, the NetApp logo, SnapManager, SnapMirror, SnapVault, and SyncMirror are registered
trademarks and NetApp and Snapshot are trademarks of NetApp, Inc. in the U.S. and other countries.
All other brands or products are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders and
should be treated as such.
DCI, the DCI logo, iCore, iCore360°, the iCore360° logo, InstaKey, the InstaKey logo, InfoSight, DCI
Teller, 1NetWeb, Inter@ct:, are trademarks or registered trademarks of Data Center, Inc. in the United
States and/or other countries.
Copyright © 2010 Mainstay Partners LLC.
BIS-1005-0110
ABOUT THIS CASE STUDY
Research and analysis for this study was
conducted by Mainstay Partners, an
independent consulting firm, drawing from
interviews with DCI employees, review of
planning documents and searches of
industry literature. ROI calculations use
industry-standard assumptions regarding
the time value of money.
Mainstay Partners is the leading provider
of independent value assessment and IT
strategy services. Our clients include
Motorola, Honeywell, Oracle, SAP,
Lexmark International, Microsoft, EDS
and Hyperion. For more information,
please visit www.mainstaypartners.net.
Information contained in this business
impact study has been obtained from
sources considered reliable but is not
warranted by Mainstay Partners.
BIS-1005-0110
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