The VMs are mirrored between the Dallas and Lowell data centers over a private OC-3 link for disaster recovery, with Silver Peak NX-7600s providing WAN optimization over that connection.

"This allows us to replicate a large amount of data between the data centers in near real time," says Scott Engel, director of IT infrastructure for Transplace.

Supporting that many workloads requires bandwidth, which the Nexus network provides via 60 ports of 10G Ethernet in each data center. But the real clincher was the cable management benefits the switches and virtual environment provided.

"The real factor here was to reduce the complexity in our cable plant, which in turn also reduces our footprint," Engel says. "And that's always good when you're in a co-lo facility."

Engel says the Nexus/ESX network has reduced Transplace's data center footprint by 40%. He did not disclose the cost savings, but anytime you can cut your leased square footage by almost half, it is significant.