Investment Firm Cashes in on Secure Remote Access
Since 1968, SEI Investments has been a leading global provider of outsourced business investment solutions. Investment analysts, banks and other financial institutions depend on SEI as an accounting mechanism to keep track of their clients’ money.
Each day, information concerning billions of dollars of assets travels around the clock through SEI’s mainframes and 350+ servers. In a global economy that never sleeps, downtime is not an option.
SEI’s data center is not a typical revenue-consuming IT shop, but rather, a revenue-generating hosting facility. Clients purchase time on SEI’s servers as they connect from around the world through the Internet and private leased connections. By outsourcing through SEI, clients do not need to worry about support, maintenance, and staffing considerations.
In order to service its global clientele, SEI technicians must be available 24/7, 365 days per year. If a situation occurs, it needs to be immediately addressed.
To facilitate its rapid growth, continue uninterrupted service, and provide maximum data security for its environment, SEI needed an enterprise KVM solution that would enable secure remote access from anywhere in the world. The perfect solution would enable technicians complete access and control of servers and devices such as keyboards, mice, and CD-ROM drives. In 2003, having just identified a new facility to house its data center, the time was ripe to upgrade.
Consolidating Assets
Recently, SEI faced the challenging task of relocating its entire data center over a two month period. The new location measures 16,000 square feet—a major decrease from the former 45,000 square foot facility. Though the new location has far less square footage than the former data center, SEI designed the new space to enable expansion based upon a five-year growth plan.
While moving 350+ servers is, in itself, quite a challenge, minimizing operational outages while relocating is another. Thousands of global clients rely on over 40 of SEI’s applications to keep their fiscal wheels turning. If access to the applications comes to a halt, so does business.
SEI advised its clients of the move well in advance and cautioned that outages were possible although the firm would do everything it could to minimize downtime.
High Risk Yields Favorable Return
Prior to the move, SEI consulted with NRI to determine an enterprise KVM solution that would meet its needs in the new facility and allow for future growth. In order to provide a total solution for SEI, it became necessary for NRI to play a key role in the planning stages of the data center relocation.
To facilitate the move, NRI provided three Paragon UMT1664 16x64 matrix switches to run parallel operations between the old and new locations. This enabled SEI to complete the move without interrupting many mission critical applications. As a result, there were zero production-related outages and SEI’s clients experienced no downtime.
“NRI saved us a lot of grief by providing us with the temporary switches,” said Infratecture Architect Scott Wilson. “SEI strives to maintain its solid reputation. In that regard, outages were a serious concern. However, not only were we spared outages, but NRI’s assistance enabled us to complete the move six hours ahead of schedule.”
 Providing for Aggressive Growth
NRI paired SEI with Raritan’s Paragon solution – the most complete enterprise KVM solution that enables technicians access and control to servers and other network devices any way, at anytime, from anywhere. It also provides the scalability SEI requires as Paragon provides for potential control of over 10,000 servers from up to 64 user consoles.
Paragon is centralized into one rack, enabling SEI to preserve plenty of server space and eliminate a huge amount of cable interconnects. Twenty-five miles of cable connected the old data center, whereas the new location only requires two miles of cable.
The servers and applications are maintained by 45 application support personnel and 100 developers. That’s a lot of potential traffic in the data center. But Paragon allowed SEI to sharply reduce the number of personnel that need to be physically present. It also increased security and decreased potential for mishaps.
SEI installed a Paragon command center outside of the data center raised floor area. Through the Raritan Paragon command center, onsite technicians communicate and manage servers from a distance of up to 1,000 feet away.
Another added bonus is the cost element. By employing Paragon, SEI was able to reduce its cost per server by $150.But that’s just a fraction of what SEI expects to realize.
“The solution NRI provided is an investment,” said Wilson. “It will more than pay for itself over time considering the benefits it yields.”
Keeping the Investment Secure
 To provide SEI unlimited around-the-clock access to the data center, NRI installed the Raritan IP Reach solution. IP Reach enables SEI administrators access through the SEI Corporate network and via Internet VPN connections. In the event an administrator receives an emergency page while off duty, he can log onto any computer and get the job done without the need to install proprietary software onto the remote PC. IP Reach even allows multiple access paths for simultaneous users. And through IP Reach, administrators can access servers even when the network is down. Furthermore, IP Reach enables users to view multiple connected servers.
IP Reach is the perfect product for organizations like SEI who require “bullet-proof” security. It comes loaded with 128-bit SSL encryption, powerful Raritan user authentication and RADIUS support, uses only one open network port, allows for customized user profiles, provides security key and IP filtering, enables administrator to deactivate modem and/or browser access, and automatically logs out idle users.
Keeping the Eye on the Long-Term
The switch to Raritan’s KVM technology along with the move to the new data center is the first step in moving forward with SEI’s five-year plan. SEI is adding servers at a rate of 80 to 100 per year, but the scalability NRI built into the planning process, along with the Raritan solution, will help SEI as it meets its goals.
“We consider NRI to be an invaluable business partner,” said Wilson. “Our clients look at us through high standards and we expect no less with our vendors. NRI has exceeded that expectation.”
|
