Fabricating An Agile, Efficient IT Infrastructure

No company is immune to change, but in the apparel industry, perpetual motion is a key component of the business model. That’s why agility is absolutely crucial for clothing companies, in both their business plans and their IT infrastructures. “One of our most important goals as an IT team is to keep our technology environment agile and easily scalable,” says Brad Coleman, infrastructure director for Haggar Clothing Co.

Virtualizing servers and desktops

Since its founding in Dallas nearly a century ago, Haggar has grown into one of the most recognized brands in men’s apparel. As the industry has evolved, so has the business. “We began as a clothing manufacturer,” Coleman says. “Now we operate 55 retail stores across the United States and outsource production of most Haggar- branded products.”

Several years ago, Coleman and his colleagues realized their technology infrastructure needed to evolve as well. The company’s 19 IT staff members handle all help desk, infrastructure management and application development tasks that support more than 800 employees. To streamline server management, Haggar launched a VMware-based virtual platform and began migrating servers into the environment. An IBM storage area network (SAN) provided data storage. “Today, around 60 percent of our servers are virtualized, but we’re not finished,” Coleman says. “We want to eventually achieve 100 percent server virtualization.”

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