Leveraging VMware Software Defined Data Center and vRealize Automation, the California Natural Resource Agency delivered a multi-tenant private cloud that meets the unique needs of different groups within the agency.
Consolidating Infrastructure Across Departments
Like most government agencies, tight budgets mean that these IT departments are constantly looking at how to do more with less and the state of California is no exception. The California natural resources agency is a collection of 28 different agencies many which had their own dedicated IT departments. The goal was to consolidate and share a common infrastructure yet each group has their own autonomy in terms of resources, security, network traffic, etc.
With a mandate to consolidate having a software defined data center (SDDC) was essential. It allowed them to obfuscate the physical hardware creating a logical data center for each of their organizations. Initially that meant compute and storage but they have also started on their journey to deploy NSX networking too. Automation allowed them to dynamically configure resources to meet the unique needs of each group. This allowed them to move to a cloud service provider model and improve service levels from days to hours. A summary of their story is provided below, but the full story is available here.
Challenges
- With budget and technical resources shortfalls throughout the state, and the traditional Government IT Service Model of disparate, redundant IT architectures silos were not able to support the growing business
Desired Business & IT Outcomes
- Become a shared services provider based upon a Software-Defined Architecture which can flex across private and public clouds.
- Reduce overall IT costs while improving performance and responsiveness.
Business Impact
Benefits realized:
- Increased capacity by 300% while shrinking physical footprint by over 60%
- Reduced CAPEX by 40% and OPEX by 30%
Projected benefits:
- 60% improvement in provisioning times
- Increased capacity and capabilities, with additional CAPEX reductions
- 100% improvement in workload placement/movement flexibility
“The world is changing constantly. And we are providing the New Style IT that will provide services to the Agency, its Departments, and the people of California to meet current and future business demands.”
— Tim Garza, Agency IT Director, California Natural Resources Agency
& CIO, Department of Water Resources
Learn More
To learn more about how VMware SDDC and vRealize Automation can allow your business to accelerate the delivery of IT services while driving down costs, please utilize the following resources:
- Learn using the VCloud Automation 6.x Video Library
- Try HOL-SDC-1421 – Brokering IT Services and Applications with vRealize Automation
Need help deploying your private cloud infrastructure or developing your business justification? Contact us and our experts can help your team build the business case and the solution that will maximize your IT productivity.
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