Case Studies

Virtualization using VMWare for Southern Iowa Electric Cooperative

November 3, 2012

Southern Iowa Electric Cooperative was seeking to consolidate multiple aging physical servers into a virtual environment. SIEC’s on-staff IT personnel looked to MPA enlisted our team to assist with the migration and assure from physical to virtual went smoothly. We integrated our team with SIEC‘s internal IT team and worked diligently to develop and execute a plan.

Southern Iowa Electric Cooperative asked MPA to execute the following:

  • Upgrade existing domain controller from Microsoft Windows Server 2003 SBS to Microsoft Windows Server 2011 SBS
  • Upgrade Exchange Server from Exchange 2003 to Exchange 2010.
  • Seamlessly migrate AMR/AMI system (TWACS – Aclara), GIS Database, and Outage Management Software from Physical Servers to Virtual Servers
  • Assure ZERO downtime for personnel

We selected VMWare ESXi vSphere Essentials Plus as the virtualization platform of choice. We also worked with our partners at Drobo to select an enterprise-grade external storage solution that was compatible with ESXi.  The end result was greatly simplified management system for the IT personnel and a vastly improved user experience for the end-user.

David Birchmier

CEO - At age 15, David & his father built his first computer together. This bonding time also sparked a fire in him to learn more about computers. Fast forward a year or two, David was helping his neighbors & friends with their own tech issues. Even at such a young age, David recognized that one must understand the person & their unique challenge before a real solution can be offered. David holds an AAS & an AA from Indian Hills. He currently resides in Bloomfield and enjoys songwriting and a friendly game of poker.

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