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Lanx offers a glimce into its decision to use Virtustream for cloud services

Selecting a cloud services provider can be a daunting task. Lanx, a medical equipment supplier, chose Virtustream. The company's VP of IT explains the company's reasoning.
Written by Dan Kusnetzky, Contributor

Virtustream reached out to me a while back to introduce me to its cloud computing service, called xStream.

The company points out that its microVM technology makes it easily possible to support both mission-critical legacy and web-scale applications to run in the cloud — whether private, virtual private or public.

After speaking with them, I wanted to hear more. So, the company arranged for me to connect with Taylor Erickson, VP of information technology at Lanx, a medical equipment company. Thanks for taking the time to respond to my questions, Taylor.

Please introduce yourself and your organization:

My name is Taylor Erickson, and I am the vice president of information technology at Lanx, a global spinal implant company. I have been with Lanx for nearly two years and in the technology industry for more than 17 years. Throughout my career, I have gained experience building IT governance, strategy, and architecture at both start-ups and Fortune 500 companies. Before joining Lanx, I held the role of director of IT business systems at NuVasive and formerly was the delivery solutions manager of the SAP midmarket solutions group at IBM.

Lanx is a spinal implant company that specializes in devices and systems for all aspects of spinal surgery. Thanks to our enthusiastic team, we develop innovative products that are able to drastically improve patient care by integrating technology, surgeon engagement, and engineering. The company was founded in 2003 and is headquartered in Broomfield, Colorado.

What are you doing that needed this type of technology?

We have been experiencing accelerated adoption of our products and needed an IT environment that offered the flexibility, scalability, and stability to meet this growth. At the time, our resources were insufficient, our software was in need of upgrading, and we wanted to establish a comprehensive disaster recovery plan. We needed to find a solution that provided improved performance to run our SAP, Business Objects, and RoamBI Mobile Analytics applications.

What products did you consider before making this selection?

During our selection process, we assessed numerous public and private hosting providers that varied from smaller companies to a handful of Fortune 100 providers. After extensive evaluations, Freeborders – a provider of global consulting, technology and outsourcing services – pointed us in the direction of Virtustream. We also considered purchasing new IT equipment for our traditional datacenter environment but did not take that route due to the high CAPEX expenditures we would have before we even had the enhanced environment up and running.

Why did you select this product?

Virtustream made it simple – they offered a true enterprise-class solution coupled with a proven track-record of migrating SAP environments to the cloud. Once Freeborders and Virtustream presented their offering, we instantly recognized the benefits we would receive from xStream’s consumption-based pricing model and mission-critical application assurance. Add in the high levels of security (including Intel TxT support), compliance, and built-in disaster recovery and we were sold.

What tangible benefits have you gotten through the use of this product?

The project was as seamless as we could have hoped for, and within eight weeks our mission-critical data and applications were successfully deployed to the cloud. Right away, we noticed improved performance of our SAP applications and a drop in our overall IT costs. Because of this deployment, we are able to commit more time to providing strategic business applications, rather than maintaining infrastructure. Now we can scale to effectively meet business demands in a flexible, secure, and cost-efficient environment.

What advice would you offer others?

It’s no secret that the cloud space is particularly crowded, making the need to critically assess your options that much more important. It is imperative that you evaluate the entire solution to make sure it is able to effectively meet all of your business requirements. The right cloud vendor/partner that has the innovation and expertise to ensure your cloud solution meets all your current requirements and can scale with your business in the future.

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