Jones Environmental Forensics

Blade at the cutting edge

A company with a clear plan for expansion asked Samarind for an IT system that would be adaptable enough to grow with them. The answer was a Blade Server from Hewlett Packard.

Jones Environmental Forensics (JEF) was established on Deeside Industrial Park last year by Jim and Janet Jones. JEF provides specialist environmental forensic testing services for situations such as land surveys and lawsuits involving soil contamination. When Samarind met with the company last December, they were shown a business plan with precise date-lined goals for increasing staff numbers.

Clearly, what JEF needed was a network and server that would support all their IT requirements for the next three to five years. In response, Samarind installed a HP Blade Server.

The Blade is not only very adaptable it is also a cost-effective and space-saving solution. A single chassis houses several servers, with shared storage, back-up and redundancy. The Blade uses comparatively low power but assures maximum cooling thanks to the fans residing within the chassis rather than the actual servers. A cleverly designed rack enclosure results in a unit that is both compact and accessible.

Because each Blade chassis can hold several servers, increased capacity can be easily achieved by adding new servers when required. The server can comfortably grow as JEF grows. Thanks to the chassis' comprehensive design, this is also a cost-saving solution because there's no need to reconsider the power supply or storage with each upgrade.

Jonathan Tranter, IT manager at JEF, is delighted with the HP Blade Server.

He said: "This is cutting edge technology and I'm very pleased to have it here. I have every confidence it puts in place the robustness and growth capability needed for the future. It's a complete package that won't need to be replaced as we expand."

Jonathan is also pleased that all JEF's IT requirements are handled together, with just one phone call to ring for advice. In fact, he's full of praise for Samarind's level of support.

"I've found the company very professional and helpful," he said, "and the engineers are sensitive to a layman's point of view - they don't talk in jargon but explain everything clearly.

"It's a personal service and it's great to put faces to names. It's a much closer working relationship than one gets with a big corporation. I would thoroughly recommend Samarind to anyone considering employing outside assistance for their IT services!"