CloudArray® Enables Westway to Cut Storage Costs Without Compromising Data Protection
When most of the data clogging your expensive storage infrastructure is inactive, companies of all sizes are trusting cloud storage as an effective offsite strategy that can maximize storage capacity and decrease storage costs. But how do you distinguish the data needed to run the business from data that is no longer essential? And how do you reliably archive that inactive data offsite so that is secure and easily accessible and recoverable? This was the situation Westway found themselves in as data was rapidly filling up their servers - and every day becoming less essential to the immediate needs of the business. Much of the data that was piling up represented up to five years of no activity or access – yet no one wanted to part with it. Westway understood that in a cost conscious IT environment, it was important to seek less expensive alternatives to buying more onsite disk and tape infrastructure and having to manage the lifecycle of those investments.
Recognizing that cloud storage presented the most cost effective model to pursue, Westway chose TwinStrata’s CloudArray® virtual appliance and ATT Synaptic high performance storage to meet their business needs including satisfying data retention requirements, flexible storage expansion, reducing onsite infrastructure complexity and costs, uninterrupted data control and access, and rapid recovery.
The CloudArray installation and configuration at the Westway site took fifteen minutes making access to ATT Synaptic cloud storage quick and simple. CloudArray was provisioned with two 500GB volumes that seamlessly connected to Westway’s BackupExec server (backup) and another application server (file copy) on one end and to ATT Synaptic cloud storage on the other without custom coding or APIs. Westway was able to rapidly begin archiving data to ATT Synaptic, based on age and activity, while the most recent data stayed on premise according to a combination of BackupExec and CloudArray policies.
The combined solution for secure offsite data protection has reduced Westway’s overnight backups to just a few hours providing more time for staff to perform other IT functions. Using CloudArray has also enabled Westway to keep less data onsite, reduce disk and tape hardware purchases and realize a significant ROI within a very short time.
“Using CloudArray with ATT Synaptic has been very efficient and cost effective for Westway without having to cut required data protection to cut costs. The combined solution provides a scalable and efficient way for Westway to craft an immediately accessible storage tier model without the upfront infrastructure investment.” Stephanie Jurenka, IT Manager, Westway Group |
About Westway Group, Inc.
Westway Group is a leading global provider of bulk liquid storage and liquid animal feed supplements through its subsidiaries Westway Terminal Company LLC and Westway Feed Products LLC.