EMC and VMware solutions are to virtualize 70% of their server environment in order to increase their business agility and efficiency. The virtualization was made possible by VMware vSphere for critical applications which includes Microfsoft SQL Server, corporate email, file systems and its teller database platform.  The Independent Bank uses EMC CLARiiON systems to store information from approximately 125 virtual machines which are able to archive images of checks, signatures and other pertinent documents relevant to their operations.

"Our virtual data center is the first phase of our journey toward private cloud, which will enable us to get even more utilization, agility and efficiency from our IT resources," said Pete Graves, Independent Bank’s Chief Information Officer.  "EMC’s roadmap for integrating EMC and VMware solutions and developing new solutions is continually in line with our strategy to become more efficient and competitive."

VMWare CTO Steve Herrod and EMC VP Chad Sakac  talk about their companies’ relationship

Independent Bank also deployed the following systems to enhance the capability of their new virtual data center:

-        EMC Data Domain deduplication storage systems for its backup storage environment

-        and EMC RecoverPoint and VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager to replicate virtual machines and critical application data to a remote site

EMC RecoverPoint also automates the failover and failback of production systems in the event of any unplanned outages.  With the two systems, the Bank estimates that EMC and VMware solutions have enabled the company to be able to eliminate 65 physical servers, avoiding the addition of physical server expenditures even as the environment would continue to grow. It is also expected that the time to deploy a physical server will be reduced from at least a day to 1-2 hours with the installation of these virtual machines.

The bank is positively looking at a dramatic decrease in their server-related power consumption as these new innovations significantly reduce their requirements for backup storage capacity. Finally, the bank is said to be expecting a huge reduction of the critical systems recovery from days to a few hours or even minutes while maintaining their existing staff count as the storage infrastructure grew a rapid 40 percent from 8.5 to 12 terabytes over the last 18 months.

When asked about it, Independent Bank’s Enterprise Architect, Tom McKowen, said, "In a virtual world, we’ve seen tremendous savings in time and flexibility when we implement or update our systems.  And, because EMC RecoverPoint and VMware are so tightly integrated, we can target different recovery objectives across both our physical and virtual environments and without increasing complexity."

EMC has been powering through a great deal lately, making acquisitions here and there, and rolling out a number of new products and partnerships.  Being integral to the overall cloud transition, EMC is growing in influence.  VMware is at the center of this cloud storm too.  It’s latest partner was Google, marking quite a precedent in the industry.