At-a-Glance
- Client/Industry: Confidential / Development
- Scope: Dubai datacenter build for 300-user Citrix VDI, plus staging/test built from relocated London equipment
- Delivery model: Phase 1 new production platform + VDI migration, Phase 2 London HW relocation + commissioning in Dubai
- Colocation + connectivity: 2 racks (6kW) plus redundant IP-transit links
- Operating model: NNTC delivered implementation and continues as MSP for colocation, connectivity, and infrastructure maintenance
- Key outcomes: Production VDI stabilized on new equipment; legacy estate repurposed as staging/test without disturbing production
Challenge
The client needed to establish Dubai datacenter footprint to run a 300-user Citrix VDI farm, migrate production workloads cleanly, and then consolidate an existing London hardware estate into Dubai to stand up staging and test environments. The tension was classic: keep end-user impact low while handling a project that mixes procurement lead times, multi-vendor integration, workload migration, and cross-border logistics.
Solution Overview
NNTC delivered a two-phase program:
Phase 1: New Dubai production VDI platform
- Compute: 2x HPE ProLiant DL380 Gen10, configured as dual-socket with Intel Xeon Gold 6248R (24-core, 3.0GHz) CPUs and 32x 64GB DDR4 memory modules across the hosts.
- Hyperconverged: High-density SSD estate using HPE 7.68TB SAS RI SFF SSDs (52 drives)
- I/O: 32Gb Fibre Channel dual-port connectivity (HPE SN1600E) and 32 SFP networking
- Network core: 2x Cisco Catalyst 9300 48-port switches deployed with stacking, plus 40GE and 10GE network modules for uplinks and expansion.
- Security: 2x Check Point 6700 Plus gateways (SandBlast subscription), with Check Point security management and CloudGuard Network virtual cores for VMware ESXi included in the security stack.
- Citrix software: Citrix for Private Cloud quantities covering plus Citrix ADC (VPX/BLX) Advanced subscriptions
- Colocation + connectivity: Rack and IP transit were part of the contracted delivery, so the VDI platform was commissioned as a service-ready environment, not just “hardware in a rack.”
Phase 2: London legacy equipment relocation for staging and test
- Relocated and commissioned a legacy estate anchored around Cisco UCS (UCS 5108 chassis, enterprise storage platforms (EMC Unity 300F, EMC VNXe 3200, Dell EMC PowerStore), security (Check Point 5800, Cisco ASA 5506), and switching (Cisco Catalyst 9300, Catalyst 2960S/2960X).
- Logistics was treated as a technical workstream: packing, customs handling, delivery, and rack integration were planned and costed.
Project Specifics
- Production-first sequencing: new platform build and VDI migration completed before introducing relocated legacy complexity.
- Proven vendor stack: HPE for compute, Cisco for switching, Check Point for perimeter/security management, Citrix for VDI and ADC.
- Dual-link connectivity model: two IP-transit links supporting operational continuity and growth.
- Value recovery: Previous hardware was not “scrap.” It became staging/test capacity in Dubai, aligned to client operations.
Execution Approach
The plan compressed procurement, delivery, and deployment into a tight window: finalize BoQ, contract/funding, place orders, receive hardware, deploy in the datacenter, complete handover, and update as-built documentation. Phase 2 then ran as a controlled relocation and commissioning stream after production was stable.
Result
A new Dubai-based Citrix VDI platform was built and production workloads migrated. The legacy London equipment estate was then relocated and redeployed in Dubai to provide staging and test capacity. Colocation, connectivity, and ongoing infrastructure maintenance were delivered under an MSP model with a single accountable partner for both day-1 delivery and day-2 operations.
