News Release
New Zealand’s Alliance Group Selects New Unisys Server to Improve Business Continuity in a Virtualised Environment
Leading exporter, first in world to install Unisys ES7000 Model 7405R server, poised to reap benefits of accelerated
evolution toward real-time infrastructure
New Zealand-based meat processor and exporter Alliance Group has expanded its 30-year relationship with Unisys to become
the first organisation in the world to install Unisys recently released ES7000 Model 7405R Enterprise Server.
Under the terms of the agreement, Unisys will supply and install two ES7000 Model 7405R servers and two EMC CX3 Storage
Area Networks, enabling Alliance Group to consolidate and virtualise its server environment. The new servers will be
used to replicate the Microsoft applications hosted at Alliance Group’s production site to its disaster recovery site
via EMC’s RecoverPoint, CX3 Storage and VMware software solutions. This will help create business continuity for the
company’s Microsoft Windows and Novell Netware environments.
“The Unisys ES7000 Model 7405R servers will support mission critical applications, including our email, file and printer
servers, along with web servers that manage customer access to company information,” said Kevin McCrone, chief
information officer, Alliance Group. “We anticipate that they will both boost our operational efficiency and enhance our
ability to serve a growing number of clients more quickly.
“The installation has been very successful coming in on-time and under budget, underpinned largely by the proven and
trusted relationship,” said Mr McCrone.
Alliance Group is a farmer-owned co-operative based in New Zealand that operates nine processing centres nationally and
exports to approximately 65 countries. The company produces high quality meat products from lamb, sheep, cattle and
deer, raised by its shareholders using free-range farming practices. It is also one of New Zealand’s largest exporters
of wool, pelts, hides, casings, meal and tallow.
The new servers complement the Unisys ClearPath mainframes on which Alliance Group runs enterprise-class solutions.
“The Unisys ES7000 Model 7405R Enterprise Servers provide increased flexibility to host virtualised applications and
advance the Alliance Group’s evolution toward a real-time infrastructure in which IT resources automatically handle
rapid changes in business requirements,” said Brett Hodgson, managing director, Unisys New Zealand. “With their
efficient power supply design, the new systems can help Alliance Group save energy, improve cooling capabilities, lower
power consumption and reduce operational costs.”
The ES7000 Model 7405R can support multiple operating environments, including Microsoft Windows Server 2008 and 2003
Datacentre, Enterprise and Standard Editions; Microsoft Virtual Server; Red Hat Enterprise Linux; SUSE Linux Enterprise
Server; and Sun Microsystems Solaris 10.
Supporting up to eight Quad-Core AMD Opteron processors, a single ES7000 Model 7405R server can host a whole suite of
virtualised applications. The system features new Rapid Virtualisation Indexing technology, which improves memory
management for virtual machines and optimises performance.
ENDS