Kementerian Komunikasi: VMware Replacement with Sangfor HCI

Customer Background

The Ministry of Communications (Kementerian Komunikasi) is a key government ministry in Malaysia responsible for the development of communication infrastructure, broadcasting, multimedia, the digital economy, and the dissemination of information to the public.

The Ministry plays a vital role in:

• Digital Infrastructure Development: Enhancing nationwide access to high-speed internet.
• Broadcasting and Media Regulation: Overseeing radio, television, and digital content regulation.
• Digital Economy Advancement: Supporting the digitalization of public and private sectors.
• Information Dissemination: Providing accurate and trustworthy information to the public.
• Personal Data Protection: Enforcing laws related to personal data privacy.

IT Challenges

The Ministry of Communications was running with VMware in a 3-tier architecture. However, with most of the hardware being more than 8 years old and the high cost of renewing VMware licenses, they have decided to explore alternative solutions as part of a technology refresh for their infrastructure.
The Ministry's looking for a solution that is easier to manage compared to their existing 3-tier architecture, where each hardware layer has its own separate dashboard for management.
One of the key challenges is the presence of legacy operating systems in the current environment, which cannot be upgraded due to their reliance on critical legacy applications.
They are also facing issues with delayed support response times whenever problems arise with their VMware setup. This is primarily due to the time zone difference between the Ministry and the support team, leading to longer resolution times.

Sangfor Solutions

Sangfor provided 2 units of Sangfor HCI for the Ministry’s IT Team to migrate selected virtual machines from their existing VMware environment to the Sangfor HCI proof-of-concept (POC) setup. This allowed the Ministry to evaluate performance, compatibility, and management features in a controlled testing environment.
Following the successful evaluation, Sangfor proposed a deployment of three Sangfor HCI units to replace the majority of workloads currently running on VMware. A comprehensive migration plan was developed to transition all workloads from the VMware cluster to the Sangfor HCI platform.

Solution Value

• Cost Efficiency Through HCI Transformation
  By switching from 3 tier setup to Sangfor HCI, the Ministry has achieved cost savings of up to 40% compared to continuing their investments with VMware. This substantial reduction in total cost of ownership not only alleviates budget pressures but also allows customers to allocate resources more strategically, while still enjoying a highly stable, reliable, and future-ready infrastructure platform.
• Seamless Migration Experience
  The Ministry found the migration process from their existing cluster to the new Sangfor HCI to be exceptionally smooth. Even legacy operating systems were successfully migrated with the support of Sangfor’s local engineering team and additional assistance from the Sangfor R&D team at headquarters, who helped resolve any issues that arose during the migration phase.
• Simplified Management and Enhanced Performance
  The Ministry appreciated the consolidation of management consoles into a single portal, eliminating the need to access multiple interfaces to manage their environment. Additionally, the virtual machines (VMs) have experienced a noticeable performance boost, which is an unexpected benefit that not only resolved previous infrastructure challenges but also provided a more reliable and resilient platform for daily operations.
• Growing Trust and Wider Adoption
  This positive experience has significantly boosted user confidence and led to strong recommendations across other government agencies. For instance, based on the Ministry’s endorsement and Sangfor’s proven track record, Radio Televisyen Malaysia (RTM) has also chosen Sangfor HCI as their preferred platform. This reflects the growing trust in Sangfor’s technology and its ability to deliver consistent value, reliability, and scalability for critical government operations.

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