A world-class VMware infraFor more than ten years, ARMOR GROUP, a major player in the manufacture of thermal films and industrial solutions, has relied on EasyVirt to optimise its IT infrastructure. Faced with challenges in terms of performance, energy efficiency and data security, the group has found a key technology partner in EasyVirt. Nicolas Baudinot, head of the INFRASTRUCTURE team responsible for administering the group’s servers, databases, storage and computers, shares his experience of using DC Scope® and DC NetScope® solutions. With the help of a team of engineers in France and abroad, Nicolas ensures that the infrastructure is maintained in good working order, upgraded and secured.
A world-class VMware infrastructure
With an infrastructure based on several vCenters managing 45 ESX hosts and 600 virtual machines (VMs), ARMOR GROUP faced the challenge of managing its IT resources efficiently and effectively. “This infrastructure is hosted by us in our international subsidiaries or by a partner for our main data centre hosted in France. Our team consists of five administrators in France, as well as IT correspondents in our 20 subsidiaries,” emphasises Nicolas BAUDINOT.
In a context of increasing digitalisation, ARMOR GROUP must guarantee its users high availability and optimal responsiveness of services. This requires rigorous resource management, anticipation of failures and rationalisation of operating costs.
DC Scope® : A precise tool for optimising VMware performance
“Initially, our collaboration with EasyVirt was mainly aimed at optimising our electricity consumption. With the rise of virtualisation, our needs have evolved, leading us to first adopt DC Scope® to analyse and optimise our performance, then DC NetScope® to accurately map our network flows. Our main use is to monitor the performance of our VMs in terms of CPU, RAM and storage. The ability to easily overlay graph curves for different VMs and have very fine granularity of measurements is a tremendous advantage. This has enabled us to correlate failures between several VMs, particularly in terms of storage, and alert our service provider by providing them with objective data. Another strong point is being able to identify performance degradation trends for our VMs and focus only on those with CPU, RAM or network issues, thereby enabling us to be proactive. Finally, we use DC Scope® to resize our VMs as best as possible according to the suggested recommendations. This allows us to avoid wasting resources unnecessarily. In concrete terms, we are able to identify VMs that rarely use their CPU and RAM and reduce them,” explains Nicolas.
More detailed analysis for optimised performance
Thanks to the accuracy of the measurements and the fine granularity of DC Scope®, which is far superior to that of VMware’s native tools, we were able to identify that during very short periods of time, the storage array was responding very slowly, which generated high latency and therefore impacted certain sensitive applications. These high latency times were not visible in the VMware graphs. By providing our partner with objective and detailed data, we were able to demonstrate the source of the problem and take the necessary corrective measures.
DC NetScope® : effective network flow mapping
ARMOR GROUP actively participated in the development of DC NetScope® by collaborating with EasyVirt’s development teams. This involvement made it possible to adapt the tool to the specific needs of virtualised environments, particularly in the context of micro-segmentation under VMware NSX. ‘We needed a tool capable of mapping our flows in order to establish precise filtering rules,’ explains Nicolas Baudinot. As we did not always have a clear view of application flows, DC NetScope® proved to be a major asset by automating data collection and analysis. Thanks to its intuitive interface, the tool provides visualisation in the form of usable tables and graphs, enabling network filtering strategies to be optimised without having to manually analyse NSX logs. This significant time saving facilitates infrastructure security and strengthens application flow management, ensuring a more proactive and effective approach.
A fruitful collaboration with EasyVirt
One of the distinguishing features of EasyVirt is its customer-focused approach and agility. ‘Working with a company on a human scale has been a real asset,’ emphasises Nicolas Baudinot. Direct interaction with developers has made it possible to identify specific needs and quickly see functional developments integrated into the solutions. This proximity also resulted in exemplary responsiveness in the event of technical issues. ‘Every time we encountered a technical issue, we received fast and effective support,’ he adds. This instilled confidence and peace of mind in all of ARMOR GROUP’s IT teams.
An unreserved recommendation
Based on years of use and proven benefits, Nicolas Baudinot and his team have no hesitation in recommending DC Scope® and DC NetScope®. These complementary solutions optimise the performance of VMware infrastructures, improve resource governance and enhance network flow security.
In a context where agility and IT performance are strategic levers, ARMOR GROUP relies on EasyVirt to continue to evolve its infrastructure while ensuring better cost control and high service availability. A winning combination for an increasingly resilient and efficient infrastructure.
