William Lamb Group: Centralised VM and Backup Transformation
The Operational Challenge
Prior to the intervention, the William Lamb Group IT network had not been updated for approximately 10 years. The existing IT environment suffered from daisy-chained switches, non-existent perimeter security, and a reliance on legacy tape-based backups.
The primary operational bottleneck was the restoration process, which took over 20 hours to complete and required active backups to be stopped. The organisation needed a consolidated, intelligent VM environment capable of dynamic resource allocation and robust disaster recovery.
Legacy Backups
Tape-based backups with 20+ hour restoration windows and no granular recovery.
Rigid Sizing
Inflexible “T-shirt” VM sizing models prevented dynamic resource allocation.
No DR Strategy
Non-existent disaster recovery with no ability to sandbox or forensically analyse threats.
The Contrac Approach
Contrac applied a Consult, Transform, Support methodology to modernise the entire virtualised estate.
Consult
We conducted a deep analysis of the IT core to move away from rigid “T-shirt” sizing models, focusing instead on a flexible, consumption-based resource plan.
Transform
We deployed Nutanix Clusters connected by a high-throughput resilient Mellanox switch stack. We integrated a Hycu cluster to manage VM backups, providing granular recovery capabilities.
Support
We enabled a self-serve backup portal, allowing the IT team to restore full VMs or individual files to specified locations instantly.
Business Impact
Malware-attacked VMs can now be restored in minutes, with sandbox environments for forensic analysis.
Real-time visibility into VM performance and throughput via a unified dashboard.
Precise incident identification distinguishing infrastructure performance from application-level issues.
Resources flexed monthly based on usage, eliminating constant contract changes.
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