St. Clair County RESA Selects VergeIO

St. Clair County Regional Educational Service Agency (RESA), which provides centralized IT services for 5 school districts, a local community college, and 7 municipalities in Michigan, has modernized its infrastructure by replacing VMware and Veeam with software-defined infrastructure platform, VergeOS.

“Faced with mounting costs, hardware limitations, and industry disruptions, RESA initiated a complete reevaluation of its IT environment. “We were hit with a one-two-three punch,” said James Marsack, senior network engineer, RESA. “First, NetApp announced the end-of-life for our SolidFire array. Then Broadcom acquired VMware and froze all updates while raising prices. Finally, our Cisco UCS environment brought supply chain delays and massive hardware maintenance costs. We needed more than a patch-we needed an infrastructure rethink.“

RESA found its answer in VergeOS, a single software platform that combines virtualization, storage, and networking with built-in backup and DR. Introduced to VergeIO through Cambridge Computer, Marsack said: “VergeOS didn’t just preserve what we relied on-it expanded it. It allowed us to simplify management, reduce licensing costs, and improve performance. And it just works.“

Key Results:

• High-Efficiency Storage: VergeOS’ VSAN with global inline de-dupe achieved a 16:1 efficiency ratio, compared to 3.7:1 with SolidFire.
• Backup and DR Simplified: Replaced a half-rack Qnap array and Veeam with VergeOS’ integrated snapshot and replication system.
• Hourly Snapshots: Eliminated daily backup windows and increased resiliency with hourly, space-efficient snapshots and transparent recovery via ioGuardian.
• Secure Self-Service: VergeOS’ secure, multi-tenant architecture empowered districts and municipalities with self-service capabilities, lowering operational overhead.

“Veeam jobs failed regularly. With VergeOS, we get hourly snapshots, instant rollback, and reliable replication-no third-party dependencies,” said Marsack.

RESA also improved security and control. “VergeOS’ tenanting system is elegant-brilliant, even. With SSO and two-factor authentication, it’s vastly more secure than VMware,” Marsack added. “Now, our customers can manage their own VMs, which reduces our management burden and increases their satisfaction.“

Marsack credited Cambridge Computer for facilitating the transformation: “We wouldn’t be having this conversation if it wasn’t for Cambridge. They introduced us to VergeIO, and it changed everything.“

Case study: St. Clair RESA’s journey to VergeOS, registration required.