Worldstream Reduces Server Maintenance Time by 97%, Making More Time to Grow

Eventually, though, the number of servers and patches grew, and slow and steady was no longer good enough for Worldstream.

Worldstream is a Dutch cloud infrastructure provider building the foundational infrastructure for data centers and cloud services. Using our own data centers, dedicated servers, 10+ Tbps network, and cloud infrastructure, Worldstream offers clients robust, secure European hosting at a fixed price. The company has always focused on infrastructure, delivering reliability, transparency, and cost-efficiency to customers.

Worldstream has recently expanded our service offerings, and our existing server infrastructure is growing to meet increasing demands. As a cloud architect, I had intended to dedicate more time to collaborating with colleagues on our cloud computing strategy. Unfortunately, our days were increasingly consumed by server maintenance.

Weighed down by manual upkeep

Performing maintenance and upgrades on hundreds of servers at Worldstream had become a manual, tedious chore. Each firmware update required logging into the individual server, running the update, double-checking that we got the updates we wanted, and blocking the ones we didn’t.

Every part of the process was manual, from manually downloading the patch and uploading it to the server to manually configuring it and rebooting the machine. After that, we’d have to wait until the machine was back online, which could take 10–15 minutes. We couldn’t even leave the workstation to grab a coffee, because we had to bring that server back online as soon as possible. We used servers from three or four different vendors, including Dell, which complicated things even more.

All told, the updates took us 1.5 hours per server each year. Multiplied by a couple of hundred servers, it meant that maintenance and upgrades consumed several days of work each month for two or three engineers.

We considered several things to save time:

• It was possible to update more than one server at a time, but that could have unintended consequences. When working with more than one server, there’s a greater risk that something could go down by accident and damage our availability promise to our customers.
• Another option was to schedule maintenance downtime, but that would also eat into our uptime promise. Besides, if a vulnerability emerged, we wanted to move as quickly as possible to patch it without having to wait for a scheduled maintenance window.

And then, there was the big picture. Worldstream is adding more servers every year to support our new services. Far from server maintenance issues going away, continuing with manual updates would consume even more time. What’s more, the existing Dell infrastructure in particular was reaching capacity in terms of scalability, flexibility, and efficiency. The maintenance debt sucked up valuable engineering efforts, which threatened the company’s future growth.

One tool to rule them all

We dreamed of a better solution: centralized firmware management and a more flexible, modern infrastructure to enhance performance, reduce costs, and increase agility. No scheduled downtime, no searching for patches on some portal, and no manual labor. Just automated updates at the click of a button. The dream became a reality with HPE GreenLake.

When we started conversations about upgrading our existing infrastructure, we looked at the top hardware providers that offered the best quality products at the best price. Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) ranked highly in those areas. Then, we went deeper, asking if any of those providers could offer us something extra beyond the physical hardware.

The answer from HPE was “yes.”

HPE GreenLake’s scalable, future-ready cloud platform included Compute Ops Management, which offered a “one tool to rule them all” approach to server management. Instead of us updating each server manually, Compute Ops Management would streamline and automate the process, allowing us to manage all updates with a single click from a centralized location. No patch downloads to track, just complete visibility into available updates for all our HPE ProLiant servers. These modern, scalable solutions would reduce the total cost of ownership (TCO) and enhance performance as we transitioned to more futureproof infrastructure.

"HPE Compute Ops Management promised an easy deployment with minimal setup. Learning that the server management solution of our dreams actually existed is what pushed us over the edge to choose HPE."

Even better, Compute Ops Management promised an easy deployment with minimal setup. Learning that the server management solution of our dreams actually existed is what pushed us over the edge to choose HPE.

Automated maintenance unlocks valuable engineering time

We’re still in the early stages of implementation, but we’ve already experienced some results of easier server oversight and management. Compute Ops Management’s automation seamlessly handles the entire update sequence, drastically reducing our maintenance time from days to just a couple of hours per month.

“Compute Ops Management’s automation seamlessly handles the entire update sequence, drastically reducing our maintenance time from days to just a couple of hours per month.”

We’ve regained valuable engineering time — valuable because time is money, but also because of what we can do now that we aren’t waiting for individual servers to come back online. Efficient server management allowed us to shift our focus from reactive maintenance to strategic product development, which is essential at a company focused on expanding our services. As an MSP, Worldstream operates in a competitive market where innovation is essential. With Compute Ops Management, we can grow and innovate without the growing pains.

We know our customers rely on our infrastructure, which is why we look for reliable partners like HPE that we can depend on. By leveraging HPE technology, Worldstream can provide a more solid and secure foundation for our customers as we create the next generation of services.

“Worldstream operates in a competitive market where innovation is essential. With Compute Ops Management, we can grow and innovate without the growing pains."