Case Study
Data Center Modernization & Infrastructure Simplification
Sector: K-12 School System
Region: Mid-Atlantic
Focus: Data Center Modernization, Storage, Virtualization, Hyper-V Migration
The Challenge
A Mid-Atlantic public school system had spent years evolving its data center environment to meet growing operational and performance demands. The organization transitioned from a traditional Compellent storage platform to a more complex hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) model built on VMware VxRail. While the environment initially provided consolidation and modernization benefits, over time the infrastructure became increasingly difficult and expensive to maintain.
The customer began experiencing challenges related to:
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Growing virtualization and licensing costs
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Increased infrastructure complexity
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Reduced operational flexibility
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Rigid scaling requirements
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Long-term sustainability concerns within the HCI platform
The organization wanted to simplify its environment while continuing to modernize the data center and maintain enterprise-class resiliency, performance, and scalability. The customer needed a partner capable of evaluating the environment holistically and designing a streamlined architecture aligned with both technical and operational goals.
The ATS Solution
ATS an Dell architected and implemented a simplified 3-2-1 data center infrastructure designed to reduce complexity while modernizing core systems and storage operations.
The new solution included:
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Two replicated Dell PowerStore arrays
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Dell PowerEdge servers
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Existing Juniper switching infrastructure
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Migration from VMware back to Microsoft Hyper-V
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Replicated storage and stretched volume capabilities
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All-flash storage architecture with built-in data reduction
The ATS team possessed deep institutional knowledge of the environment and the operational challenges associated with the existing platform. This allowed ATS to design a migration strategy that simplified the environment without disrupting critical services or requiring unnecessary infrastructure replacement. The PowerStore-based architecture delivered:
✅ Simplified infrastructure management
✅ Improved operational flexibility
✅ Lower long-term licensing costs
✅ High-performance all-flash storage
✅ Replication and disaster recovery capabilities
✅ Virtual Volume functionality for stretched storage access
ATS also worked closely with the customer throughout deployment to ensure a smooth transition back to Hyper-V while preserving operational continuity.
The Results
The project successfully modernized the customer’s data center while reducing complexity and operational overhead.
Key outcomes included:
✅ Simplified Infrastructure Architecture – The customer transitioned away from a rigid HCI platform to a streamlined and flexible 3-2-1 design.
✅ Reduced Licensing Costs – Moving from VMware to Hyper-V helped reduce ongoing virtualization and platform expenses.
✅ Improved Storage Performance – The all-flash Dell PowerStore environment delivered enhanced speed, responsiveness, and data reduction capabilities.
✅ Operational Flexibility – Replicated storage and Virtual Volumes provided improved resiliency and simplified storage management across arrays.
✅ Preserved Existing Investments – ATS incorporated the customer’s existing Juniper switching infrastructure to maximize value and reduce unnecessary replacement costs.
✅ Smooth Deployment & Migration – The implementation and migration activities were completed successfully with minimal disruption to operations.
Why ATS?
One of the key differentiators ATS brings to infrastructure modernization projects is the ability to identify and solve issues during implementation — not after delays occur. During deployment, ATS uncovered a critical requirement that had not been identified within the validated infrastructure design. The replication architecture required a witness server, and while the assumption was that an existing Linux server could fulfill the role, ATS determined during implementation that the configuration required a Windows-based server instead.
Rather than delay the project through additional procurement cycles or change requests, ATS immediately sourced and deployed the required server to keep the implementation on schedule.
This type of issue resolution is something ATS handles regularly across infrastructure projects.