Larry Mathews of Swinerton and Steve Kaplan of AccessFlow accepting their Vision Awards at the2007 Constructech Vision Awards banquet in Chicago.
Through offices located throughout the western United States, Swinerton Incorporated offers construction services to a diverse range of commercial business clients that demand exacting performance. The hallmark of Swinerton’s success for over a century of business is the principle of exceeding client expectations through innovative construction and outstanding customer service. Swinerton’s business expansion has required tremendous growth in IT capacity. The small, one-room server space was expanded by breaking out walls, replacing a 2-ton air conditioner with a 10-ton unit, and by adding a backup generator and two large UPS systems. Growth in applications and network requirements led to a proliferation of servers; up to 75 at the peak. Over time, it became apparent that Swinerton was going to run into serious data center capacity problems.
At the end of 2005, Swinerton began to plan for yet another data center expansion. The company was low on rack space; the backup generator could not handle many more servers; the air conditioner was being taxed during the summer, and the electrical capacity of the building was going to need an upgrade. Swinerton was looking at some very expensive leasehold improvements. Then AccessFlow proposed virtualization.
In 2006, Swinerton began a program of “virtualizing” servers using VMware’s ESX virtualization technology. As a Windows shop, Swinerton was frustrated that a single application, in general, required its own server. A VMware CapacityPlanner assessment conducted by AccessFlow determined that most of the servers were drastically underutilized. Swinerton now has the marjoity of its servers virtualized onto four 2-CPU ESX hosts, and there is still additional capacity as the company continues to virtualize the remaining physical servers throughout 2007.
By eliminating physical servers, Swinerton no longer requires a data center expansion. In addition, Swinerton had planned on replacing 9 older servers and purchasing 10 new ones for application expansion, for a total of 19 servers which are no longer required. As an added benefit, since Swinerton is dedicated to green technology and sustainable construction, the company is proud to have contributed to the environment in a small way by reducing their energy consumption. Swinerton adjusted their air conditioning set point from 62 to 69 degrees, is using less cabling, and is using about $300 less in electricity per server per year (conservatively). Swinerton is anticipating a rebate from the electric company in recognition of its efforts.
Swinerton & AccessFlow win 2007 Vision Award