Teleflora Trusts Virtual Computing Stability And Performance

By 2X Software

Teleflora, the nation's largest floral delivery network service, has chosen a 2X virtual computing solution to meet the computing needs of their call centers. In creating an optimized solution, the company has chosen to deploy the 2X ApplicationServer with Load Balancer, along with the 2X ThinClientServer Enterprise Edition, to optimize employees' remote access to critical desktop applications. Specifically, the 2X solution guarantees the efficient operation of Teleflora's call centers, especially during peak order times, with flawless desktop performance delivered to over 1,100 users in multiple locations.

Jeff Jones is the Systems Architect at Teleflora, and as such, is responsible for ensuring that the company's desktops can efficiently meet the day-to-day needs of the organization. Due to his limited IT budget, especially in the midst of a recession, Jeff is also responsible for ensuring that Teleflora's IT goals are met at the lowest possible price, to preserve funds for other uses. Because Teleflora's call centers require a huge influx of customer relations employees during peak floral sales periods, over 1,100 desktops must be maintained to support the employees' order processing needs, with 650 full-time employees, along with 500 additional peak-time call center hires. Yet unlike the company's seasonal hires, who are discharged at the end of each peak season, the company was forced to purchase individual application licenses for each of its call center desktops, regardless of the fact that they may only be used a few weeks per year. To solve this problem, Jeff chose a 2X-based thin client solution with his ten 32-bit HP BL460c Blade Servers, along with the VMware ESX 3.5 (VI3) virtualization platform. By switching to a 2X thin client solution with remote application publishing, which runs users' applications from a central server rather than from the individual desktops themselves, Jeff explains that he was "able to save $120 per machine, simply from one-time licensing cost savings," a total cost reduction of over $120,000. Although Jeff notes that a thin client device solution might also prove effective, he explains that to implement such a solution, he would "have to spend $300 each for over 1,000 thin client devices" to achieve long-term cost reductions, making a device-based solution impractical in achieving immediate savings. Teleflora's 2X-based solution was thus a "diamond in the rough that fundamentally changed the way we do things," as it significantly lowered IT costs and reduced the need to purchase additional thin client devices.