42%
surge in virtualisation costs mitigated
300
virtual appliances migrated seamlessly
6 months
to achieve ROI on migration services
4 months
for project completion
The Customer
Sportingtech is a multi-award-winning provider of turnkey betting and gaming solutions designed for regulated and emerging markets around the globe. The omni-channel platform offers solutions for sportsbook, casino and retail betting operators, with over 10,000 products from more than 100 games providers.
With an ‘all-VMware’ virtualised enterprise private cloud architecture, the post-VMware acquisition licensing changes represented a significant cost burden to the business, up to a 42% increase in virtualisation costs.
In search of an experienced service provider to design, plan and execute a migration to a new, more cost-effective virtualised hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI), Sportingtech selected Continent 8 Technologies – a Nutanix Authorised Service Provider and current Sportingtech infrastructure and cybersecurity services partner – to provide professional and managed migration services to deliver the project using the Nutanix AHV virtualisation platform.
The Challenge
There were multiple requirements to be met from technical to commercial, with a requirement for minimal operational impact:
- Hardware upkeep – Sportingtech hardware was recently acquired and future-proofed for capacity and resilience, so needed to be maintained.
- Hypervisor change – Due to cost, a solution was sought which could minimise licensing fees but support current and future features, workloads and provide additional native benefits.
- Speed/timescale and 24/7 – The project had to be completed within fixed timescales at pace, whilst not disrupting operations.
- Resource intensive – Sportingtech runs a substantial betting and gaming operation and aimed to keep personnel focused on core revenue-generating activities – such a migration could significantly impact other projects and priorities.
- Mixed workloads – Close to 300 virtual appliances ran a mixture of vendor applications, databases and in-house intellectual property, of different sizes and priority, requiring careful planning and scheduling.
The Solution
Continent 8 proposed and delivered a solution using Nutanix AHV and:
- Assessed and prioritised existing workloads, crafting a plan with milestones for key operational activities to perform migration at least impact, but quickest timescale.
- Provided a return-on-investment (ROI) cost for delivery of project and savings achieved.
- Demonstrated ease of migration in a test proof-of-concept (PoC) environment, before proceeding with test, development and production workloads.
- Executed migrations in advance of switch-over so the Nutanix MOVE service could copy data to the new cluster ahead of availability.
- Monitored and checked every migration for success before progressing to the next stage, on approval by Sportingtech.
The Benefits
| 1. Availability | 2. Cost | 3. Speed |
|---|---|---|
Continent 8 created a migration plan and schedule which minimised impact to the customer and maximised productivity. By delving into the customer’s key operational requirements and understanding workload utilisation, this plan minimised the chance of failure or impact. During migrations, user experiences remained unaffected, although Continent 8 provided heightened support availability in case of issue or roll-back. | By migrating, Continent 8 was able to demonstrate: • Zero-change hypervisor licensing fees over remaining term of commitment. | Continent 8 performing the work allowed customer’s operational-focused teams to maintain their regular tasks, enabling the project to be undertaken at speed. From engagement to execution, the project was completed on-time and within budget. Continent 8 utilised project management resources to ensure all tasks were completed in order and key milestones achieved. |
Project Conclusion
Continent 8 successfully orchestrated a VMware-to-Nutanix migration, transitioning to a virtualisation platform that ensures predictable, manageable and lower costs, while circumventing VMware’s 42% increase in licensing fees. The project was executed with minimal-to-zero disruption to Sportingtech’s operations and users, delivering a seamless end-to-end migration experience.
“We are always looking for ways to enhance the solution we build for our customers and to keep costs down. Working with Continent 8, who constantly push to provide efficiencies, cost reductions and value-added expertise, made good sense to us. They continue to be a valued partner and managed to deliver the project on time with no service interruption for us or our customers, which is critical.”
Michael Jack, Chief Technology Officer at Sportingtech
“Continent 8 is able to use its experience with VMware, Nutanix, private and public clouds to provide professional as well as managed services to customers, enabling them to focus on core revenue-generating operations. Being able to demonstrate such a significant saving and ROI will be of interest to many enterprises in today’s market. It’s thanks to the experienced and highly qualified project and cloud engineering staff at Continent 8 that we were able to successfully complete this project, while earning Sportingtech’s trust to manage their critical operational infrastructure.”
Justin Cosnett, Chief Product Officer at Continent 8
Discover how Continent 8 can assist in evaluating, optimising and migrating your workloads to a new cloud platform by registering for a free cloud architectural review*.
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