Business needCommunication University of

China needed a robust data center

solution to roll-out a virtual cloud

platform aimed at increasing China’s

productivity in the media and

communications industry.

SolutionThe university deployed a Dell data

center solution comprising of 12th

generation Dell™ PowerEdge™ servers

with Hyper-V™, Dell PowerVault™

storage and Microsoft® RemoteFX™

to support their cloud platform.

Benefits• Enhanced virtualized desktop

infrastructure boosts computing

performance by 20 percent

• Increasing nationwide productivity

while reducing costs of over

U.S$160 million

• Saving 20 percent of

administration time through easy-

to-manage technology

• Reduced total cost of ownership

by 50 percent aids in planning for

the future

• Enabling disruption-free

performance through

comprehensive support

Application areas• Green Efficiency

• HPC

• Virtual Desktop

• Storage

Moving creativity to the cloudCommunication University of China increases productivity in the media and communications industry while reducing costs of over U.S$160 million

Customer profile

Company Communication University

of China

Industry Education

Country Beijing, China

Employees 1,900

Website www.cuc.edu.cn

“ Our criteria when selecting servers was high performance and availability, interoperability and scalability. We chose Dell’s 12th generation PowerEdge servers as they feature open standards that deliver outstanding interoperability with other products and an easily scalable Intel architecture that enhances performance.” Lu Yongquan, director, HPCC, Communication University of China

2

The concepts of IT innovation and scientific research industrialization are deeply engrained in the teaching philosophy of CUC. The university’s High-Performance Computing Center (HPCC) aims to progressively develop students’ careers as well as the entire country’s media and communications industry. To do this, HPCC planned to launch a Virtual Studio Online delivered via a cloud platform and easily accessible by individuals and enterprises across the country.

Creating a platform to accelerate nationwide creativity and productivity Lu Yongquan, director, HPCC, Communication University of China explains the need for the Virtual Studio Online, “China’s cultural and creativity industry is capital, technology and knowledge-intensive with tremendous potential for innovation. However, the high performance computing required to facilitate the design, creation and rendering of 3D graphics and special effects is often unaffordable and inaccessible to designers and students, impeding their productivity and growth.”

HPCC recognized that a robust virtual server infrastructure was needed to serve as the cloud platform required to deliver the Virtual Studio Online to end-users across China. Working with Dell™, HPCC deployed a combination of Dell PowerEdge™ R720 and R620 servers featuring Intel® Xeon® E5-2600 processors, Hyper-V™, Dell PowerVault™ MD3200 storage arrays and Microsoft® RemoteFX™ to power their cloud platform. Motivated by a decade long partnership with Dell, during which the university has experienced a close to zero failure rate on most deployments, HPCC was keen to adopt Dell’s

12th generation of PowerEdge servers. “Our criteria when selecting servers was high performance and availability, interoperability and scalability. We chose Dell’s 12th generation PowerEdge servers as they feature open standards that deliver outstanding interoperability with other products and an easily scalable Intel architecture that enhances performance,” states Lu.

The Communication University of China (CUC) is the premier institution of media education in China. Established in 1954, the CUC campus houses over 15,000 students, 3,000 administrative and academic staff and is spread across 117 hectares of picturesque land in Beijing. Communication University of China, directly under the Ministry of Education, is sponsored by the national “Project 211”. The university has been a significant contributor to the country’s economy by consistently producing highly skilled professionals for the Chinese media industry.

Technology at work

Services

Dell Support Services

– Dell ProSupport™ Mission Critical with four hour onsite response service

– Dell ProSupport Specialized Onsite Services

– Global Command Center

Hardware

Dell PowerEdge™ R720 servers with Intel® Xeon® E5-2600 processors

Dell PowerEdge R620 servers

Dell PowerVault™ MD3200 storage arrays

Software

Dell OpenManage™

– Second-generation embedded server management

– Agent-free server lifecycle management

– OpenManage Power Center

– OpenManage Essentials

Microsoft® Hyper-V™

Microsoft® RemoteFX™

“ The vigorous support we receive from Dell in caring for our IT infrastructure has given us added confidence in our continued partnership. We find it highly beneficial to work with a company that insists on aggressive technological momentum and supports projects like our Virtual Studio Cloud Platform which aims to improve national productivity.” Lu Yongquan, director, HPCC, Communication University of China

3

HPCC was in a constant struggle with prior storage solutions to balance high storage performance against cost-efficiency. With the Dell PowerVault storage arrays, HPCC has reduced their total cost of ownership by approximately 50 percent and finally been able to strike a balance.

