Black Hills Energy ReEnergizes IT with Nutanix Enterprise Cloud and AHV
Customer Company Size
Large Corporate
Region
- America
Country
- United States
Product
- Nutanix Enterprise Cloud Platform
- Nutanix AHV
- Prism management solution
- Citrix XenDesktop
- Citrix XenApp
Tech Stack
- Nutanix Enterprise Cloud Platform
- Nutanix AHV
- Prism management solution
- Citrix XenDesktop
- Citrix XenApp
Implementation Scale
- Enterprise-wide Deployment
Impact Metrics
- Customer Satisfaction
- Digital Expertise
- Productivity Improvements
Technology Category
- Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - Cloud Computing
- Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - Cloud Storage Services
- Platform as a Service (PaaS) - Connectivity Platforms
Applicable Industries
- Utilities
Applicable Functions
- Business Operation
- Facility Management
Use Cases
- Remote Asset Management
Services
- Cloud Planning, Design & Implementation Services
- System Integration
About The Customer
Black Hills Energy is a prominent energy provider serving 1.2 million natural gas and electric utilities customers across eight states in the United States, including Arkansas, Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, South Dakota, and Wyoming. The company is committed to delivering reliable energy services and has a strong focus on customer satisfaction and operational efficiency. As a large corporate entity, Black Hills Energy continuously seeks innovative solutions to enhance its service delivery and maintain its competitive edge in the energy sector. The company’s decision to upgrade its IT infrastructure reflects its dedication to leveraging advanced technologies to improve service reliability and customer experience.
The Challenge
Black Hills Energy faced stability and manageability challenges with their existing storage and hypervisor environment. The company had deployed virtual desktops for all internal users in 2011 using Citrix XenDesktop and traditional servers and SAN storage systems. As the infrastructure aged, it became necessary to refresh the system to ensure continued efficiency and reliability. The IT team at Black Hills Energy decided to upgrade to Nutanix due to its strong reputation and the need for a more stable and manageable solution. The existing environment was experiencing instability and unplanned outages, which prompted the decision to move to a more robust infrastructure.
The Solution
To address the challenges faced, Black Hills Energy implemented the Nutanix Enterprise Cloud Platform, which included Nutanix AHV native virtualization and the Prism management solution. The company purchased six Nutanix 3000-series blocks for its Citrix environment, deploying them in an active-active configuration across its data centers. This setup was designed to enhance the stability and performance of their virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI). Additionally, Black Hills Energy deployed a separate cluster in each of its two data centers to support the company’s Genesys call center application. The transition to Nutanix AHV was driven by the need to eliminate the instability and unplanned outages experienced with the previous hypervisor. The move to AHV provided a more stable and reliable environment for running Citrix XenDesktop and other enterprise workloads. The successful deployment of Nutanix systems and the positive results achieved with the Citrix desktops on AHV led Black Hills Energy to decide to migrate its Citrix XenApp environment from the competitor’s hypervisor to AHV as well.
Operational Impact
Quantitative Benefit
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