Cisco Cisco Nexus 2224TP GE Fabric Extender Merkblatt
Challenge
In March of 2010, nine real estate firms joined forces to form Cassidy Turley. Today,
the company earns more than US$22 billion in revenue and is a leading provider
of commercial real estate services for owners, investors, and occupiers. Based
in St. Louis, Missouri, Cassidy Turley has more than 3500 employees in over 60
offices throughout the United States and manages over 450 million square feet of
space. The firm was recognized by the International Association of Outsourcing
Professionals (IAOP) as one of the top 75 “Leader” companies on its 2012 Global
Outsourcing 100 service providers list.
the company earns more than US$22 billion in revenue and is a leading provider
of commercial real estate services for owners, investors, and occupiers. Based
in St. Louis, Missouri, Cassidy Turley has more than 3500 employees in over 60
offices throughout the United States and manages over 450 million square feet of
space. The firm was recognized by the International Association of Outsourcing
Professionals (IAOP) as one of the top 75 “Leader” companies on its 2012 Global
Outsourcing 100 service providers list.
As the company began to evolve shortly after its launch, Cassidy Turley created
a five-year plus technology vision, which included replacing older, legacy servers
that came from its original companies and subsequent acquisitions. “We have
office locations all over the country, and we continue to grow,” says Steve Deal,
senior network engineer at Cassidy Turley. “To improve performance, scalability,
and reliability of our data center, our goal was to consolidate and build a private
cloud.” The vision also included upgrading telephone and voicemail systems with a
single integrated interface, a call center management solution that provided instant
messaging, and integrated audio/video/web conferencing.
a five-year plus technology vision, which included replacing older, legacy servers
that came from its original companies and subsequent acquisitions. “We have
office locations all over the country, and we continue to grow,” says Steve Deal,
senior network engineer at Cassidy Turley. “To improve performance, scalability,
and reliability of our data center, our goal was to consolidate and build a private
cloud.” The vision also included upgrading telephone and voicemail systems with a
single integrated interface, a call center management solution that provided instant
messaging, and integrated audio/video/web conferencing.
Deal and senior network engineer Tom Kriegermeier were responsible for the design
and execution of the plan. “We inventoried the equipment from all the companies
and knew we had to reduce the huge footprint of hardware from various vendors.
We also had a bandwidth bottleneck that caused latency issues,” says Kriegermeier.
The latency was apparent on Microsoft Exchange 2007, and with a planned upgrade
to Exchange 2010 as well as to PeopleSoft ERP, the team knew performance would
be a challenge.
and execution of the plan. “We inventoried the equipment from all the companies
and knew we had to reduce the huge footprint of hardware from various vendors.
We also had a bandwidth bottleneck that caused latency issues,” says Kriegermeier.
The latency was apparent on Microsoft Exchange 2007, and with a planned upgrade
to Exchange 2010 as well as to PeopleSoft ERP, the team knew performance would
be a challenge.
1 © 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
Executive Summary
Customer Name:
Cassidy Turley
Industry:
Real Estate
Location:
St. Louis, Missouri
Number of Employees:
3500
Challenge:
• Standardize legacy data center
equipment from nine initial companies
and several acquisitions
• Eliminate latency experienced with
business-critical applications
• Enhance performance, scalability,
and reliability of data center through
consolidation
Solution:
• Cisco Unified Computing System
(UCS) supports VMware server
virtualization
• Cisco Nexus 5000 Series Switches
enable 10-Gigabit connectivity and
simplify provisioning
• Cisco collaboration solutions boost
communication, easing load on
Microsoft Exchange
Results:
• Consolidated equipment from several
locations into a single Cisco UCS-
based data center
• Improved application performance by
100 percent
• Reduced costs by 75 percent by
saving on hardware, power, cooling,
and heating expenses
Customer Case Study
Real Estate Services Provider
Simplifies Data Center