Reliable data storage and security

Since 2010 we have been working together with the company Our Space, when we completed a project, in which we migrated our IT cloud data onto our own infrastructure. More than 3 years ago we were faced with a challenge of fast data processing of larger quantities in our intern data storage, which is the main pillar for all of our analytical supporting processes and managing business risks with electrical energy. In those days, the processes, even though we had a vast number of traditional hard disks, they worked too long for optimal work efficiency.

The high performing SSD disk technology was something we believed in for years, when we first migrated our data bases on SSD disk environments. Till today we established an environment, which guarantees us continuous fast responsiveness, even though the data multiplies itself each month. The users are not interested in technology, what is important to them is to have all of their data (reports, analyzes, enquiries) available fast on demand, because we ensure and keep our company’s competitiveness and advantage on the market that way. The fear we had at the beginning, of the SSD cells wearing themselves down, was totally unjustified, because the NetApp system is used in all of technology, which allows longer life span of each of the cells, and with it safe and reliable data storage.   

Patrik Mahne, GEN-I, d.o.o.

In multinational companies, which BSH is also a part of, the implementation of IT solutions is bound by intern equipment certification. It has to meet all of the standards and with its pallet of solutions has to support different business demands, depending on singular countries or units. In the area of data storage in the company in Nazarje, the first NetApp disk systems were installed 2008.

In Nazarje they produce household appliances, which work in 4 shifts. To enable uninterrupted business, we integrated the NetApp® MetroCluster™ solution. All data is synchronically replicated on 2 locations. In the event of one location malfunctioning, there is an automatic switch linked to the working station. The IT supported processes of such an event enables the company uninterrupted business without them even knowing something like this happened.

Just recently they had an incident with a malicious code named CryptoLocker, which made its way through their firewall. When it was activated, it very quickly deciphered over 55.000 files on the joined NetApp disk system area. The synchronal replication enabled the deciphered files to be written on both locations, that is why we used NetApp SnapRestore® technology to restore the missing files. Every 2 hours the company executes backup processes to the NetApp Snapshot® data system, therefore the loss was quickly isolated to the affected user.

Thus the NetApp disk system technology once more proved itself to be indispensable when used in the group BSH, in which they already use over 150 disk controllers.  

Martin Gornjec, CIO, B/S/H gospodinjski aparati

“In our company we have a storage system infrastructure following the “multivendor” principle. Because of this, we implemented the NetApp storage system for all of our product business endowments and Fujitsu storage systems for backup storage. The solutions, which are based on D2D technology, use the Fujitsu DX product array. The applications, which used technology based on tape cassette storages were simplified with the Fujitsu CD product array, which is based on Virtual Tape Library technology.

Although we used the multivendor approach, we still insisted to partner up with one company on the same field, and this company was Our Space Appliances, which offers us implementations and storage system maintenance for over 10 years. The reason is simply because their team has a vast amount of experience and a professional consolatory approach.”   

Boštjan Berglez, system administrator, Kolektor d.o.o.

Because Adriatic Slovenica allowed their clients access to their portal, which again allows them to view all of their concluded insurances, they had to divert a lot of attention to fast data processing, high availability, and foremost ask themselves, if their data was safe. One of the weaker links in this chain could also have been the disk fields; that is why in 2016 they decided for an elementary renovation of their central storage system. Every element of their infrastructure had to work flawlessly, so they wanted to buy a storage system, which will have the capacity to maintain disk level replication, using NAS as well as SAN protocols and enable a scale-up and scale-out expansion for further progressing capacities.

When deciding on a storage system, they took a big interest in evaluating all of their options, as well as each price, and possible functions, which each storage systems provides. They decided for NetApp, because of the following reasons:

•       SSD disk groups for the most performance-complicated applications

•       SATA disk groups with SSD accelerated read/write operations

•       Thin provisioning/FlexVol

•       Block-level data Deduplications

•       In-line / off-line data compression

•       Hardware virtualization (SVM)

•       Direct antivirus protection of the storage system

•       Asynchronal replication on NetApp FAS2554 systems in Ljubljana

•       Responsiveness, assured with the help of QoS

•       Intern knowledge for system administration

“We are very happy with our decision choosing them. Today, our storage system serves us good and we barely notice it, what was also our main goal, because we wanted the storage systems to work on its own, without much attention of our system administrators. The Our Space group efficiently watches over our storage operations and proactively informs us of new possible upgrades or existing flaws. If I was to make a new decision on whether to buy the storage system or not today, I wouldn’t change a thing.”  

Edi Šimec, CIO, Adriatic Slovenica d.d.

We as a company swear on tradition and long-term partnerships. In the time, when we celebrated our 70 years in business, we were also concluding our IT datacenter renovation as well. In the Our Space team we saw a potential partner, whit whom we wanted to continue to work together on another infrastructural IT equipment project. They convinced us in their technical workshops, where we got to know the technology of all the work fields. Because our equipment was so old, we had to establish a new network from zero. We unified the solutions for data protection, whit which we enabled higher reliability of our data. We took SSD disk capacities and with these, the response time of even the existing application was greater than expected and therefore prolonged the life span of the mentioned equipment by far.

As a company with a rich tradition and a steady new line of products, which are worn by famous sportsmen and women like Petter Northug, Charlotte Kalla, Marcus Hellner, Gabriela Koukalova, and many more, we marched into the new digital ear with confidence and a high trust in our IT support infrastructure.