ATS Global

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    ATS work with NexStor to develop high capacity global storage solution

    Background

    Applied Tech Systems (ATS) supplies solutions for industrial & process automation and information technology users world-wide. It provides products and services for all three levels of the automation pyramid – control, execution and information. It is an innovative, strategic knowledge partner that has developed business activities specifically designed to support the full lifecycle of automation and IT systems.

    Dan Trimm, ATS‟ Solutions Architect, has been with the company for two years. He maintains and looks after the design and consultancy business. ATS Global is the shop floor‟ IT integrator for a well known global aero engine manufacturer based in Derby. It supplied a server back in 2005 to one of the company’s development divisions to support a single service. The use of this server expanded as the business requirements changed. “We originally fired off with half a terabyte of space but as the business changed it quickly outgrew the solution. They were having to archive data when they didn‟t want to” he said.

    The Challenge

    ATS were asked by their customer‟s CTO to use pre-approved suppliers, in this case EMC, for a new project to provide data storage for a minimum of five years capacity. “We decided to use NexStor as they are an EMC partner. We needed a company that could deliver the right solution to the customer” said Dan Trimm. Although the specification changed along the way a solution using two EMC CLARiiON CX4-120s and a Quantum Dxi De-Dupe VTL was chosen.

    The Solution

    “The CLARiiON‟s stopped the need for unnecessary archiving. Now there is no loss of production because the data growth has consumed all the storage space. It also keeps us in line with all the other storage around the world. Archiving was a big issue. The business produces lots of data as it is used to develop new components. They need to analyse the data while the parts are in production, this takes around twenty seven weeks from start to finish. They also need to keep the data available for three years so trend analysis can happen,” said Dan Trimm.

    He continued, “We used the Quantum DXi deduplication feature from day one. So far it has been good. First off we met with their Technical Officer to understand it. We had experienced a different de-duplication product in another office with disappointing results. This one is being monitored by the customer‟s CTO to see if it‟s a better solution. So far so good, were getting good results at the moment.”

    The new system has to be able to handle five years of forecast growth without expansion and be able to be upgraded further with minimal impact. Dan Trim stated: “Basically the solution provided big benefits to the customer. They are 10 years into a 15year lease of their facility. They are reliant on the solution being in place for the next five years.” ATS were limited by physical space for the whole project. Rack capacity in the server room for the CLARRiiON‟s was available but there was only had 10U of space available in the backup room. They needed to fit at least eight TB into this space to enable seven days of data retention.

    The Benefits

    Dan Timm concluded by describing the supply and implementation of the new system: “NexStor have been great. They work quickly and are very helpful. This was an eight or nine month project with ever changing requirements as the aero engine manufacturer clearly refined the requirements. It has been a great experience.”

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    Troy Platts

    Troy has spent over 20 years helping organisations solve their data, storage and compute conundrums. He is a regular speaker at vendor events and spends any free time he has keeping abreast of advances in data platform technologies. He also makes a mean curry.

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