Long View Helps Impark Manage Large Scale Growth with a

Imperial Parking (Impark)
Industry: Parking Management
Solutions: Virtualization, Storage & Data Solutions, Server Infrastructure Services, Data Center
Long View Success Story
Long View Helps Impark Manage Large Scale
Growth with a Complete Technology Refresh
Client Overview
Founded in 1962, Impark is a North American
industry leader in parking management. With
over 1,800 parking facilities, 425,000 spaces
in Canada and the United States and 3,700
employees, Impark is the third largest parking
management company in North America.
Impark operates parking facilities on behalf
of property owners and through providing
bankable leases. Impark has a reputation for
offering superior service to its customers and
clients and is well known for employing leading
edge technology in parking solutions.
Business Challenge
At the time of our initial engagement, Impark’s
server infrastructure consisted of 38 physical
servers supporting a mixed platform of
Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 Windows Server
2003, system applications tied into SQL,
Oracle, Microsoft Exchange, Citrix, and Great
Plains databases, and custom Line of Business
(LOB) applications.
Ongoing growth and a number of news
strategic projects by Impark required an
additional 20+ servers to be added to
their production environment. Of greater
concern, however, was the lack of any
Business Continuity Plan in place in case of
an emergency or disaster. Apart from these,
Impark faced a series of other limitations
including a lack of sufficient IT staffing – there
was no management of existing systems, no
systems architect, and existing staff resources
were only successful due to heroic efforts. Their
data center had reached its power and cooling
capacity. A complex operating environment
using a mixture of technologies (including
different versions of the same software) and
minimal development infrastructure severely
handicapped Impark’s operating efficiency.
Application & Solution Overview
In light of the range of software and sever
& database technology issues Impark was
having, virtualization was the ideal solution.
They turned to Long View to assist in the
architecture and implementation of the
virtualization of Impark’s desktop servers
and application servers (Blackberry, OWA,
and Specialty Apps); this constituted a
broad infrastructure refresh across the
various workstations previously installed
to simply “make due”.
At the time, many of Impark’s systems
were running on very old hardware, some
7 – 8 years old. These systems, mostly
built by staff no longer employed with
the company, lacked the documentation,
processes, and ability to recover key
applications in the event of a failure.
Together, Long View and Impark
developed a five year plan to create
up-to-date development environments
designed to support Impark’s business
plans and strategic projects.
Solution Overview
• Design and implemen tation of a centralized
virtual data center powered
by VMware, HP, and
NetApp technologies
• The removal of redundant,
costly, unreliable legacy
hardware systems
• The upgrading of
multiple operational
software systems
(operating systems,
database solutions,
custom applications)
• A five year plan designed
to align the company’s
physical IT infrastructure
with a business strategy
focused on large
scale growth
Imperial Parking (Impark)
Industry: Parking Management
Solutions: Virtualization, Storage & Data Solutions, Server Infrastructure Services, Data Center
Long View Success Story
To handle the aggressive growth expectations
of Impark (100% over five years), the plan
would use IT as an enabler and assist
Impark in the adoption of an agile and
reliable technology environment. During
the implementation phase of the project,
Long View system architects first built the
management server which would serve as
the keystone of an automated data center,
providing the required documentation and
staff training for successful transition and
ongoing operations. The virtual data center
solution was powered by VMware Virtual
Center and used NetApp SnapMirror
replication technology, HP SIM, and Altiris
software as well as Evergreen storage solutions.
BusIness results & BeneFIts
Long View Systems provided Impark with
a comprehensive automated data center
solution tailored to their unique business
needs – aligning physical technology models
to the strategic direction of the company.
Upgrading their hardware and software across
the board brought all the various systems
operations into synch. Virtualizing Impark’s IT
infrastructure paved the way for automated
management of a unified, integrated system
that improved maintenance and security while
lowering costs related to power and cooling.
Most importantly, this new infrastructure would
increase operational efficiency while remaining
scalable to meet the company’s future needs.
No longer reliant on legacy equipment,
Impark makes use of cutting edge tools like
NetApp’s SnapMirror to replicate production
data across multiple locations (“hot sites”).
This would become a pillar of the organization’s
new Business Continuity Plan, ensuring the
protection of and access to business critical
data. Impark now has a robust management,
governance, and standardization policy
but their most substantial benefit was the
achievement of its ROI within the first year
of the project! Projected operational cost
savings amounted to $480,000 while the use
of virtual machines saved approximately
$370,000 compared to direct hardware
replacements over the five year timeframe.
sOlutIOn Partners
BeneFIts
• Data center virtualization
lowers resource demands
and saves space while
improving storage
utilization and
infrastructure performance
• Data center automation
improves security,
efficiency, and utilization
of IT management and
resources while resulting in
lower energy costs (power/
cooling) and output
• A scalable and sustainable
IT infrastructure capable of
keeping pace with ongoing
growth and changing
business needs
• A Business Continuity Plan
helps protect data in the
event of disaster – critical
business data is easily
replicated and retrieved
• Approximately $850,000
in costs savings estimated
over the project’s lifetime
Virtualizing unsupported infrastructure, we’ve added a component of recoverability that we
previously did not have. Now, every time a new server is needed, there is no longer the need
to purchase physical hardware.
— Reg Robazza, Director I.T. Imperial Parking
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