The University of Stirling is an international higher education institution that addresses the needs of society through innovative and interdisciplinary research, learning and teaching. The University required an innovative solution that would allow for it to securely store sensitive data within an agile, high-performance storage system without compromising on its cloud migration strategy.
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INDUSTRY: Education Sector
VERTICAL: Higher Education
OBJECTIVE: The University of Stirling required an agile and scalable on-prem storage solution that aligned with its digital transformation strategy and virtual migration objectives.
APPROACH: The University integrated the private cloud capabilities of HPE GreenLake alongside HPE Nimble Storage Arrays to align its on-premises storage architecture with its cloud-first strategy.
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IT MATTERS:
Improved virtual machine performance running on the HPE Nimble Storage Arrays. Significantly increased storage speed and capability, allowing for the removal of end-of-life systems for comprehensive agility. Resilient storage and I/O capacity allowing for complete system restoration in the event of a power failure or outage. Read/write times are faster and overall performance smoother with a modernised storage array.BUSINESS MATTERS:
Reduced reliance on asset sweating within an HPE ecosystem that reduces capital expenditure and improves system reliability. On-premises storage re-engineered to align with the University’s cloud-first strategy and its long-term objective to migrate to Microsoft Azure. A cost-effective transformation of on-prem storage designed to store and manage data within legal and compliance limitations
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The University of Stirling wanted to seamlessly transition its existing systems into Microsoft Azure as its serverless architecture removed any reliance on operating systems and patching, simplifying overall migration and long-term system agility. Having an on-premises storage architecture capable of handling sensitive data, improving read/write times and enhancing overall performance allowed the University to move through its migration slowly, re-engineering its systems meticulously and over a period that would reduce errors and give it time to address any problems.
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“We required a solution that would not just support our digital transformation goals, but that would ensure our compliance within legal and data restrictions,” according to Jim. “There are certain application and database servers we need to keep on premises. This includes suburban domain controllers and research data that need to remain on premises for legal reasons. We also have to ensure that personal identifiable information remains on site, as well as data that we have accrued through relationships with other companies—we cannot use cloud storage for certain types of data. Plus, if our faculties are busy with research projects, this cannot be kept in the cloud, so we had to provision for them on premises.”
Why DTP?
With a long-standing relationship and extensive expertise across cloud, migrations, storage and architecture, DTP was the perfect partner for this step in the University’s journey. DTP had worked with the University of Stirling for nearly ten years, providing solutions that met the high and exacting standards of the institution. “DTP are local to our business, have been reliable throughout our relationship and always give us good service,” says Jim.
CREATING AN AGILE STORAGE ARCHITECTURE
The University of Stirling was an existing HPE customer with ProLiant servers and HPE 3Par arrays, so it made sense for the institution to move into a more comprehensive HPE ecosystem with HPE GreenLake and HPE Nimble Storage Arrays. The University is now purchasing storage and hybrid HPE GreenLake services on a software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform at a monthly fee through DTP over the next three years, with the long-term objective of migrating across to Microsoft Azure.
“We have a rolling programme of capital expenditure where we purchase storage and it becomes obsolete four to five years down the line. Then we have to undergo another round of capital expenditure to get it replaced again,” says Jim. “We produced a comparison of the proposed HPE GreenLake infrastructure with the capital cost of equivalent hardware and both the reduced price point and the benefits of having HPE GreenLake storage as a service swayed the decision in its favour. We felt that the solution proposed by DTP was ideal as it aligned with our cloud-first priorities, and it resolved our capital expenditure problem.”
For the University, the move solved a myriad of problems. As hardware is maintained by HPE, there is no risk of falling behind the innovation curve, and capital expenditure is effectively removed. By renting the storage on an annually renewed basis, capital expenditure is replaced by efficiency and scalability, and costs remain in line with expectations, thanks to the relationship with DTP.
STORAGE PERFORMANCE, REDEFINED
“We have noticed significantly improved performance,” says Jim. “The virtual machines running on the HPE Nimble arrays are performing exceptionally well due to the improved I/O performance, and we have been able to get rid of our end-of-life storage, while staying with a brand we know and trust.”
The solution has re-imagined storage for the University. If there was a power outage when the University was running its virtual machines on the old storage architecture, the IT team had to boot up machines in batches as the I/O wasn’t capable of booting up many machines at once. This problem has been eliminated with the Nimble architecture.
“There has been quite a difference between what we have today and the architecture we were used to,” concludes Jim. “Performance has been
transformed, capital expenditure has significantly improved, and we have a system that can evolve alongside our changing needs.”
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