Cisco Cisco Nexus 2224TP GE Fabric Extender Folheto
Still, his top priority was improving the scalability of the IT environment to promote a
more agile business. “Because our company is growing at such a rapid pace, we have
to be able to adjust our compute power, storage, and server capacity however our
business dictates,” says Nilsson. He knew virtualization was the only solution.
more agile business. “Because our company is growing at such a rapid pace, we have
to be able to adjust our compute power, storage, and server capacity however our
business dictates,” says Nilsson. He knew virtualization was the only solution.
Solution
After evaluating blade servers from various vendors, Nilsson chose the Cisco Unified
Computing System
Computing System
™
(UCS
®
). “Cisco UCS offered us the uptime we needed, would help
us stay flexible as our business grew, and would be easy to manage centrally,” says
Nilsson, who has a “very lean” data center staff of just six IT professionals.
Nilsson, who has a “very lean” data center staff of just six IT professionals.
Epic first replaced its existing one- and two-rack servers with four Cisco
®
UCS
Chassis, populated with B200 M2 server blades. Epic then configured two chassis full
of blades (16 in all) for virtualization, creating 140 virtual machines to support its day-
to-day business and development operations. The two other UCS chasses form the
foundation of Epic’s build farm, where developers compile code for both games and
the Unreal Engine. These two chassis replaced 30 tower servers.
of blades (16 in all) for virtualization, creating 140 virtual machines to support its day-
to-day business and development operations. The two other UCS chasses form the
foundation of Epic’s build farm, where developers compile code for both games and
the Unreal Engine. These two chassis replaced 30 tower servers.
“We took a bit of a gamble, because Cisco was so new to the server market,” says
Nilsson. “But we’d done enough business with Cisco to feel comfortable with its ability
to support the new platform.” Happy with the first four Cisco blade servers, Nilsson
then purchased Cisco UCS C210 M2 Rack-Mount Servers for Perforce, Epic’s content
management system. For the network backbone, Nilsson implemented Cisco Nexus
Nilsson. “But we’d done enough business with Cisco to feel comfortable with its ability
to support the new platform.” Happy with the first four Cisco blade servers, Nilsson
then purchased Cisco UCS C210 M2 Rack-Mount Servers for Perforce, Epic’s content
management system. For the network backbone, Nilsson implemented Cisco Nexus
®
5000 and 2000 Series Switches to support 10-gigabit Ethernet connectivity. More
recently, Nilsson’s installed another Cisco UCS B230 chassis in Epic’s Warsaw studio.
recently, Nilsson’s installed another Cisco UCS B230 chassis in Epic’s Warsaw studio.
The virtualized UCS servers also run large SQL databases that manage game play
statistics. Nilsson has dedicated two smaller virtual servers to SharePoint, and three
to Microsoft Exchange. All servers supporting website content use the Linux operating
system running MySQL as back-end databases.
statistics. Nilsson has dedicated two smaller virtual servers to SharePoint, and three
to Microsoft Exchange. All servers supporting website content use the Linux operating
system running MySQL as back-end databases.
Results
Now, 18 months later, Nilsson can quickly scale the infrastructure to adapt to business
needs. “Our environment is very demanding, and blades often run close to 100 percent
CPU utilization,” says Nilsson. “For the Gears of War 3 launch, we boosted both our
web presence and online forums for the growing number of fans and users. With
Cisco UCS, we’re able to spin up new virtual machines on demand.” Under the old
environment, Nilsson’s team would need two to three days to get a new physical server
provisioned. “Today, I can get a new virtual machine up in minutes.”
needs. “Our environment is very demanding, and blades often run close to 100 percent
CPU utilization,” says Nilsson. “For the Gears of War 3 launch, we boosted both our
web presence and online forums for the growing number of fans and users. With
Cisco UCS, we’re able to spin up new virtual machines on demand.” Under the old
environment, Nilsson’s team would need two to three days to get a new physical server
provisioned. “Today, I can get a new virtual machine up in minutes.”
In addition to speedy, consistent, no-touch provisioning, Epic Games also benefits
from a sharp decrease in operational costs with Cisco UCS. “If I had to rack, stack, and
cable every machine we’ve added on UCS over the past year, in addition to more staff,
I’d spend more on power and cooling, and would require a much larger overall data
center footprint,” says Nilsson.
from a sharp decrease in operational costs with Cisco UCS. “If I had to rack, stack, and
cable every machine we’ve added on UCS over the past year, in addition to more staff,
I’d spend more on power and cooling, and would require a much larger overall data
center footprint,” says Nilsson.
That his team can centrally manage the UCS-based architecture has proved
advantageous as well. “If I tried scaling like this using traditional hardware, I’d need two
or three times the people for the hardware alone,” he says. “But the smaller footprint of
Cisco UCS and our ability to centrally manage the environment means we can do more
with less.”
advantageous as well. “If I tried scaling like this using traditional hardware, I’d need two
or three times the people for the hardware alone,” he says. “But the smaller footprint of
Cisco UCS and our ability to centrally manage the environment means we can do more
with less.”
— Mark Nilsson
Director of IT
Epic Games
2 © 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.