Challenge: Replace aging data center and direct-attached storage environ- ment and reduce server sprawl to simplify IT management and optimize lean nonprofit budget. Solution: Consolidate the storage environ- ment and virtualize servers and desktops with VMware vSphere built on FlexPod from Cisco and NetApp.

1. Success Story
Science Museum:
100% Virtual with VMware
vSphere Built on FlexPod
from NetApp and Cisco
Another NetApp
solution delivered by:
Customer Profile future to the wisdom of our past and lay-
KEY HIGHLIGHTS
The Science Museum of Minnesota is a ing a strong foundation for the next gen-
Industry regional science museum and nonprofit eration” (source: 2011 Annual Report).
Education organization located on the banks of
The museum’s IT infrastructure provides
the Mississippi River in downtown St.
The Challenge the critical foundation for business
Paul. The museum’s facilities include
Replace aging data center and operations and museum activities. As
a public science education center,
direct-attached storage environ- a nonprofit organization, the museum
research center, collection centers,
ment and reduce server sprawl needs to deliver efficient IT services in
and an IMAX Convertible Dome Omni-
to simplify IT management and an environment that effectively supports
theater. Founded in 1907, the Science
optimize lean nonprofit budget. its membership and visitor community.
Museum offers extensive teacher edu-
The Solution cation and school outreach programs To meet its revenue and client service
Consolidate the storage environ- and is known worldwide for its interac- needs, the museum adopted the
ment and virtualize servers and tive exhibits, dynamic traveling exhibi- Tessitura Constituent Relationship
desktops with VMware® vSphere® tions, and internationally distributed Management (CRM) system specifically
built on FlexPod® from Cisco large-format films. designed for arts and cultural organiza-
and NetApp®. tions. The museum wanted a single,
The Challenge
powerful database to record, track, and
Benefits Optimizing a tight nonprofit budget
manage important patron details.
Attain almost 100% virtualized The Science Museum of Minnesota
environment plays a vital role in the cultural and “Deploying the robust Tessitura CRM
Achieve one-hour RPO for educational environment in St. Paul system in our existing environment
mission-critical data through its galleries, collections, exhib- would have required adding eight
Reduce storage requirements its, classes, and camps. In one year, physical servers and another eight for
by 80% the museum provided science educa- redundancy, plus massive storage to
Enhance security with desktop tion to more than one million visitors. support them,” says Joel Miles, director
virtualization and control of With world-class exhibits such as of IT at the museum. “It was time to
remote workstations “Tutankhamun: The Golden King and take advantage of virtualization—for the
Provision and restore desk- the Great Pharaohs,” engaging classes Tessitura CRM deployment and to posi-
tops/laptops in seconds such as “Chain Reaction Contraptions,” tion our organization for more efficiency
and a 6,000-square-foot “Human Body and reduced costs down the line.”
Gallery,” the museum is “linking our

2. “The single, unified architecture of VMware
vSphere built on FlexPod has eliminated our
previous storage management, performance,
and scalability challenges. We’re almost 100%
virtualized now, which simplifies management
while acquisition and operational cost savings
continue to grow.”
Joel Miles
Director of IT, Science Museum of Minnesota
The IT team worked with NetApp part- Once deployed, the solution equipped The museum has enhanced its data
ner and solutions provider Northland the museum with a new level of flexibil- protection, disaster recovery, and regu-
Systems and its sister IT professional/ ity and manageability in the data center. latory compliance plans with the Flex-
managed services company, Xigent “Our data center has been transformed Pod solution and additional NetApp
Solutions, to develop the right technol- into a pool of unified server, network, capabilities. The IT staff uses NetApp
ogy solution for the museum. Flexibility and storage resources that we can Snapshot™ technology to create hourly
and scalability to meet the changing quickly provision,” says Miles. “With point-in-time copies of patron, billing,
organizational requirements were key an integrated virtualization platform, and exhibit data. End users are newly
factors to consider. With Northland’s we have the flexibility and scalability to empowered with self-service capabili-
recommendation, the Science Museum quickly adapt our infrastructure to seize ties using SnapRestore® for quick
selected VMware vSphere built on new opportunities for reducing costs, restoration of inadvertently deleted
FlexPod from NetApp and Cisco. improving productivity, and better files and reduced IT support tickets.
