Modern All Flash Storage Environment Accelerates Application Delivery for Victoria University - Data#3
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Modern All Flash Storage Environment Accelerates Application Delivery for Victoria University A Data#3 Customer Story
ABOUT VICTORIA UNIVERSITY OBJECTIVE
For over one hundred years, Victoria University has Although Victoria University’s
provided quality, accessible higher education to the old storage systems had reliably
West of Melbourne and beyond, attaining University operated for many years, it was clear
status in 1991. Ranked in the Times Educational that risk and maintenance costs had risen.
Supplements top 2% of universities worldwide, Victoria Victoria University required high performing
University is recognised by Times Higher Education1 all-flash storage, to bring new opportunities
for their dedication to quality education, justice, health, for staff and students.
and sustainability.
APPROACH
Victoria University issued a request for proposal
(RFP) outlining its requirements, and Data#3’s
FUN FACT COMMENTS
recommendation of an all-flash Pure Storage
Data#3 and Pure were extremely solution scored highly against the requirements
Gartner predicts that professional. They had the skills in regards to cost, performance and budget.
by 2021, over 75% required to take on the work
- not only commissioning but
of midsize and large decommissioning equipment – BENEFITS
organizations will have and they went out of their way
to make sure we were satisfied.
• Fast all-flash storage
adopted a multicloud The Data#3 presales team made
•
•
A cloud-ready solution
Easy, cloud-based analytics and management
sure things were going well, they
or hybrid IT strategy. were on standby if we needed • Seamless private cloud integration
extra help: they were skilled, • Faster application delivery
Gartner (2019), 5 Approaches to Cloud Application Integration. [Online] https://www.gartner. knowledgeable, and great to • Improved student and staff experience
com/smarterwithgartner/5-approaches-cloud-applications-integration/
deal with.” • Able to commence new digital projects
Manuel Bervanakis,
Infrastructure Services Manager,
Victoria University.
TECHNOLOGY
Pure Storage Flash Array
VMware Integration Support
Cloud MigrationThe Background The Challenge “We defined our requirements, then we “Previously, migrations could be a tedious,
visited other universities and saw what complex process with a higher level of risk.
For over one hundred years, From high-level research projects and they were doing in this space. Next, we With newer technologies now available,
Victoria University has provided online classes to operational capabilities, went to the market and worked out what migration is much easier – all credit to
quality, accessible higher education to the most activities in a modern university rely met our requirements. The response from Data#3 and Pure Storage, who gave us
West of Melbourne and beyond, attaining on its technology foundations. With many Pure Storage and Data#3 was favoured,” the skills needed to perform the rest of
University status in 1991. Ranked in the competing priorities, it would be easy explained Bervanakis. the migration.”
Times Educational Supplements top 2% to overlook the importance of storage.
of universities worldwide, Victoria University However, this would be a huge mistake, “We pushed forward with them because Accelerating application delivery was a
is recognised by Times Higher Education1 said Infrastructure Services Manager their tender response met our needs the priority for Victoria University and that aim
for their dedication to quality education, Manuel Bervanakis. most, and they were within our price point.” was achieved by allowing the applications
justice, health, and sustainability. to be provisioned in a shorter amount of
“Our storage had served us well for over a IT Outcome time. The solution resulted in a number of
Victoria University is a public research decade, but it was aging, we had capacity other deliverables, including operational
facility that provides students with a issues, so we took the opportunity to review costs and space, which were also
Data#3’s recommendation to replace
pathway from vocational education such it, and to look at new capabilities going highlights for Bervanakis.
all four existing Hitachi Storage Arrays
as TAFE courses and diplomas, through forward. We needed something easier to
with two Pure Storage All-Flash Arrays
to higher education degrees. Offering manage and maintain,” said Bervanakis. “We decided to take the flash storage path
was adopted. One array was located at
the unique VU Block Model method of so that we could take advantage of not
the University’s main data centre in the
study2, the university enables over 43,000 “Managing it internally wasn’t easy – you only the performance gains, but also the
Sunshine campus, Victoria, with the other
students to focus on one unit at a time over almost needed to be a rocket scientist.” cost savings. We can buy any amount of
at a data centre in the Footscray Park
a four-week period, resulting in students storage, but compression and deduplication
campus. Pure Storage is a recognised
performing better than ever with an The capacity issues had increasingly led with the new arrays means we get a three
Gartner Magic Quadrant leader in the
impressive pass rate of 86.5%. to a juggling act for the University’s IT or four to one compression ratio, so it has
all flash array market, and are known
department, and in addition to becoming given us all those improvements,” outlined
for their reliability and agility. The Pure
In an increasingly competitive market, increasingly time-consuming, the limitations Bervanakis.
