How CDW Helps Alectra Utilities Power Ontario Homes and Businesses

CDW Canada began working with PowerStream Inc in 2013, one of the five utility providers that merged to form Alectra Utilities. In the beginning, CDW fulfilled client computing technology orders such as laptops, desktops and servers. But in the following years, CDW would become a preferred professional services provider for a range of IT modernization needs.

As their infrastructure footprint expanded, Schiraldi’s team was looking for a hyperconverged solution that could help them keep IT costs and complexity in check.   

CDW proposed a solution that could help the utility achieve its architecture goals without increasing licensing costs. This solution became an ideal fit for the project, and CDW's expertise as an infrastructure services provider shone through.

“It was a game-changer for us,” said Schiraldi. “This solution was instrumental in modernizing our virtual environments and helped us with licensing costs as we planned to transition to our new architecture.”

“CDW is our provider for hardware and services and we have continued to grow our relationship,” she added.

Soon after rearchitecting their infrastructure, Alectra Utilities wanted a centralized solution for managing the Wi-Fi access points across their Ontario offices and buildings.

CDW, having delivered on previous networking projects, was invited for this requirement. A strong track record and deep expertise enabled us to win the RFP for designing, installing and sourcing the Wi-Fi technology needed for the project.

Since 2018, CDW has been helping Alectra Utilities successfully manage its Wi-Fi deployments and serves as the preferred vendor for all kinds of networking needs. In 2022, the Wi-Fi for Alectra’s new site, which came up after the consolidation of their Mississauga and Brampton offices, was also delivered by CDW.

CDW also helped Alectra Utilities modernize how they store their backups from a legacy system to a cloud-based solution.

“In the past, we relied on on-premises backup solutions such as tape storage, which required physical transportation of the tapes to offsite locations,” said Schiraldi.

CDW closely worked with Alectra’s infrastructure team to build a personalized assessment for their backup needs, scope and budget. The assessment went a long way in helping Alectra build robust data protection for their data assets and drove significant compute infrastructure savings.

This led to Alectra Utilities trusting CDW to fulfill the entire product licensing, support and solution design. In 2024, CDW delivered a major equipment refresh for the company as a trusted professional services vendor.

When Alectra Utilities was formed by the merger of the municipally owned utilities Enersource (serving Mississauga), Horizon Utilities (serving Hamilton and St. Catharines) and PowerStream, and subsequent purchase of Hydro One Brampton and merger with Guelph Hydro in the years to follow, they had 11 different sites spread across Ontario with multiple data centres, which presented several management challenges. The IT team had to monitor each site's upkeep, which was costly and labour-intensive.

To reduce the ongoing struggle, Alectra Utilities planned to bring the expansive architecture of 11 data centres down to two. The scale of this requirement was massive as it involved the decommissioning of 450+ VMs/physical servers and migration of 50+ servers alongside a complete networking overhaul. But they realized that it would help them solve several problems at once.

As the conversation went forward, CDW’s infrastructure experts helped Alectra’s IT team assess how much they could save by consolidating 11 data centres.

“CDW helped us identify the savings in both managing and maintaining the system, as well as the savings on infrastructure and licensing costs,” Schiraldi noted.

CDW Canada was entrusted with building the assessment, planning and roadmap for the entire project, which helped Alectra Utilities successfully consolidate their data centres. Alectra Utilities is now able to manage the distributed multisite architecture with greater ease, efficiency and simplicity.

“At Alectra, our goal is to deliver reliable electricity while driving innovation and sustainability for our customers,” said Schiraldi.

“As we are regulated by the Ontario Energy Board, we have an obligation to be cost-efficient. Everything we do, we need to ensure we're making the best decision for customers and our shareholders,” she added.

Today, Alectra Utilities is able to manage a growing customer base with a highly capable team that boasts greater efficiency. This enables faster responses to utility issues, a digital-ready customer experience and the agility to adapt to an ever-evolving market.

With the data centre consolidation, they can manage their entire infrastructure without increasing headcount and with reduced operational costs. A cloud-based backup process helps them stay resilient to cybersecurity threats. The hyperconverged infrastructure further simplifies how they virtualize and integrate new services to their fleet. Alectra Utilities has reduced their server footprint, modernized their architecture and simplified day-to-day operations.

CDW's deep-rooted vendor relationships and expertise continue to help Alectra find solutions that meet their IT goals and contribute to cost savings. As a trusted vendor, CDW was able to provide the technology solutions that help Alectra Utilities stay modern and agile.