Serena

Configuring Snow Commander was painless. We were immediately able to set up a cost model and show resource costs back to the business.

Challenge

Serena Software, one of the largest global Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) solution providers, was looking to streamline the automation and provisioning of systems being used by their developers. A heavy resource overhead was dedicated to trying to set up a clean machine, source the required version of the operating system and its dependent components, and install various tools needed for developers. They needed to find a solution for this incredibly painful and tedious process.

Snow Solution

The team at Serena Software set out to establish core capabilities needed to improve productivity, control costs, and provide a highly responsive end-user experience. Implementing Commander was broken up into three stages. The first was to establish show-back and automate inventory and cost reporting. The second stage required the implementation of a self-service portal, enabling service request capabilities along with global management and visibility of resources. Finally, lifecycle management included a mandatory setting of an expiration date when a system is provisioned.

Results

In any given week, 60 to 70 machines were being provisioned and decommissioned; at least one VM per day and these lasted for three or four days before automatic expiration. The ability to show the cost of resources consumed by business units has allowed Serena Software’s IT team to have more informed and insightful conversations with business units around budget, and the flexibility has allowed them to use resources more efficiently.