At Lakota Local School District, for instance, INTRUST GROUP recently deployed a fail-safe VMware virtual server cluster stretched between two sites separated by several miles. Lakota is the largest suburban school district in Ohio encompassing approximately 18,000 students under the instruction of 3,000 teachers and administrative staff. “Lakota School District considered the pros and cons of other SAN configurations from EMC, HP and LeftHand Networks”, said Tim Rettig, President, INTRUST GROUP.” Yet those choices proved to be less resilient and more costly compared to the solution that we architected using DataCore Software.”
Disk capacity problems, cooling issues with their equipment, as well as power problems in the data center initially drove Lakota Local School District into going virtual. The combination of DataCore storage virtualization and VMware server virtualization addressed all of these issues by reducing the physical resources required on the floor, while getting the fullest utilization from their servers and their storage assets.
According to Todd Wesley, Network Operations Administrator for Lakota Local Schools, "With a continually growing enterprise dependent on network based solutions, DataCore allowed us to implement a virtual infrastructure at a fraction of the cost and support of other storage solutions. As a result, we were able to virtualize several central systems, resulting in power, cooling and space savings as well as add additional redundancy."
All of Lakota Local School Districts 12 Terabytes (TBs) of data originally resided in their central office from existing independent servers. The INTRUST GROUP project synchronously replicates the most important 3 TBs of key information from this central site to their new disaster recovery (DR) location using off-the-shelf servers running DataCore SANmelody software. The storage virtualization software automatically mirrors updates between the two sites over a 10 Gbps fibre connection, making the virtual storage pool appear to be one large shared resource equally accessible from either end. Virtual servers at the DR location can thus take over vital operations anytime that the central data center undergoes maintenance or is threatened by an unplanned outage.
Other Organizations opting for INTRUST GROUP and DataCore
CONTECH Construction Products, Inc. is running SANmelody at the heart of its two-node high-availability (mirrored) SAN supporting both VMware and Windows servers. They’ve chosen a mix of Fibre Channel and iSCSI connections from their applications. Cincinnati-based Council on Aging is another customer recently deploying SANmelody courtesy of INTRUST GROUP. They rely on a 3TB DataCore SAN.
In each instance, INTRUST GROUP serves as both a trusted IT advisor and as a managed services provider, whereby the firm fundamentally runs the IT departments for these customers. INTRUST GROUP will engage with a client, install the solution and support the whole thing remotely, explained Rettig. In terms of administering the deployment, we do all that for an attractive fixed cost.
Why INTRUST GROUP Builds Solutions Around DataCore
In today’s economy, the cost of many SAN alternatives on the market is simply beyond the reach of most of INTRUST GROUP’ clients. This is particularly the case when they require true-high availability between physically separate locations. “DataCore enables us to put together solutions for our clients that fit within their budgets”, explained Rettig. “What is more, we feel strongly that our clients are getting robust, enterprise-level SANs at SMB prices.”
Rettig continued, “INTRUST GROUP looked at plenty of SAN alternatives before choosing DataCore, not just those from EMC, HP and LeftHand Networks. Based on price, performance, and features, DataCore fit the bill perfectly for our clientele.”
According to this partner, DataCore makes high-availability practical. “A real differentiator for DataCore is their elegant approach to dual-node redundancy, coupled with auto-failover and auto-failback, as well as physical separation of disk arrays to eliminate storage-related disruptions”, commented Rettig. He also admits that a big advantage of DataCore is that it is an open platform, which enables his team to tailor the hardware components to each customer’s manufacturer preferences.
“With DataCore, the client can pick their favorite hardware vendor and even mix and match them,” Rettig said. “When the requirements encroach on the systems limits, we can non-disruptively upgrade what they have with faster, newer technology, possibly from a different supplier who offers better price/performance at the time. Because DataCore enables INTRUST GROUP to offer an adaptable enterprise solution to our clients in terms of capabilities, performance and reliability, all for a reasonable price, we feel that DataCore allows our firm to build a lasting relationship with our clients.”
About INTRUST GROUP
In business since 1992, Cincinnati-based INTRUST GROUP strives to be a long term trusted IT advisor with all of its clients. It does this by focusing on understanding each client’s challenges both operational and in infrastructure. INTRUST GROUP scours the market for solutions to meet these challenges. INTRUST GROUP is proud to provide top notch customer service and seasoned technical expertise all for a single monthly fixed cost for every client. In terms of having a virtualization practice, INTRUST GROUP has been working with VMware for years. It has recently brought Citrixs XenServer into its portfolio of product offerings as well. DataCore is a big part of this virtualization practice. For more information, please call (513) 469-6500.
About DataCore Software
DataCore Software, the leading provider of storage virtualization software, fundamentally changes the economics of managing storage with innovative software that combines advanced functions and services with the agility and savings of hardware independence. DataCore lowers the cost and complexity of IT by making storage efficient, fast, flexible, fail-safe and virtual. DataCore's portable storage server software simplifies and automates capacity expansion and centralizes storage management for Windows, UNIX, Linux, MacOS and NetWare operating systems as well as hypervisors from VMware, Citrix, Microsoft and other suppliers. DataCore is privately held and its corporate headquarters are in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. For more information, call (877) 780-5111 or visit www.datacore.com.
DataCore, the DataCore logo, Software Corporation. Other DataCore product or service names or logos referenced herein are trademarks of DataCore Software Corporation. All other products, services and company names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.
Corporate Contacts:
INTRUST GROUP
Kate Bamberg
Tel: 513.469.6500
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DataCore Software
Bettye Grant
Tel: +1 954.377.6000
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