Nutanix enables JM Finn to lower operational costs and reduce carbon footprint

JM Finn has slimmed down its data centre infrastructure from twenty four to just six equipment racks by migrating legacy datacentres to the Nutanix cloud Platform. The migration has resulted in an impressive 75% reduction with major implications for both power and cooling requirements as well as the company’s long term carbon footprint.

Since its inception in 1946, the investment management company has grown steadily to boast both a multi-billion pound investment portfolio and enviable reputation for individual client-focused financial investment services recognised as amongst the best in the world. With a clear focus on the provision of high quality investment management services to a diverse client base, JM Finn was keen to embrace cloud computing as part of its transformation plans to make the company’s IT more agile, cost effective and easier to manage.

Choosing a suitable platform was relatively straightforward as JM Finn had previously used the Nutanix Cloud Platform to, first, replace a key legacy storage resource then rapidly host a company-wide EUC application to support working from home during the Covid-19 pandemic. The solution offered hypervisor neutrality which meant JM Finn had the option to simply migrate most of its existing VMware VMs rather than immediately switch everything over to the AHV hypervisor.

Commenting on the migration, Jon Cosson, Head of IT and CISO, JM Finn, said: “Having successfully switched a workforce of over 300 onto remote working in under a week we knew just what the Nutanix Cloud Platform was capable of doing and how easy it was to manage. Over just two weekends we relocated both our primary and secondary datacentres, but that’s not all. By migrating all of our legacy servers and applications to the Nutanix Cloud Platform we were able to reduce the overall rack footprint by 75% and realise tangible benefits in terms of operational costs and environmental impact.”

Following an extensive needs analysis, Cosson and the team came up with a design which has enabled JM Finn to slim down its data centre infrastructure from twenty four to just six equipment racks. Performance gains have been widely reported and running costs significantly lowered, which has enabled JM Finn to halve the number of staff needed to support the new infrastructure with those displaced moved into other roles to find ways of better exploiting the new technology.

The required equipment was quickly ordered and installed first in a brand new primary datacentre in Suffolk then at a secondary site in Hampshire to provide additional backup and disaster recovery capabilities. Once working, migration was scheduled to take place over successive bank holiday weekends to mitigate against any disruption although, in practice the process proved trouble free.

“It all went remarkably smoothly,” commented Cosson. “There was no loss of service and no complaints which has to be a first for a project like this which could, so easily, have gone off the rails and caused real headaches for the business. It’s hats off to Nutanix and its partners for making it so seamless and we’re very pleased with the results and the high level of support both during and after the process.”

Looking ahead, JM Finn plans to take full advantage of the company’s new private cloud to further drive down operational costs and maximise the value of the company’s investment. Alongside ongoing work to identify workloads suitable for moving to the Nutanix AHV hypervisor several projects are planned, including the migration of legacy IBM systems over the next few months.