Finding the Right Fit with DMD: A Solution for Juvenile Justice

The Department of Juvenile Justice’s Information Technology team was looking to upgrade their equipment. For years Juvenile Justice had been running under-utilized Intel servers. With some modifications to this environment, decreasing the cost of energy and loss in productivity due to down-time, and increasing usable floor space was a necessary goal, not to mention a “greener” solution. Frustrated by the lack of local representation and the inability to obtain adequate technical support over the telephone, the IT team turned to IBM to seek an alternative solution.

Their search still proved to be difficult. Despite attending various presentations, the team remained confused about their options and had trouble comparing the volume of information and complicated proposals.

IBM Premier Business Partner, DMD Data Systems, Inc. (DMD), had a proven track record placing best-of-breed technology solutions in medium-size business environments like Juvenile Justice. Serving this type of market had traditionally allowed for the personalized and timely service they needed. Together, Juvenile Justice and DMD explored their options, and developed a solution that met all of their goals.

The Challenge

As a smaller department operating in the public sector, Juvenile Justice faced several limitations on their IT infrastructure. The department lacked ample space to fit larger equipment like a data center within a small room of their Frankfort, KY office. Funding for new equipment became available in cycles, which would limit the amount of hardware they could purchase at one time. It became crucial that the solution for Juvenile Justice would efficiently utilize the space available to them, while also conforming to budgetary restrictions.

The Solution

DMD proposed using VMware to increase server efficiency and utilization, and minimize the number of devices under management. The processing needs of the department called for the implementation of three IBM xSeries (x3650) servers running VMware, along with an IBM DS3400 Fiber Channel storage subsystem.

Despite the compact nature of these servers and storage, combined with the inherent density of running partitions using VMware, the limitations of the floor space remained. These boundaries were exemplified in the area of backup and disaster recovery. In order to have enough space to ensure adequate backup requirements, the department needed to have an off-site data center.

DMD helped Juvenile Justice to set up a Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM) Fastback system. It uses a dedicated line to synchronize backup capabilities with a secondary data center in their Louisville office, which incidentally had more available floor space. This secondary data center provides the department with security against data loss and also provides server redundancy. In the event of a server failure or disaster in the building, a hot spare x3650 in Louisville would be capable of taking control of the operations for the entire department.

The Results

For the Department of Juvenile Justice, the decision to go with DMD Data Systems as their dedicated technology solution provider ensured a reliable configuration with readily available support and consultation. “We haven’t experienced any problems with our equipment,” states IT Director Bill May, “but I am confident that if a situation ever arises, we would receive the support we need, probably within three hours.” Juvenile Justice plans to continue to work with DMD Data Systems on future projects, including an upcoming venture in data digitization.

DMD Data Systems, Inc. can simply solve your IT challenges too. Contact us for details at dmd@dmddatasystems.com.