Oxford Magnet Technology needed a scalable, manageable solution for their storage - business growth was driving storage growth. The Oxford Magnet Technology Ltd IT team wanted to avoid imposing quotas on user home directories and Exchange mailboxes. Dependable storage was also needed for LiveLink, an intranet based corporate knowledge base. After significant problems expanding their server cluster, combined with backup and replication performance problems, the Oxford Magnet Technology IT team recognized that they needed a server and storage solution that would both scale and perform well. Enhanced backup rates and good data management were also key.
Optimum performance was crucial. Oxford Magnet Technology wanted to avoid re-investing in more servers to cope with capacity increases in the future, they had sufficient experience with load balancing users and data, between existing servers, to know that a multiple server strategy was not the way forward.
The Oxford team evaluated BlueArc's Si7500 storage system as a solution to their storage needs.
"For us, using and testing the BlueArc system in our network made our decision easy. The BlueArc system did what it said on the box." said Chris Farmer, NT Systems Engineer for Oxford Magnet Technology.
Today's Network Layout at Oxford Magnet Technology With BlueArc's SiliconServer
The BlueArc storage system solved Oxford Magnet Technology's data storage problems and reduced the number of servers in the network. Administration effort was considerably reduced, allowing IT services staff to focus more effort supporting users and business needs. The performance of the BlueArc system and the ability to easily expand storage to multiple terabytes without needing an additional server head were important benefits.
Chris Farmer added: "The Si7500 Storage system solves our backend storage problems. If we need more space, we just add disks. We see the BlueArc system as a long term strategic storage resource for the future"
Chris Farmer and the IT team were spending a lot of time juggling space between servers as well as imposing strict quotas on network users mail and home directory space - managing data growth was becoming a serious business issue. Chris and his team took a hard look at their distributed storage architecture illustrated below, as it was before BlueArc's Si7500 Storage System was installed.
Oxford Magnet Technology's Network Prior to Installing BlueArc's SiliconServer
The team focus was on the storage backend, particularly on how storage could be managed better, how a new intranet accessed document repository could be added to the network and how email storage growth could be more easily accommodated. Before BlueArc, the Oxford Magnet Technology architecture could not be quickly scaled; adding more storage was a resource intensive, and disruptive process. It required a full backup, de-commissioning of the server, adding storage, reconfiguration of the server and a data restore process. Adding storage to the main clustered file servers was a particularly lengthy process. Further, difficulties did not end with the storage itself, replication and backup were taking too long and were threatening to become a problem in the near future.
All of these issues prompted Chris and his team to look for a long-term solution to the backend problem. Chris was aware that storage needed to be centralised and shared for access throughout the company.
"The BlueArc system performs well, it meets our needs for a long term storage solution" said Chris Farmer. The throughput performance of the BlueArc system was nearly 7 times higher than the best of Oxford Magnet Technology's existing Windows servers and single client CAD file retrieves were 50% faster than their existing NAS box. These tests showed beneficial gains both on aggregate multi-user performance and individual user access rates.
The BlueArc network storage was also easily configured to store existing and planned application data types. BlueArc's advanced NDMP significantly improved backup performance and the faster access times improved the replication rates from 3MBps to 13MBps.
Oxford Magnet Technology found BlueArc's Global Services team to be responsive and cooperative throughout the install and as the system was fully commissioned into service. The breadth of support was a new and encouraging experience for the Oxford Magnet Technology team, building confidence that their dual head storage system would not only be reliable, but was also backed up by a knowledgeable team. "The level of support from BlueArc has been brilliant" said Chris Farmer, "BlueArc provides responsive, all-round support."