Enhanced virtualized desktop infrastructure boosts computing performance by 20 percentThe Dell infrastructure, combined with Microsoft RemoteFX’s Graphical Processing Unit (GPU) virtualization capability has greatly accelerated each virtual desktop’s graphic processing power to deal with large and high definition media files in a shorter time span. With multiple virtual desktops now sharing a single GPU on a Hyper-V server, HPCC has effectively increased the computing performance of their cloud platform by 20 percent.

Increasing nationwide productivity while reducing costs of over U.S$160 millionAs a result of this performance boost, students and designers can now embark on projects by simply logging in to CUC’s Virtual Studio Online without having to invest in their own computing devices and applications. This service provided by CUC will increase the design efficiency and productivity across the nation while effectively saving approximately more than 1 billion RMB (U.S$160 million) in hardware procurement costs for the whole industry in just one year.

Saving 20 percent of administration time through easy-to-manage technologyThe IT team at HPCC is accelerating new server deployment through Dell’s Virtual Integrated System™ (VIS) solution and simplifying everyday tasks through embedded management with Dell OpenManage™ featuring Integrated Dell Remote Access Controller (iDRAC) with Lifecycle Controller. As a result, the team has experienced time savings of approximately 20 percent due to the

simplification of server infrastructure management. “We are now able to deploy valuable resources where they are most needed as our IT engineers are able to save a great amount of time and effort previously dedicated to server deployment and maintenance,” says Lu.

Planning for long-term growth through optimal utilization of resourcesThe university is looking to further develop the capacity of their cloud platform, but is aware that overhead costs in the data center of power and cooling could deter these future plans. HPCC is able to realize an optimal utilization of energy resources with the Energy Smart Dell PowerEdge R720 servers. Moreover, Dell’s Fresh Air Initiative servers operate chiller-less at 45˚ C (113˚ F) allowing HPCC to save substantially on cooling costs.

The IT team at HPCC can now measure and monitor energy consumption more effectively with Dell OpenManage Power Center at a server, rack, row or room level. “To operate our cloud platform effectively, we need to be efficient in managing our resources and Dell technology is making it plausible for us to focus on the long-term development of our cloud,” comments Lu.

Enabling disruption-free performance through comprehensive supportHPCC estimates that of the 2,000 colleges and universities across China, even if an average of 1,000 students from each institution utilize the Virtual Studio Cloud Platform, the active users will easily hit the two million mark. In order to ensure that the individual projects of nearly two million users are carried out without disruption, downtime of the cloud platform has to be at a minimum.

The team at HPCC has the assurance that through Dell ProSupport Specialized Onsite Services, their dedicated Onsite Service Escalation

Manager can be completely entrusted with troubleshooting and provision of comprehensive technical guidance. In the event of a failure, with Dell ProSupport Mission Critical four hour onsite response service, technical support engineers will be onsite at CUC within four hours to resolve any issues that might result in downtime with Dell ProSupport Mission Critical four hour onsite response service.

Additionally, in a crisis situation through the Global Command Center, staffed by Dell in China, CUC has access to resources that will allow the university to respond swiftly to emergencies and prepare for large-scale events ahead of time. “The vigorous support we receive from Dell in caring for our IT infrastructure has given us added confidence in our continued partnership. We find it highly beneficial to work with a company that insists on aggressive technological momentum and supports projects like our Virtual Studio Cloud Platform which aims to improve national productivity,” concludes Lu.

Availability and terms of Dell Services vary by region. For more information, visit dell.com/servicedescriptions July 2012. © Dell Inc. Dell is a trademark of Dell Inc. Intel and Intel Xeon are registered trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries. This case study is for informational purposes only. Dell makes no warranties, express or implied, in this case study. 10011489

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