World Customs Organization modernizes IT with HCI solution from HPE and Prodata Systems 

As an independent intergovernmental body, the World Customs Organization (WCO) is dedicated to enhancing the effectiveness of Customs administration. Representing 186 customs administrations around the world, the WCO oversees approximately 98% of global trade. To support its mission, the WCO needed to modernize its outdated IT infrastructure. Prodata Systems assisted in this transition by implementing HPE SimpliVity, a Hyper-Converged Infrastructure solution that revolutionized IT operations at the WCO.

Headquartered in a beautiful building in Brussels, the WCO’s IT department plays a crucial role in supporting the organization’s advisory functions and publicly accessible information platforms. Although the WCO does not store large amounts of sensitive data, ensuring security and resilience is paramount. After all, the organization’s web servers operate in cooperation with other entities such as Europol and Interpol. One example is the spatial data infrastructure hosted by the WCO, which aims to improve international and interorganizational coordination, and facilitates customs surveillance and control efforts.

“The organization relied on 10-yearold servers, making it impossible to source spare parts if anything failed. In the event of a cyberattack, we would have been highly vulnerable.”

Addressing an outdated IT infrastructure

Globally, the WCO employs around 270 people, including Gudmundur Kristjansson, Senior IT Systems, Network, and Cloud Administrator, who joined the Brussels-based team in early 2023.” I immediately raised concerns about the critically outdated hardware and software,” Kristjansson explains. “The organization relied on 10-year-old servers, making it impossible to source spare parts if anything failed. In the event of a cyberattack, we would have been highly vulnerable.”

The WCO’s storage was also at full capacity, requiring extensive optimization to scale down and eliminate unnecessary servers. Management was aware of the situation for some time and eventually allocated a budget to start the tender process and find the right partner.

From a shortlist of five proposals, WCO selected Prodata Systems and HPE to implement HPE SimpliVity, an advanced HCI solution designed for edge, VDI, and general virtualization workloads. While HCI is a well-established technology, it remains a popular choice for IT transformations due to its ability to consolidate storage, networking, and computing resources into a single platform. This is also the reason why the WCO was looking into HCI.

Simplifying IT with HCI

“We have a very small IT team and, until recently, I was the only system administrator. We needed to look for solutions that simplify our IT and free up time for other tasks”, says the WCO IT Service. “HCI provides us with a technology that bundles everything, reducing maintenance and providing us with a complete overview of all components through a single interface. Today, our infrastructure is less complex, more efficient, and less time-consuming, allowing us to shift from a reactive to a more proactive approach.”

The WCO was particularly impressed with the collaborative approach of Prodata Systems and HPE. “What caught us early on was the fresh energy they brought to the table during conversations”, says the WCO IT Service. “Prodata Systems immediately involved HPE in every meeting. They listened to us, focusing on what we really needed and how we could scale the solution to our advantage. It was a process of cocreation, collective brainstorms and direct conversations.”

To better understand the needs of the WCO, HPE also conducted a Cloud Physics Assessment. The test runs for a minimum of two weeks and collects actual data on the way the infrastructure is used. The WCO had an objective of downsizing the VMs, but HPE’s assessment found they were overprovisioned, identifying opportunities to downsize them even more.

Decommissioning 125 servers

The migration was executed in two phases over two months. “The collaboration between Prodata Systems and HPE was seamless, giving us access to the best expertise from both sides”, says the WCO IT Service. The WCO can rely on 24/7 support – with Prodata handling firstline assistance and HPE providing expert backup.

Today, a glimpse into the WCO’s server room reveals a well-structured area – a stark contrast to the previous setup. “Before, there was no redundancy. We had three full racks of servers and a tangled mess of cables”, recalls the WCO IT Service. “Downsizing was essential. We will probably never completely move away from on-prem infrastructure, but we want to make use of a more hybrid setup. In combination with the decommissioning of 125 servers, consolidating compute and storage in a future-proof next-gen hyperconverged infrastructure helped us save space and consumption. The temperature in the server rooms has been reduced from 27 to 22 degrees, and the clusters have been decreased from nineteen to six nodes.”

Two connected data centers in WCO’s building now ensure the entire setup is redundant. Looking ahead, the WCO IT Service plans to further simplify the environment by decommissioning the Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) and migrating workloads from file servers to SharePoint.

Significant performance gains

In terms of storage, the WCO IT Service has been working on a solid backup strategy, because this was also a major weakness in the old infrastructure. “Backup is another example of the many things that HPE SimpliVity has streamlined for us. Today, we have full hourly backups of every server for three days, in addition to a daily server backup that is kept for months.” The fact that backup is also included in SimpliVity means that the WCO can benefit from a single pane of glass (vCenter) for its entire operational management. “It has been a revolution for us.”

Moreover, the WCO also leverages the Private Cloud Business Edition of HPE. This platform enables users to deploy agile, self-service cloud deployments with features such as remote control, server management, and cloud-based backups.

Considering the experience of end users at the WCO, the WCO IT Service notes a positive impact. Tests reveal a 30 to 50% performance improvement on heavy workloads, such as the spatial data infrastructure mentioned before. “Loading times of maps have decreased from 30 to 13-15 seconds, making a significant difference for large workloads.”

Of course, the transformation is not over and the WCO IT Service is already planning the next steps. “The first objective was to secure the foundation and eliminate the risks for the WCO. Now we want to optimize and do more. For example, by looking at off-site storage for our data.”

What is the WCO IT Service key takeaway from the project? “For small IT teams, HCI has substantial benefits. Consolidating storage, switches, compute and backup into a single management interface saves time, allowing us to respond faster and focus on more strategic tasks.”