When we searched for a hybrid storage architecture that could deliver services to a number of different departments in the university, scalability and reduced IT maintenance costs were core requirements for our new solution. The Spectra T950 tape library helped us achieve our expected benefits from this new IT strategy.
The Challenge
Offering 47 different degree programs, FHNW University has been involved in thousands of applied research and development projects with industry partners. The university fulfills a fourfold mandate from the Swiss Federation and the Swiss Conference of Cantonal Ministers of Education (EDK) to provide education and training, applied research and development, continuing education, and services to third parties.
FHNW needed to improve service delivery and reduce IT maintenance costs, having opened new campuses, new courses and new policies. To manage IT services for all different departments of the university, FHNW required a new infrastructure that could enable their vision for a long-term hybrid IT strategy. The organization was looking to implement a scalable and cloud-ready platform with a fluent pool of resources that would increase performance requirements and solve infrastructure management challenges.
The Solution
To set the foundation for their long-term IT and cloud strategies, FHNW implemented a joint solution by HPE and Spectra Logic. The new multi-tier infrastructure includes two HPE 3PAR StoreServ all-flash arrays for tier 1 data storage, HPE’s StoreOnce flash speed data protection platform for cloud enabled backups, archive, disaster recovery and applications, and a Spectra® T950 Tape Library for scalable secondary storage.
The Spectra T950 tape library helps FHNW create a more efficient storage environment by automating the offload of cold data from their primary storage tier to Spectra’s tape storage solution. Easy to use and maintain, the T950 reduces staff involvement and scales easily in capacity and throughput, meeting the performance and functionality requirements that FHNW University sought after in their new storage architecture.
The hybrid environment will enable FHNW to deal with the fast data growth the institution is experiencing. Spectra’s T950 tape library seamlessly integrates with HPE’s backup software application and is compatible with most channel interfaces and networking protocols, ensuring the best possible data transfer performance. The T950 supports nearly every software package written for open systems tape, running as many as 16 applications at the same time with partitioning.
Environment Snapshot
- Spectra T950 Tape Library
- LTO-7 tape drives
- Two 3PAR StoreServ 20850 with 48×7.68GB
- HPE StoreOnce System
- HPE Synergy Composer
- HPE Data Protector
- HPE OneView
- Veeam backup
