Storage Innovator Awards

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Storage Innovator Awards

• Paul Gillin, TechTarget
• Patrick Eitenbichler, Hewlett-Packard
• Sponsored by

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How HP Solved KinderCare Learning Centers
Storage Problem

• Leslie ODonnell
• Senior Director, Systems Engineering
• KinderCare Information Systems

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Corporate Relocation Challenge

• Technology is Outdated
• HP T500 10 way Database Server
• HP G70 Application Server
• JBOD with Software Mirroring and Striping
• Compressed Maintenance Window
• KinderCare relocated its corporate office from
  Montgomery, Alabama to Portland, Oregon. Due to
  the time change, the window during which
  maintenance could be performed was condensed
  considerably. KinderCare needed equipment and
  software that could assist with this change in
  operation.

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Challenges (Cont..)

• The network was converted from dial-up to
  continually connected frame relay.
• Intranet e-mail was established for the entire
  corporation.
• Limited Scalability
• With the addition of frame relay and intranet
  accessibility, KinderCare needed to effectively
  accommodate a larger volume of concurrent users.
• All data required 100 back-up on a nightly
  basis.
• All data required replication for development and
  testing purposes.

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Corporate Relocation Selection Process

• KinderCare considered using several different
  vendors to accomplish our goal of a successful
  and seamless move. HP was our primary vendor and
  exhibited the ability to maintain the entire
  hardware and software solution. This would
  eliminate the need for multiple vendors and
  integration problems, and thereby decrease the
  time spent by KinderCare staff to resolve issues.

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Corporate Relocation Solutions

• Update Technology
• Addition of HP N4000 database server
• Addition of HP K570 application server
• HPUX 10.X and up
• Addition of HP SureStore disk array XP256
• Reduce Maintenance Process
• HP SureStore E business copy XP software
• HP DLT library
• Easily Accommodate Increased User Volume
• Upgrade path to Superdome and XP512 to manage
  increased number of applications and users.

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End Result

• Business Copy
• Created reporting database
• Reproduced testing and development system
• Created offline backup system
• XP256
• Eliminated disk bottlenecks
• Gained significant performance improvement
• Reduced complexity of disk management
• Increased flexibility to add capacity

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Payback

• Data migrations and software upgrade times were
  significantly diminished.
• KinderCare systems administration department was
  able to manage 1,200 field locations with a staff
  of only five personnel.

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The judges
Storage Innovator Awards
Jim Booth, engagement manager, GiantLoop
Networks John Blackman, systems architect, Wells
Fargo Marc Staimer, president, Dragon Slayer
Consulting Michele Hope, site editor,
SearchStorage.com Mark Schlack, editor in chief,
Storage magazine Paul Gillin, VP, editorial,
TechTarget, Inc.
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Category Asset Utilization
Storage Innovator Awards
Rohm and Haas
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Highlights
Storage Innovator Awards

• Increased Windows NT storage utilization levels
  from 30 percent to nearly 100 percent
• Move to a SAN eliminated 75 servers caused a 20
  percent reduction in their NT environment
• Accomplished server consolidation/server
  elimination while data needs were growing
• Used diverse software and storage components
  creatively to maximize efficiency of their
  systems
• Exhibited great use of backup/recovery tools and
  both block- and file-level data transmission over
  the network

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The judges said
Storage Innovator Awards
Rohm and Haas clearly demonstrated that IT
departments can both maximize existing storage
resources AND reduce overall IT costs - all
while meeting their companys growing data
storage needs. While most companies seem
satisfied with maintaining the status quo of
their servers, this company actively sought to
reduce its volume of servers in use. The
companys move to a SAN proved an integral part
of its consolidation efforts.
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Category Total Cost of Ownership
Storage Innovator Awards
BlueCross BlueShield Of Tennessee
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Highlights
Storage Innovator Awards

• Fragmented storage, skyrocketing data growth led
  to decision to implement a SAN
• Storage requirements have grown 90-fold in six
  years with zero increase in staff
• Saved 120,000/mo. from month one.
• Manage 46TB of data with four p/t administrators
• Zero SAN downtime, much improved visibility into
  storage fabric
• SAN has enabled large-scale server consolidation

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The judges said
Storage Innovator Awards
BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee exemplified
innovation by completely overhauling its IT
architecture over the last several years.
Fundamental to its recent IT initiatives was the
installation of a SAN, which permitted huge
growth in data volumes with little added cost.
The companys documented cost savings are
impressive, as is its potential to handle future
growth through expansion of the SAN.
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Category Total Cost of Ownership
Storage Innovator Awards
Grant Thornton, LLP
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Highlights
Storage Innovator Awards

• Ran 44 Exchange servers and seven SQL databases,
  all with locally-attached storage.
• Architectural limitations inhibited storage
  growth plans.
• Consolidated onto four Exchange servers, single
  database with SAN underpinning.
• Database administration dramatically reduced,
  downtime cut, backups trimmed from 32 hours to
  four.
• 850,000 yearly savings through consolidation
  disk savings of 150,000 year one.

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The judges said
Storage Innovator Awards
Grant Thorntons story demonstrates the
cost-saving benefits of consolidation. The
company undertook an ambitious project to combine
mail and database servers while simultaneously
moving to a SAN. Adoption of networked storage
enabled many of the infrastructure changes to
happen and enabled Grant Thornton to save
millions of dollars. The company is well
positioned to take advantage of further
consolidation benefits.