Muneris in Noumea Advises AC&NC JetStor AFAs With DataCore

Challenge
A large New Caledonian government agency needed to modernize its storage infrastructure. For years, it had been storing over 300TB of data SANs at two production sites. Its legacy storage solutions, however, were aging and relied on traditional spinning disks.

The agency wanted to increase the performance and capacity of its storage infrastructure. Doing so would future-proof its storage to keep pace with new applications and growing volumes of data that needed to be saved. It decided that all-flash arrays would meet its needs, but only if the solutions were cost-effective.

The agency also was concerned about future support for its IBM Tivoli Storage Manager it deployed for data backup and recovery. As a result, it sought a new solution to protect its data.

The agency issued a public tender for its needs and companies like IBM, Nimble Storage, and Dell responded. The customer already used an AC&NC JetStor 1600S NAS platform, so Muneris thought it could make a superior offer by partnering with AC&NC (Advanced Computer & Network Corporation) .

“AC&NC proved once again that value and performance are universal winners, even on islands in the Pacific Ocean,” said Florian Falconnet, co-manager, Muneris IT Consulting.

Solution: AFAs from AC&NC 

System Configuration

• Two JetStor XF2026D AFAs, each with 19 3.8TB SAS solid-state drives
• One JetStor NAS 1600S Unified Storage System
• DataCore SANsymphony-V software

Benefits Realized
Thanks to the partnership between AC&NC and Muneris, New Caledonia’s government agency met all of its needs. The agency maintains 2 separate but similar data centers and deploys a JetStor XF2026D AFA platform at each. The solutions deliver performance to support databases, web servers, file servers, and other applications required for efficient governance well into the future.

“In addition to the sizzling performance of the JetStor XF2026D arrays, the systems were also the most affordable of all the bids,” said Falconnet. “They’re the foundation of the agency’s private cloud and complement its JetStor NAS 1600s Unified Storage System that’s used for video editing at its communication/marketing department.”

The JetStor XF2026 systems were each provisioned with 19 3.8TB SAS SSDs, allowing the agency to scale its 26 slot, 2U devices for greater capacity. With expansion units, the JetStor devices can each support up to 286 drives for petabyte scalability.

The JetStor XF2026D platforms also lower the agency’s operating costs. By using SSDs, the systems consume less power than the agency’s legacy devices, which relied on spinning disks.

Muneris and AC&NC also packaged the DataCore SANsymphony-V storage virtualization solution to replace the agency’s aging IBM Tivoli Storage Manager. The agency has robust, software-defined control of its storage architectures to improve application performance and enhance data availability and protection to ensure BC.

“The agency wanted a storage solution that was both low cost and robust, and we made the impossible possible with JetStor XF2026 arrays and DataCore SANsymphony-V,” added Falconnet. “AC&NC may be some 8,500 miles away from us, but it provided leading solutions and unbeatable service.”

How we did it
Muneris installed the JetStor XF2026 systems, which was straightforward and trouble-free. Each device feature dual-active controllers and a high-availability design without a single point of failure, ensuring highly reliable performance. Both are configured for RAID-5 for greater data protection.

The JetStor platforms each comprise a SAN that links to Microsoft ESXi hosts and FC switches. These connect to servers running the SANsymphony-V software. The servers connect to each other via dual fiber optic links for synchronous replication of data between the two production facilities. Both data centers are active, which means no failover is needed if one facility goes offline.

“The JetStor XF2026 arrays feature a web-based management system that alerts us if there are ever any issues,” said Falconnet. “Despite their sophistication, they’re easy to operate.” 

Conclusion
“Thanks to AC&NC, we offer very competitive solutions that can beat those of major vendors,” concluded Falconnet. “We’re offering storage performance and reliability at the most affordable costs, along with software-defined products like DataCore, which make JetStor solutions ideal for both governments and private industry.”