Atos Chooses StorPool Storage

Atos SE, with 110,000 employees and annual revenue of €12 billion, holds first place in cloud, HPC and cybersecurity providing tailored end-to-end solutions for all industries in 73 countries.

In 2013, it launched the “Virtual Oracle Computing (VOC) Hotel” cloud service for customers with Oracle or non-Oracle applications that seek flexibility and a low TCO. Originally, this cloud service was built by utilizing traditional Enterprise IT approaches and was named Atos VOC Hotel 1.0.

In 2020, to beat hyperscalers, grow Atos Virtual Oracle Computing (VOC) Hotel revenues and maximize profits from the service, Atos’ team needed to upgrade their platform. So, the VOC Hotel 2.0 project was launched. The aim was to continue providing top-quality services while decreasing operating overheads. Atos needed a storage solution with reliability and pay-per-use billing aligned with the pricing model provided to VOC Hotel customers. Ideally, the solution would run on cost-effective standard servers and network equipment – with storage and network functions delivered by software.

After research, Atos selected the StorPool Storage platform for the reliability and speed they observed from a StorPool system deployed on standard Dell servers fully stacked with NVMe SSDs. StorPool solved the hardware lifecycle management issues which Atos was battling with for years. The storage system delivered an always-online environment, which doesn’t require service downtimes and survives various hardware failures – delivering an always-on 24×7 hosting platform, which customers expect. The final point that sealed the deal was that StorPool bills Atos on a pay-per-use (Opex) basis for the storage used by end customers, so Atos can continue to deliver services while offering even more flexible pricing to their customers.

To build the new storage platform for VOC Hotel, Atos replaced the legacy storage appliances in 2 data centers with tens of standard Dell servers. StorPool Storage converted these servers into primary storage systems that serve as the Atos VOC Hotel 2.0 advanced storage layer.

With the new StorPool-powered platform, Atos replaces hardware components – be it refreshing servers or swapping failed SSDs; and performs software and firmware upgrades in-flight – without impacting the service availability and uptime of customer applications. Atos outsourced the entire storage layer management to StorPool, and the Atos team simply creates and manages storage volumes.

As a result, the customer reported a notable decrease in costs per terabyte for storage licenses and maintenance, leading to an overall TCO reduction. Its team also measured a performance increase of their private cloud platform, which performance gain was well-received by their customers.

“The StorPool product is perfect from cost, flexibility (grow-as-you-go), and performance point of view. Second – and for us equally important – is the way the StorPool team helps us to build the most advanced hosting platform and their fast and committed support in case of an issue“, said Hink Wiersema, product manager and architect, Atos.

Using StorPool’s SDS platform, allowed Atos to build a public cloud service with flexibility, reliability and speed. Atos streamlined hardware lifecycle and cost management, improved its operations and eliminated the need for customer-visible maintenance windows and service downtimes.

StorPool Storage is an agile storage platform designed for large-scale cloud infrastructure, which helps companies gain the competitive edge they need to excel in their markets. It converts sets of standard servers into primary or secondary storage systems. Its team has experience working with various clients – MSPs, hosting services providers, cloud service providers, enterprises, and SaaS vendors. The product comes as software, plus a fully-managed storage service that transforms standard hardware into a fast, highly available, and scalable storage platform.

Case study