Press Releases
Lafarge Cement UK Consolidates Storage Infrastructure With BlueArc SiliconServers
Major building materials company tackles storage problems with BlueArc's Si8700 SiliconServer NAS solution
London, Olympia, UK, STORAGE EXPO, October 17th 2003
BlueArc Corporation, a leader in high performance, highly scalable network attached storage (NAS), today announced that Lafarge Cement UK, formerly Blue Circle Cement and part of the Lafarge Group, worldwide leader in building materials, is consolidating its storage operation using BlueArc's wire-speed network attached storage solution - the Si8700 SiliconServer.
With 1,500 users, Lafarge Cement UK (LCUK), whose headquarters are in Oxfordshire, has a centralised IT architecture with facilities delivered via Citrix and required a cost effective, centralised storage system to host and solve backup/restore problems with its mission critical corporate data and home directories. They selected the BlueArc Si8700 for its ability to deliver enhanced performance, scalability, improved backup and fast data restore at a much lower total cost of ownership and with simpler storage management.
"The BlueArc SiliconServer is a strategic purchase for LCUK because of its ability to meet our immediate technology requirements and its proven ability to deliver long-term return on investment," said John Drabble, head of IT at Lafarge.
"We've seen an immediate benefit in BlueArc's capacity to consolidate and centralise our corporate data within one resilient storage solution. As a result, we can look forward to reaping benefits including advanced disaster recovery, exceptional performance and lower storage-related capital and administration costs." adds Steve Pollard, Lafarge's IT Technical Manager.
Prior to purchasing BlueArc's SiliconServer, LCUK was using 12 file servers to manage an ever-increasing amount of data and users (even after central consolidation), making storage management extremely difficult and unwieldy. LCUK's purchase of BlueArc's SiliconServer reduced the number of servers needed to manage the data to one, while providing the performance and capacity to scale to multiple terabytes. Each BlueArc system is based on the unique SiliconServer Architecture, which transports data through hardware rather than software, removing the network-to-disk transfer bottlenecks associated with traditional servers.
LCUK now has responsive and easily managed storage, based on an architecture that will meet the future needs of the fast-growing business, while delivering simplified management.
"Major organisations such as Lafarge Cement UK cannot afford to allocate resources simply to managing their storage. It is clear that they needed to quickly and easily share, manage, and protect its data. BlueArc has proven that its storage systems are a strategic long-term answer to the needs of global businesses with its ability to lower total cost of ownership while improving productivity and efficiency," said Geoff Barrall, founder and CTO of BlueArc.
About BlueArc Corporation
BlueArc® Corporation changes the economics of network storage by helping customers manage more information with less effort. BlueArc's SiliconServer storage systems enable organizations to maximize performance and reduce operating costs through the movement of software functions into programmable hardware. Since 1998, BlueArc has provided scalable and reliable products, services and solutions to help enterprises achieve unmatched productivity and profitability from their data. The company's headquarters are in San Jose, California with UK operations based in Bracknell, England. More information on BlueArc is available on the Internet at
www.bluearc.com.
About LaFarge Cement UK
Lafarge Cement UK, formerly Blue Circle Cement, is part of the Lafarge Group, a worldwide leader in building materials. Lafarge, which has over 80,000 employees in 75 countries, holds top ranking positions in each of its four divisions; Cement, Aggregates & Concrete, Roofing and Gypsum. Lafarge Cement UK, makers of the famous Blue Circle brand cement, is the UK's market leader in cement with a manufacturing capacity of over six million tonnes annually.
www.lafargecement.co.uk
