The Situation
Hyper-V? No it’s not a medical condition. Queenstown based medical recruitment agency MedRecruit, which provide a high-calibre online service for placements of New Zealand, Australian and overseas doctors, believe it’s the ideal prescription for their business.
MedRecruit like to do things differently. They run exceptionally sophisticated CRM systems to help them zero in on matching recruitment opportunities with the lifestyle and individual goals of doctors. Keeping doctors in that ‘lifestyle zone’ is what excites founder Dr Sam Hazledine and his fast-growing agency isn’t slow in seizing any opportunity to be at the cutting edge. When Intergen began talking about a new breed of Microsoft infrastructure hosting on the horizon that would provide a virtualised server computing environment, and take a scalpel to traditional hosting costs, MedRecruit liked the diagnosis.
The Pain
MedRecruit’s out of date, homegrown hosting capabilities hadn’t kept pace with their technology ambitions. It was time to get serious about a dedicated hosting solution that would provide security and scalability.
“We’re passionate about always looking to advance our service, and innovation in the resources we use is a huge part of that picture. We made an investment in the best in CRM systems; it made sense to pursue the best hosting infrastructure. Hyper-V had clearly established a new benchmark.” Dr Sam Hazledine, Managing Director, MedRecruit.
So what’s all the hype about Hyper-V?
Microsoft Hyper-V is a virtualised server computing environment using technology that is part of the Microsoft Windows Server 2008 operating system. It literally eliminates the need for multiple physical servers, which swallow up rackspace, generate heat, and rack up considerable operating costs. By reducing the total cost of ownership of server infrastructure for a company, and by delivering high availability, high uptime and improved server availability, all sitting behind a dedicated firewall, Microsoft Hyper-V brings a lot to the market.
Intergen’s Dwayne Simmiss explains how hardware virtualisation has made huge advancements in the last few years. “I believe Microsoft’s Hyper-V hardware virtualisation product will revolutionise hosting. Solutions which previously took up half a rack of servers now fit onto one server. Will this save the client money? Absolutely – we’re talking about 60% less. It’s not just about costs either. The virtual servers are significantly greener, both in terms of power consumption and in the raw materials it takes to build one server rather than a rack of five. Hyper-V also impresses with its capacity to grow, so it’s a future-proof solution for MedRecruit, which is a rapidly growing company.”
MedRecruit operates a dynamic placement website and database – the brains behind it being a Microsoft CRM 4 platform running on Windows Server 2008, with Microsoft Exchange 2007, and Intranet Information Server 2008, all 64-bit full ‘enterprise grade’ architecture. Hyper-V lets MedRecruit occupy just three rack units in the Intergen datacentre, and that hosting scenario has multiple advantages for the company. Dr Sam Hazledine says savings on the upfront capital costs on server hardware ran into thousands.
“Cost is important to us, but the big drivers for us are speed and functionality without compromise. All our fundamental hosting needs are all met, from performance back-ups to server monitoring. Remote server access is vital too – we made a conscious lifestyle decision to base our agency in Queenstown.”
He describes how Intergen came to MedRecruit with this answer, when Hyper-V was still at a pre-market release. “As strong advocates of Microsoft technology, they proved they could make this cutting edge solution really fly.”
The Gain
Multiple servers are out, and the verdict is in on Hyper-V. As a cost-saving, green and highly scalable virtual hosting solution, Hyper-V supports all of MedRecruit’s powerful applications and is just what the doctor ordered.