“VMware on FlexPod was clearly the serving our patrons.”
right solution to address the Science The NetApp Data ONTAP® 8 operating
Museum’s current and future needs VMware vSphere built on FlexPod system provides the museum a single
and, in addition, cost-effectively ele- delivers virtualized mission-critical appli- system management framework for
vated the museum’s infrastructure to cations for the museum, including the increased operational efficiency.
enterprise class,” says Steve Pheneger, Tessitura CRM system, which enables NetApp multiprotocol support enables
account manager at Northland. museum employees such as visitor rela- the organization to leverage existing
tions associates and educational pro- infrastructure assets. NetApp dedupli-
The Solution gram directors to see a patron’s entire cation is reducing the museum’s stor-
Consolidating into a unified, highly history in one streamlined constituent age requirements by as much as 80%.
scalable architecture record. The museum also leverages the NetApp Flash Cache helps boost
The Science Museum leveraged the solution to virtualize and support many performance and improve the end-user
expertise from Northland Systems to other environments, including payroll experience with intelligent caching of
deploy and configure the new solution. and accounting systems, a point-of-sale application workloads.
“From our experience with FlexPod, we system, a collections management data-
base for its 1.75 million artifacts, an IT To help make sure of business continu-
knew data migration and installation
ticketing system, Microsoft® SQL Server® ity, NetApp SnapMirror® integrated with
could occur quickly and seamlessly,”
2008 R2, Liquidware Labs Stratusphere VMware vCenter™ Site Recovery Man-
notes Rod Lucero, chief technology
FIT, and VMware Zimbra® Collaboration ager automatically replicates museum
officer at Xigent Solutions. “VMware on
Server, which includes 700 e-mail data hourly to the FlexPod solution in
FlexPod was the right choice to meet
accounts, and a resilient, growing virtual the secondary data center. The IT staff
the needs of the Science Museum,
desktop environment supported by can achieve recovery point objectives
both today and tomorrow.”
VMware View™. as low as one hour for critical data on
which the museum depends for daily

3. Primary Data Center Secondary Data Center
Virtu
Virtualized Desktops Virtu
Virtualized Desktops
VMware View 5 VMware View 5
VMware vCloud Director VMware vCloud Director
VMware Zimbra Collaboration Server VMware Zimbra Collaboration Server
Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2
Tessitura Constituent Relationship Management Tessitura Constituent Relationship Management
VMware vSphere 5 V
VMware vSphere 5
Cisco Unified Cisco Unified
Computing System (UCS) NetApp SnapMirror Computing System (UCS)
B230 M1 Blade Server VMware Site Recovery B200 M2 Blade Server
Manager
NetApp Snapshot
NetApp SnapRestore
Cisco Nexus 7000 NetApp Deduplication
Series Switches
NetApp FAS3210HA NetApp FAS3140HA
Figure 1) The FlexPod solution in the primary data center is composed of a NetApp FAS3210A storage system, Cisco UCS B230 M1 Blade servers, Cisco
Nexus 1000V Series switches, and VMware vSphere 5 and vCenter for virtualization. A similar FlexPod solution resides in a secondary site for disaster recovery.
Virtualized applications include Tessitura CRM, Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2, and VMware Zimbra Collaboration Server, in addition to 200 virtualized desktops
running on VMware View 5.
operations. FlexPod also helps the in the FlexPod solution and supported working offsite will use adequate antivirus
museum meet its stringent Payment by VMware vCloud® Director and support aren’t realistic options for us,”
Card Industry Data Security Standards VMware View 5. This end-user computing says Miles. “With desktop virtualization
(PCI DSS) requirements by supporting environment with 200 virtual desktops enabled by VMware View built on Flex-
its log management software. for box office, call center, and gift shop Pod, the museum data and applications
personnel is eliminating regular hard- are securely located onsite. Offsite
Business Benefits ware replacements in these compute- employees can access the systems they
A virtualized platform for today intensive environments. “We can quickly need 24x7, home computers can’t infect
and tomorrow
provision storage and virtual machines our systems, and our data remains
With the cost of running a 370,000- and transparently connect users to their protected and secure.”
