CASE STUDY

STREAMLINED SYSTEMS MANAGEMENT

SAINT-GOBAIN
GROUP REDUCES
EXPECTED BRANCH
SERVER INVESTMENT
BY 97% WITH NOMAD
French multinational corporation uses WAN optimization
solution to rapidly and efficiently distribute software
deployments and patches to thousands of PCs using
spare, available bandwidth.

Challenge
Saint-Gobain needed an efficient way to
deploy software patches and upgrades
to 100,000 desktops across 6000 branch
offices.

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Solution
Microsoft System Center Configuration
Manager 2007 (ConfigMgr) in
conjunction with Nomad.

Business benefits
97% reduction in expected branch
server investment
Saint-Gobain cuts number of necessary
branch servers from 6000 to 200
Efficient and rapid distribution of
security patches and upgrades to the
Groups entire PC estate.

STREAMLINED SYSTEMS MANAGEMENT

Managing the network efficiently

About Saint-Gobain
Established in 1665, Saint-Gobain
Group is the world leader in the
habitat and construction markets. It
designs, manufactures and
distributes building material and
provides innovative solutions to meet
the growing demand for energy

Managing the IT network and architecture for a multinational organization of this

magnitude is a sizeable task. The PC Solution Team is responsible for delivering all the
tools to manage the companys 100,000 workstations. In 2008 the team chose to
implement Microsoft Systems Management Platform across the group to create
better collaboration and improve productivity.

efficiency and environmental

protection. Present in 64 countries
around the world, Saint-Gobain has
almost 190,000 employees. There are
1700 subsidiaries and it is present in
more than 6000 distinct geographical
locations.

maintaining at least 6000 servers. The PC team sought an alternative solution that
would avoid having to put a server into each branch office.

The standard architecture for the Microsoft platform is for each geo-location to have a
dedicated, or branch server. For Saint-Gobain this would have meant investing in, and

It was impossible to imagine 6000 Distribution Points. We had to

find a solution that would reduce the number of servers that we
would need to install.
Guillaume Chuet, Desktop Solution Manager, Saint-Gobain
Group
The team decided to research the possibility of using SCCM and Background
Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS) GPO and found a considerable reduction of servers
would be possible but that they would still require a 1,000-strong server farm.
Mark Cochrane an independent consultant, who had contributed to the study,
suggested that the team look at Nomad from 1E. Using spare network bandwidth, the
tool delivers operating system upgrades, software deployments and patches safely
and securely to thousands of PCs and servers day or night with zero disruption on the
network. This solution removes the need for branch servers or desk-side visits
reducing existing server footprint and administrative overheads. The team
immediately understood that this solution matched their requirements.
During the evaluation period it soon became apparent that distribution of software,
OS upgrades and deployments was working perfectly, We had initial concerns about
optimal distribution over a LAN using only one peer for multiple clients rather than
having each client being a peer for other machines. We need not have worried, it
worked as it should, distribution was quick and reliable, affirms Guillaume.

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STREAMLINED SYSTEMS MANAGEMENT

Immediate benefits
About Nomad
Tightly integrates with SCCM 2007/
2012
Reverse QoS uses spare capacity
autonomic throttling system to
protect business data
Single Site Download (SSD) flattens
infrastructure
App-V streaming support optimizes
network usage for mobile clients
Peer Backup Assistant preserves and
restores user data and personal
settings
Multicast, WinPE support and
enhanced OSD capabilities
PXE Everywhere enables one
machine to boot from any other on
the network without any network
configuration

Having only one peer distributing to multiple PCs is very effective and causes minimal
impact on the network as well as reducing the bandwidth requirements. An additional
benefit of Nomad is that it is able to identify and control the connection type and it
manages device connections seamlessly as they move between wired and wireless
LANs.
The testing phase was over a period of four to six weeks. Nomad has given us a new,
more efficient way to distribute packages across our network. We quickly realized the
positive impact this solution had on our business on a few early occasions when
packages were sent in the old way. Without Nomad, significantly more bandwidth is
required to push an image over the network. We were getting calls from Saint-Gobain
Telecom (the team in charge of the companys network) alerting us to instances of
inefficient bandwidth usage and we made the connection when we spotted that the
packages in question had not been sent via Nomad.
The tests were considered such a success that weve never really needed to measure
the impact. The ROI is just so obvious, comments Guillaume. Today, were down to
only 200 servers, of that total, 150 are dedicated distribution point servers. Using
Nomad has saved us from unnecessarily investing in thousands of servers for the
company, We have thirty times less the amount of servers that we were told we could
have at the start of our consolidation project.
Nomad has enabled Saint-Gobain to make significant cost savings, first, by avoiding
investment in thousands of servers (and the associated energy, support and
maintenance costs that they would have generated) and second through better
systems management and reduced disruption to users working day. Nomad is a
solution that has responded to our requirements and works very successfully for us,
Guillaume concludes.

About 1E
1Es suite of disruptive IT operations management tools save billions, solve problems
and simplify the management of large, complex IT environments in record time.
Designed with a singular focus to help drive down costs, 1Es solutions include tools for
IT asset management, Windows systems management and BYOPC.
Contact us
UK (HQ): +44 20 8326 3880

US: +1 866 592 4214

India: +91 120 402 4000

info@1e.com

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