Perle Systems Case Study
Rackspace® Hosting Leverages Perle Console Servers for Data Center pre-configuration and network troubleshooting
Hundreds of thousands of businesses worldwide depend on Rackspace for cloud, managed and hybrid hosting through an extensive network of data centers around the globe. In order to offer critical and stringent services to its customers, including 100% uptime Service Level Agreements (SLAs), Rackspace runs an internal network which is used to manage, maintain and troubleshoot these Data Centers. Amongst other mission critical devices on the internal network are Perle IOLAN Console Servers fulfilling various requirements including…
Pre-deployment into newly constructed server rooms
“When we first start building a new room, we have very little connectivity but we still need to get switches racked and configured. By placing a Perle Console Server in that room, we can get gear racked and powered immediately. We then configure everything from our desks instead of out on the data center floor with a laptop” - John Progar, Network Engineer with Rackspace Hosting.
Pre-configuration of devices before they get installed in racks
John continues, “If we're going to add a switch somewhere, we need to apply some configuration to it so that once it's racked we can access it. This is done with a Perle Console Server in our office and a set of shelves where we can place devices to configure them. Once we have the configuration applied, we can rack them in the data center.”
Troubleshooting if the network is down through out of band access to Firewalls, switches, load balancers and other networked devices.
While specialist management software can be used for in-band remote monitoring, some tasks may seemingly be impossible unless the equipment can be physically accessed.
“Some of our gear is in un-manned facilities and we depend on those devices to minimize the number of four-hour trips we have to take. Some Perle Console Servers actually live on the public Internet and are a last-resort door into tshe network in case of a catastrophic failure,” says John.
Perle technology bridges the distance between remote IT equipment and technical support staff. Any device with serial connections can be networked and managed remotely - even across the Internet.
Rackspace also maintains a number of IOLAN SDS2 Device Servers that are available for customer use should a device that they have co-located with Rackspace fail. But that is a different story…
About Rackspace® Hosting:
Rackspace® (NYSE: RAX) is the open cloud company and founder of OpenStack, the standard open-source operating system for cloud computing. Headquartered in San Antonio, Rackspace delivers its renowned Fanatical Support® to more than 200,000 business customers, from data centers on four continents. Rackspace is a leading provider of hybrid clouds, which enable businesses to run their workloads where they run most effectively — whether on the public cloud, a private cloud, dedicated servers, or a combination of these platforms. Rackspace has been recognized by Bloomberg BusinessWeek as a Top 100 Performing Technology Company, and is featured on Fortune’s list of 100 Best Companies to Work For. For more information, visit www.rackspace.com.