square-foot facility, employing a staff original desktops without losing a
of more than 600 full- and part-time Visionaries in science and
transaction, and virtual desktops can technology
employees plus 1,000 volunteers, and be backed up or restored in seconds,”
developing the science education pro- The Science Museum of Minnesota has
notes Miles.
grams and exhibits that engage visitors a long history of educating and inspir-
of all ages, the museum is taking advan- With virtual desktops in the Computer ing visitors through its interactive and
tage of the virtualization and cost Education Center, the museum has traveling exhibits, collections, Omnithe-
reduction opportunities provided by greatly simplified the IT services that ater films, classes, and camps. Its
the FlexPod solution. support the center. To teach 200 worldwide recognition is clear, being
courses covering more than 80 subjects one of only a few museums in the
Today the museum runs all applications such as Microsoft Windows®, Apple® United States to exhibit The Dead Sea
and data on NetApp storage and Cisco Mac® OS X, and database design, staff Scrolls, giving visitors the opportunity
Unified Computing System™ (UCS™) members were required to reimage to explore one of the greatest archaeo-
servers on the FlexPod platform. “The classroom PCs several times daily to logical discoveries of the 20th century.
single, unified architecture of VMware prepare for each class. “Now our
vSphere built on FlexPod has eliminated Through IT innovation that includes
instructors have self-service, virtual
our previous storage management, per- server virtualization and desktop virtual-
private data centers for their training
formance, and scalability challenges,” ization made possible by VMware on
environments, eliminating the costly,
says Miles. “We’re almost 100% virtual- FlexPod, the museum is able to elimi-
time-consuming desktop imaging
ized now, which simplifies management nate the limitations and management
process,” says Miles.
while acquisition and operational cost complexity of siloed systems and
savings continue to grow.” Through desktop virtualization, the server sprawl. FlexPod scalability will
museum is also effectively securing enable the museum to deliver additional
End-user computing and IT resilience IT services as needed to support
remote workstations. “Supplying remote
The Science Museum has implemented workers with museum-issued laptops exciting new educational programs and
a desktop virtualization strategy rooted and guaranteeing that employees research endeavors moving forward.

4. “With desktop virtualization enabled by the
VMware View built on FlexPod solution,
museum data and applications are securely
located onsite. Offsite employees can access
the systems they need 24x7, home computers
can’t infect our systems, and our data remains
protected and secure.”
Joel Miles
Director of IT, Science Museum of Minnesota
“We’re constantly looking for new ways
SOLUTION COMPONENTS
to leverage technology to better meet
the needs of our staff while helping to FlexPod Components Snapshot technology
further differentiate the museum as a NetApp FAS3210A and FAS3140A SnapRestore
visionary institution,” says Miles. “The storage systems
FlexPod solution from NetApp and SnapMirror
Cisco Unified Computing System
Cisco frees up our IT budget and Deduplication
(UCS) B230 M1 and B200 M2 Blade
resources for IT innovation, while virtu-
Servers Third-Party Products
alization has allowed us to evolve our IT
environment into a dynamic data center Cisco Nexus 1000V combined Liquidware Labs Stratusphere FIT
that can quickly and cost-effectively with 5000/6000/7000 Series Core Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2
respond to changing business needs. Switches
Tessitura Constituent Relationship
We’re pushing the technology envelope Management
Virtualization Components
and, by doing so, extending our com-
VMware vSphere 5 VMware Zimbra Collaboration Server
mitment to science and technology.”
VMware vCloud Director Trend Micro Deep Security
VMware vCenter Site Recovery
Partners
Manager (SRM)
Northland Systems
VMware View 5 www.northlandusa.com
NetApp Software Xigent Solutions
Data ONTAP 8.0 system operating www.xigentsolutions.com
in 7-Mode
Flash Cache
Solution delivery partner:
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trademarks and vCenter and View are trademarks of VMware, Inc.
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