some would say that the ultimate key to servicing customers is knowing exactly what their needs are because your business has gone through the same experience. 

That’s exactly the position in which Heart-land Technology Solutions (HTS) finds itself. The Harlan, Iowa-based solution provider knows firsthand the challenges companies experience as they grow and the adjustments that are necessary to a company’s IT infrastructure. “Been there, done that” applies to HTS and the knowledge it offers its customers. 

“We were looking for a way to gain control of our IT infrastructure,” says Arlin Sorensen, president and CEO, referring to the company’s growth and expansion of its business through acquisitions. “We wanted to have centralized deployment and management of software updates, and we didn’t want to continue to buy server after server and keep the sprawl going.” 

HTS required technology that would enable the company to scale cost-effectively as the business continued to grow. It implemented a presentation virtualization solution based on Microsoft® Windows Server® Terminal Services running on
AMD Opteron™ processor-based servers from Hewlett-Packard. This technology
enables organizations to provide secure applications to remote users as a service and to run an application in one facility and control it from a different, central location.

Sorensen chose the technology even though he was aware that there were still many unknowns about virtualization. One major factor in his decision was the scalability of the technology.

A hobby becomes a business

HTS has grown from a one-person operation to a regional technology solution provider with eight offices in five states in the Midwest. The company provides solutions in networking, document imaging, Web hosting and design, electronic marketing, wireless communications and other technologies—and business is booming.

HTS’s roots date back to 1985, when Sorensen started The Computer Connection, which sold accounting software built specifically for the farming industry. The company bundled the PC Mars software with hardware, installation and training. It was a solution to help farmers move to computerized accounting.

Five years later, Sorensen and his brother created Sorensen’s Computer Connection Inc. (SCCI), and during the 1990s, the company grew to 36 employees. The brothers moved the business focus from farm accounting to general business while moving from the Apple platform to the PC. 

In 2003 SCCI merged with computer sales and service business Connecting Point Joplin, and began operating under the Heartland Technology Solutions name. Since then HTS has acquired several other companies and in 2006 merged with Business Computer Center in Wichita, Kan., which had multiple regional offices in the Midwest. Within one year, Sorensen says, HTS went from 40 to 80 employees, increased revenue from $6.5 million to $17 million and doubled its number of locations from four to eight.

For many small companies, such growth can provide challenges. HTS was no exception. As the company grew, Sorensen knew its infrastructure and IT staff would not be able to support the rising number of staffers, sites and customers. The growth and acquisitions had resulted in the common problem of “server sprawl.” 

HTS didn’t have enough financial and IT staff resources to maintain the new servers and workstations, and provide remote IT management for the branch offices, Sorensen says. HTS was also under competitive pressure to find new services and technologies that its small- and midsize business (SMB) customers could leverage to expand their own operations.

This is when Sorensen considered implementing virtualization technology. 

“There was a lot of discussion internally about whether to put virtual servers into production or not,” Sorensen says. “I was not in favor of doing it,” he says, adding that he wasn’t convinced that virtualization was a reliable technology that would deliver on what vendors were promising.

There was discussion about presentation virtualization, which enables organizations to provide secure applications to remote users as a service, adding a greater level of flexibility. That’s when HTS decided to implement the presentation virtualization solution based on Microsoft Windows Server Terminal Services.

“We knew we would start slow, but we didn’t want to outgrow it in a matter of months,” Sorensen says. “We wanted to be able to grow with this machine.” 

Another reason for implementing the presentation virtualization solution was the processing power and performance the system delivered.

Efficiency increase, labor decrease

HTS tested the technology extensively before using it more broadly. 

“If someone had told me that we would be putting our business on virtual servers six months ago, I would have laughed at them,” Sorensen says. “Today we do business that way all day, every day. We have many virtual servers running in our office and at customer sites today, supporting all kinds of applications.”

With presentation virtualization, HTS was able to use a single large server already installed at the company’s headquarters to run six virtual machines. In this way, the company could efficiently add workload to its existing server capacity without the need for additional machines. 

