The Voice of the Partner series is one of my favorite features we run on the Cisco Channels Blog. It's always interesting to see how partners are implementing our solutions. For example, in this installment I had the opportunity to see how customers are implementing Cisco UCS and seeing real business results.

Since 2000, the Minnesota Wild franchise has excited devoted hockey fans in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. The owners, Minnesota Sports & Entertainment, also operate a number of additional venues in the area surrounding the arena, including the Xcel Energy Center, Saint Paul RiverCentre convention center and the historic Roy Wilkins auditorium. With numerous entertainment properties to manage, their IT technicians and administrators balance varied and demanding priorities as they manage events ranging from professional symposiums to sporting events.

The corporate IT needs for Minnesota Wild are twofold: ensure hockey fans have top-notch audio and video to enhance the viewing experience and that clients renting out auxiliary facilities have access to the latest technologies needed to impress a range of audiences.

To better address those needs for fans and clients, the Wild established three IT infrastructure goals:

1. Streamline infrastructure management to support increased client interaction
2. Manage and plan for infrastructure growth
3. Follow sustainability processes to promote the organization's environmental goals

After examining long-term goals cloud infrastructure and off-site hosting options, Minnesota Wild decided to invest in easily manageable solutions that would position the company strongly for the future. By combining virtualized Cisco UCS servers with hybrid storage solutions from Cisco Solution partner Tegile, Minnesota Wild was able to establish a highly agile data center environment that supports current and future cloud initiatives with virtual desktop infrastructure.

At the end of the day, the key to success for any business is the ability to meet business goals. By using Cisco UCS and Tegile's agile and high-performing storage solutions, the Minnesota Wild realized the following results:

• Achieved a 43 percent reduction in support costs
• Reduced power usage by 63 percent and heat output by 68 percent
• Increased data center agility by introducing virtualization and making future scalability possible

The implementation was so successful that the Wild plans to move towards a completely hybrid environment and continue to use Cisco UCS and Tegile as the cornerstone of future projects.

You can read the full case study here with additional details on the full-scale rollout.  We always love to share these success stories. As always, please feel free to share comments below.