Storage arrays also offered the ease
the University strives to equip students of the existing system represented a
of management and fast scalability the
to flourish in a fast-changing world. Its potential roadblock for new projects “This means we are also reducing our
University sought, at the right price point.
outstanding, modern education delivery involving demanding applications. The footprint and consolidating our gear – our
depends increasingly on cutting-edge digital impacts to digital transformation initiatives new storage is in a portion of a rack, not
“Everyone thinks storage is a given, but
programs, so ensuring strong technology were going to become highly problematic using 3.5 racks. We are saving a lot of
we must make sure it is reliable: Pure
foundations and a sustainable approach if the existing storage environment was not power, and there is less heat generated,
offers 99.9999 percent reliability, and with
to technology is a must1. The University’s addressed. Application performance had so the cost to cool is also lower.”
Data#3’s help we made sure we had a
digital storage system is at the heart of this been impacted, and users were beginning
platform we could have faith in. We know
core environment. to notice. With legacy systems straining the
we can trust it,” commented Bervanakis.
budget, Bervanakis identified maintenance
costs as another consideration. It was
As a student of Victoria University
agreed that the time was right for
and IT employee for over two decades,
an upgrade.
Bervanakis has a unique perspective on
its inner workings. Recalling previous
generations of storage technology,
he knew how disruptive past storage
updates had been.
Victoria University Case Study — Data#3 Customer StoryBusiness Outcome “We had good, positive comments from “Increased use of our online education “Firstly, we’re in a scenario where we can
a number of staff about the performance capabilities had been planned to take save costs, because our old arrays cost
Working within the University’s gains,” stated Bervanakis. place, but we accelerated changes due more run and maintain – the maintenance
timetable meant that the solution had to COVID-19. Work from home capability on those was quite high, and we make
to be installed, tested, and a subset of Aside from the acceleration of existing was not fully used in the past, and uptake savings on annual maintenance costs by
user case migrations performed, within applications, this important building wasn’t always the greatest. We are having new arrays in place. With a four-
a four-week window. Data#3’s project block in Victoria University’s digital delivering services and education at home year maintenance deal built into the new
management methodology enabled the transformation has paved the way for now, and we are able to deliver all content equipment, we make upfront savings.
skilled team from Pure, Data#3 and the numerous other projects. Not only is the
– this is a big thing for us, all classes are
University to work seamlessly together right technology now in place to facilitate
running, and students are still working,” Secondly, we are removing the risks
and get the job done. An important the services and applications that keep the
described Bervanakis, who believes that of older equipment, which was coming
element was the skills transfer that University among the world’s educational
the way the University community works close to end of life, so we are glad to see
enabled the University’s IT team to leaders; the IT team has also been freed
confidently manage the new from the time-consuming processes of will be changed permanently for the better. it gone - the new equipment is so much
storage environment. managing legacy storage systems. more user friendly, with more capability
Working with a trusted partner was that has made us run more efficiently. It
“Data 3, along with Pure, helped
#
“It is so much easier already to maintain necessary to get the best from the storage has made life easier moving forward,”
with getting the new arrays configured, this now. Simple things like reporting are project. Bervanakis cited the expertise and explained Bervanakis.
and with some knowledge transfer, we better, we have a nice graphical user processes of the Data#3 and Pure Storage
picked up new skills to use it. They also interface dashboard that we can see from team and the knowledge of the University’s “Thirdly, the typical benefits will see power
decommissioned the previous technology anywhere. It wasn’t easy to look before in-house IT professionals as critical savings and cooling savings as new bills
and showed us the best way to do this in at our storage situation, but now we can elements of their success. come through.”
the future. Data#3 went out of their way see our investment, we can see it is giving
to disconnect the old arrays and put in a us in one case, a six to one compression “Data#3 and Pure were extremely
favourable trade-in offer for the old arrays,” ratio,” said Bervanakis. professional. They had the skills required to
1
https://www.vu.edu.au/about-vu university-profile/our-
said Bervanakis. focus-on-un-sustainability-goals
take on the work - not only commissioning
“Most of it happened without people
Conclusion but decommissioning equipment – and they 2
https://www.vu.edu.au/study-at-vu/why-choose-vu/vu-
went out of their way to make sure we were block-model
noticing – Data#3 showed us how to satisfied. The Data#3 presales team made
Victoria University’s storage upgrade was
use VMware to get data moved from one
one part of an ongoing process of digital sure things were going well, they were on
array to the other without any outages or
transformation, where technology is used standby if we needed extra help: they were
impact to staff or students. However, some
to support its status as a top tier tertiary skilled, knowledgeable, and great to deal
legacy arrays running certain configurations
required brief, planned outages. We tackled educator. When the world was struck by with,” said Bervanakis.
this through a change process agreed with the COVID-19 pandemic, the agility that
the business.” the University’s IT team had introduced The highlights of the storage upgrade
N 1300 23 28 23
meant that staff and students could be were clear for Bervanakis, who said that
What users did notice, though, was that key quickly supported to adopt new ways he finds himself in the unusual situation of F facebook.com/data3limited
applications ran faster, without the frustrating of working. looking forward to seeing the next power T twitter.com/data3limited
delays they had experienced before. bill arrive.
L linkedin.com/company/data3
Y youtube.com/user/data3limited
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