HTS currently has six virtual servers and 18 physical servers in its environment.
Sorensen adds that he will add more virtual servers as the company migrates to
Windows Server 2008. 

The technology infrastructure is helping HTS control power consumption costs and heating, ventilation and air conditioning expenses. The company could also save on labor costs, because it won’t have as many servers to maintain, even as business continues to grow. 

Sorensen says that the IT administrator saves approximately four to six hours weekly with the combination of hardware virtualization and presentation virtualization using terminal services. The company has reduced server management time and desktop support by leveraging presentation virtualization. 

“It is a huge benefit to our team and has allowed us to not hire additional internal resources for server management,” Sorensen says.

Presentation virtualization also gives HTS greater control of its data center, by centralizing the deployment and management of all applications on one virtualized server. The company can securely deliver applications to 50 remote desktop devices from a central point.

This greater efficiency helps the company save several thousand dollars per month in IT labor costs, Sorensen says, because it can more quickly and easily deploy applications and deliver software updates. Rather than having an IT staffer visit each remote site and individual desktop to deliver patches when needed, for example, HTS can have the process done automatically from the central location.

Presentation virtualization “enables us to control costs and provide a high-level of service to our locations, with centralized management,” Sorensen says. 

He estimates total annual savings could be as high as tens of thousands of dollars, from the reduced labor costs and greater computing efficiency. HTS is getting longer use of its desktop systems in the eight locations, which are being maintained more effectively with frequent software upgrades, resulting in additional savings. Although the solution provides the ability to help achieve financial benefits, getting a return on
investment for the technology hasn’t been a high priority for HTS. 

Deploying the solution “came down to a decision driven by the realization that we didn’t have a choice,” Sorensen says. “The [only] option was to find some solution that allowed us to grow without putting an
additional load on our infrastructure.”

Sorensen says a key reason the technology has been so effective is the high level of collaboration by the vendors involved: AMD, Microsoft and HP. 

“We can tell there is definitely a deep working relationship among [the companies],” he says.

Sharing with SMB customers

With the technology proving to be successful for HTS, the company decided to offer it to its SMB customers. This was precisely the type of new service and technology the company wanted in order to enable its customers to grow without incurring additional IT expenses.

HTS is now selling the solution to customers, many of which are experiencing the same growth challenges HTS has overcome. Sorensen expects to see huge demand for presentation virtualization technology in the SMB market and says that offering this technology will help HTS boost revenue.

“Virtualization was an enterprise story 12 months ago; today it is very much a midmarket story,” Sorensen says. He says virtualization as a technology offering from HTS is still just “a blip on the radar” but will become a significant part of the company’s service offering.

Terminal Services presentation virtualization has existed for several years, says Joshua Schnoll, senior product manager, Terminal Services, at Microsoft. “But companies such as HTS are finding new and innovative ways to leverage the technology,” he says.

“Presentation virtualization is great for Heartland, because [the company] has lots of consultants on the road and at customer sites,” Schnoll says. “For remote access, the new features in Windows Server 2008 make it very easy for them.” He anticipates three major applications of the technology for organizations: remote access, helping address regulatory compliance and application deployment and management.

HTS has been extensively testing Microsoft Windows Server 2008 running on servers powered by AMD Opteron™ processors and has seen excellent results. These include improved printing and the ability to secure applications without needing a costly virtual private network.

The AMD Opteron processor and Windows Server 2008 work well together,
Sorensen says, and HTS plans to soon begin selling Microsoft Windows Server 2008
Terminal Services running on AMD Opteron processor-based servers.

Whether it’s to improve internal operations or to offer as a new technology for customers, presentation virtualization is having a big impact on HTS’s business. In terms of internal use, the technology has performed well beyond the company’s expectations. As a technology to offer to customers, virtualization provides an opportunity for major new revenue streams. 

“Presentation virtualization technology will revolutionize how we do business for our customers,” Sorensen says. “It completely changes the game for us.”