STORAGE

Storwize delivers up to 80 percent improvement in storage capacity utilization; allowing Internet Service Provider, iBurst, to defer immediate storage purchases

Storwize has announced that iBurst (Pty) has been using Storwize appliances to significantly increase its storage capacity efficiency by up to 80 percent for its disaster recovery environment. Storwize has enabled iBurst to significantly reduce its storage costs by deferring additional storage purchases.

In 2008, iBurst consolidated its storage infrastructure onto NetApp network attached storage systems, combined with a pair of Storwize real-time data compression appliances to dramatically reduce its overall storage costs. iBurst’s ultimate goal was to reduce the amount of money it spent on physical hard drives to store the large amounts of backup data being created from its UNIX system logs. iBurst also used this optimized storage platform for mail stores for both end consumers and commercial customers, as well as to introduce new services such as online gaming (iGame) and backend services to its partners. Storwize’s real-time data compression supports iBurst’s multiple application environments, such as iBurst’s CDR recording, event logging, and email applications without any modifications to the applications themselves, enabling iBurst to quickly offer its customers new services.

Storwize is the only company that offers real-time, random access data compression of primary storage. Through the implementation of its Random Access Compression Engine (RACE) technology, Storwize appliances can reduce storage utilization by up to 80 percent and dramatically reduce the overall cost of storage.

Through its research into storage compression technologies, iBurst found that no other vendor could compress its large volumes of data as well as Storwize could. Storwize appliances enabled iBurst to gain up to an 80 percent improvement in its disaster recovery storage efficiency and to save significant costs in additional storage purchases for that environment, a savings that can be passed onto its customers. iBurst also found its IT infrastructure was running more efficiently and enabling more productivity and responsiveness from its employees in supporting customers, a benefit that is invaluable to iBurst.

The efficiency of iBurst’s optimized storage infrastructure resulted in a growing customer base and new requirements for resiliency against site failures. This prompted iBurst to upgrade its production and disaster recovery environment to NetApp’s FAS3170 MetroCluster and the latest generation of Storwize appliances to support that high availability environment. The Storwize appliances allow iBurst to replicate its mission critical data more easily and cost-effectively. This upgrade enables iBurst to deliver a new level of scalability and reliability in delivering services to its growing base of customers.

iBurst plans to deploy the Storwize appliances within its Oracle database and VMware environments. iBurst estimates that Storwize’s high performance real-time data compression appliances will reduce its Oracle database response time by as much as 80 percent. iBurst has also implemented a virtualized VMware server environment and expects to see as much as a 75 percent improvement in access time with the new NetApp and Storwize storage infrastructure. iBurst also credits Storwize for having a “plug and play” appliance, that is fast and easy to deploy and manage, and praised the Storwize support staff for their responsiveness and expertise.

“Storwize is enabling us to be more responsive to our customers and provide them with faster, more reliable service at a lower cost,” said Ian Rimmer, senior core IT engineer, iBurst. “Storwize is reducing our storage costs and making us more efficient and productive, which dramatically increases our overall ROI. Also, the Storwize solution is rock-solid; you can install it and forget about it.”