Nutanix > Case Studies > Bauer Built Tire Upgrades Server and Storage Infrastructure to Nutanix for Unmatchable Simplicity

Bauer Built Tire Upgrades Server and Storage Infrastructure to Nutanix for Unmatchable Simplicity

Customer Company Size

Mid-size Company

Region

America

Country

United States

Product

Nutanix Virtual Computing Platform
Nutanix NX-2000 Complete Blocks
Citrix XenDesktop

Tech Stack

VMware hypervisor
10 GbE switch

Implementation Scale

Enterprise-wide Deployment

Impact Metrics

Cost Savings
Energy Saving
Productivity Improvements

Technology Category

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - Cloud Computing
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - Cloud Storage Services

Applicable Industries

Automotive

Applicable Functions

Business Operation

Services

System Integration

About The Customer

Bauer Built Tire is one of the largest commercial tire dealers and retreaders in the United States. It has 500 employees and operates 30 retail stores, 11 distribution centers, and 10 manufacturing plants across the Midwest. Bauer Built Tire has annual revenues of about $230 million, with aggressive plans for growth in the next decade. The company carries a complete line of major-brand and private-label passenger tires, light truck tires, commercial truck tires, custom and stock retreads, agricultural tires, industrial tires, off-road tires, and tubes. It also provides services for bulk fuel distribution.

The Challenge

When Charlie Kavaloski joined Bauer Built Tire as the Director of IT, his first mission was to modernize the company’s server and storage infrastructure. It consisted of 22 Dell blade and rack servers with direct-attached storage supporting all enterprise applications. The infrastructure was old, out of warranty and no longer supported. Performance was inadequate for the company’s 160 users, and occasionally an application froze and the associated server had to be rebooted. The equipment stretched and sprawled across three racks in the datacenter. He felt the new infrastructure needed to be completely redesigned – virtualized, less complex and more consolidated.

The Solution

After seeing a VDI demo on a Nutanix Virtual Computing Platform at a reseller event, Kavaloski was impressed with the performance and the converged, compact 2U appliance. It simply connects to a 10 GbE switch and does not require significant cabling or a SAN. The Nutanix platform also comes pre-installed with a VMware hypervisor, ready to provision. The IT department also considered new servers and storage from Dell and an integrated platform from Cisco and EMC. But both required an expensive and complex SAN. Bauer Built Tire deployed two Nutanix NX-2000 Complete Blocks as its primary datacenter infrastructure. The setup was fast and it took just half a day to have the system up and running. The Nutanix system now supports 23 virtual machines running email, file servers, terminal servers, SQL Server, a business intelligence tool, payroll, and a VDI pilot project using Citrix XenDesktop. User response times are faster. Remote desktop logon time fell by more than half from 47 to 21 seconds. After transitioning the CFO to a Citrix based virtual desktop on Nutanix, the time to generate models with the business intelligence tool dropped from several minutes to only 45 seconds.

Operational Impact

The Nutanix system supports 23 virtual machines running various applications including email, file servers, terminal servers, SQL Server, a business intelligence tool, payroll, and a VDI pilot project using Citrix XenDesktop.
User response times have improved significantly, with remote desktop logon time reduced by more than half.
The transition to a Citrix-based virtual desktop on Nutanix has reduced the time to generate models with the business intelligence tool from several minutes to only 45 seconds.
The new infrastructure has reduced the datacenter rack space consumption significantly, from 42U to 7U.
Power consumption has decreased, leading to lower power bills and a more efficient battery backup system.

Quantitative Benefit