When faced with application compatibility problems and a corporate policy that made drive re-imaging nearly impossible, the IT staff at US Foodservice turned lemons into Meringue.

Get the recipe they used to save nearly $1 million a year on hard drives and labor costs. Not to mention reducing support costs by up to 40%.

Editor's Note: US Foodservice will be presenting their SVS case study at the InfoWorld Virtualization Executive Forum in New York later this month. Get details on the event here.

Company Snapshot

Desktops: 7,250
Laptops: 7,250
Servers: 1,000
Hardware: HP, Dell
OS: Windows 2000, XP
Locations: Three IT centers in Phoenix, Arizona; Skokie, Illinois; and Greenville, South Carolina; support 90 U.S. Foodservice locations across the U.S.

The Challenge

• Conflicts with applications, especially when developers were using different versions of Java for internal applications.
• Because a company directive prohibits deleting any data from hard drives, reimaging is expensive and time consuming.
• Reduce the time and cost of upgrading operating systems.

The Business Values

• SVS eliminated all applications conflicts.
• With SVS, the company can deploy desktops in such a way that it can reimage the hard drive without deleting data.
• The company installed SVS on a multi-partition drive in such a way that in the future it can migrate from Windows XP to Vista without reimaging the machine.

The Recipe for Success

Altiris: In the past what has been your process for deploying and managing applications?
Charlie Rivers, Manager Desktop and Email Support: Prior to Altiris, we primarily used sneakernet, which meant a lot of the laptops did not get touched. In addition, we did not have a centralized patch solution, and the images we built were only used occasionally. Now, however, we are using Altiris to do all of our patch management, a majority of our image work and updates, and many other management tasks. The Altiris Software Virtualization Solution (SVS) is going to take our management capabilities up to a new level by allowing us to deliver applications in layers quickly and without conflicts.

Altiris: What was the top challenge you faced that SVS resolved?
CR: Application conflicts, specifically within Java applications where we had issues with developers working on multiple platforms that required different versions of Java for internal applications. U.S. Foodservice is relatively unique in an IT infrastructure in that we are unable to delete any data—emails, information on hard drives, etc. SVS enables us to deploy desktops in such a way that we can reimage the hard drive without deleting data, which is a big win for us.

Altiris: What were some other key challenges?
CR: We have some 16-bit legacy applications and several new applications that conflict when we do difficult installations. SVS makes the conflicts disappear.

Altiris: How does that happen?
CR: Because SVS installs applications in separate layers without touching the base system, it prevents conflict between layers and thus conflict between applications. So we can pull up applications as they preload or close and start different versions of Java for those applications without interfering with the simultaneous installation of an application that requires another version of Java.

Altiris: Can you also explain the challenge of updating without deleting data?
CR: SVS allows us to point the data to a server and protect the OS so changes cannot be made to it. The result: no static data on the machine; it is all saved to a network location.

Altiris: After that you would update the applications?
CR: Yes. We would then reimage the machine, which is something we cannot do currently. Now, we have to install a new hard drive. Because SVS allows us to reimage desktops without retaining the data, we save approximately $1 million each year on hard drives and labor costs associated with installing the hardware.

Altiris: Is SVS saving your company money regarding the issues with your 16-bit legacy applications?
CR: Yes. I estimate that we are going to see a 25 to 40 percent reduction in direct support costs because with SVS we can teach the end users to solve their own problems by resetting layers or have the helpdesk reset the layers so the problem does not escalate to the second or third level of support. In addition, because applications reside in separate layers, we install new applications much more quickly. This significantly improves speed to market, because we do not have to run a rigorous testing process.

Altiris: Has SVS addressed any other challenges?
CR: It has laid the groundwork for saving huge amounts of time and money on future OS upgrades. We have installed SVS on a multi-partition drive in such a way that we can replace the OS at a later date with a newer version. For instance, we can migrate from Windows XP to Vista without reimaging the machine.

Altiris: Is SVS improving productivity in other ways?
CR: It is saving our support technicians time in a variety of ways. For example, we have one application that used to take two and a half hours to install, and it was successful only 80 percent of the time. Another frustrating aspect of the procedure was that you did not know if it was going to be successful until the very end of the installation. Using SVS we now deploy that same application in five minutes and it is successful 100 percent of the time.

Altiris: Why did you choose SVS?
CR: We had been using the Altiris family of products for some time. They are reliable and deliver as advertised so we were interested in seeing a demonstration of SVS. We immediately saw its potential.

Altiris: Did you consider any other products besides SVS?
CR: No. We never looked at any other desktop virtualization applications.

Altiris: When you contracted with Altiris Professional Services, why did you decide to outsource instead of doing it yourself?
CR: It was not an outsourcing decision as much as it was a partnership decision. We had several IT issues that, given our resources, would take a long time to get through the pilot stage. We knew that Altiris could resolve these issues much more quickly and cost effectively.

Altiris: What were those issues?
CR: One was the SVS proof of concept which is completed. The second is packaging services. We faced challenges getting some complicated installations into MSIs. The engagement has worked out very well. Altiris Professional Services enabled us to move past some of the initial hurdles, and move past them quickly.

Altiris: Were you able to come up to speed more quickly with SVS because of Altiris Professional Services?
CR: We saw significant time savings because of their knowledge transfer and best practices. We did not waste our time trying to do something that is not recommended or that will not work in the long run. Altiris Professional Services is easy to work with and our engagement was very useful. It has been a true partnership.

Altiris: Have you seen a return on investment (ROI) by engaging Altiris?
CR: Absolutely. The virtualization of one application alone has saved more than we invested in the consulting services.

Altiris: How many applications do you have, and how many do you plan to virtualize?
CR: We have about 80 applications, and we plan to virtualize all of them. We have a wide range of applications used by companies that have come under the U.S. Foodservice banner. Our plan is to create a layer library, so when we acquire a new company we can easily and quickly choose the layers from the library appropriate for that location.

Altiris: Were you under any pressure to produce a return on investment (ROI) for SVS?
CR: Yes. We believe SVS will pay for itself in the first year and will realize us savings of more than $1 million each year after.

Altiris: How long did the engagement last?
CR: The proof of concept engagement lasted one week.

Altiris: Did the project come in on time and under budget?
CR: Yes.

Altiris: Did any challenges arise?
CR: No, because we spent time on the front end working on layer creation and some of the easier parts of the proof of concept. More than half of the effort went into one application, but we were able to then prove the rest of the proof of concept very quickly.

Altiris: Do you engage Altiris support services?
CR: Yes, but not often. Now that we have some training and knowledge under our belt, we only need support on the rare instances when we cannot solve a problem.

Altiris: How does management feel about the benefits of SVS?
CR: I had the opportunity to present what we have done so far to our CIO. He was very excited about the progress and wants to be kept up to date on future milestones.

Altiris: What advice would you give to companies that are evaluating SVS?
CR: To explore the solution. It is a great product and when it is coupled with other Altiris solutions, it can significantly reduce the ticket load and support costs for any size business.