An independent federal regulatory Agency headquartered in Washington DC found its productivity hampered by outdated tools and infrastructure. Operating systems and applications needed to be upgraded. Hardware that had surpassed its life expectancy needed to be dealt with, and data had to be protected. Recognizing the range of technology issues that needed attention, the call went out to DataLink.
DataLink designed and implemented a highly available Storage Area Network (SAN) combining Nexenta and Hyper-V cluster from Microsoft. The former replicates data at geographically separate nodes to ensure uninterrupted access to files should the primary node fail. Hyper-V allows multiple nodes across the Agency’s network to share and run the workload – VMs, services, and processes – providing N+1 redundancy if any node fails.
A virtual backup appliance from Unitrends deployed on the Hyper-V provides one-pass bare metal and granular file-level backup. Operating in second order priority, backup appliances from ExaGrid perform deduplication and offsite replication.
StorageCraft’s ShadowProtect sector-level software backs up the Agency’s entire Windows IT environment, enabling fast recovery from disaster as well as hassle-free system migration. DataLink also implemented Microsoft’s System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012, which increases physical server utilization through easy consolidation of the virtual infrastructure.
DataLink implemented Windows Server 2012 R2, which provides the Agency with an enterprise-class cloud and datacenter platform. The need for new hardware was minimized by DataLink’s conversion to a virtualized server environment whereby multiple “virtual” machines share the same hardware and associated resources. DataLink also upgraded the Agency’s email platform to Microsoft Exchange 2013, which provides a focus on collaboration and allows mailboxes to be centrally provisioned and served from the Cloud.
The Agency has achieved new levels of productivity with its highly efficient use of available computing resources. In addition, the storage and backup capabilities implemented by DataLink make the Agency’s business continuity plan second to none. In all, the Agency has not only improved its level of service, it has provided other public sector organizations with a model of IT done right.
DataLink can guide you to the best mix of IT services and solutions to improve your organization’s performance. Contact us today at 410.729.0440 or sales@DataLinkTech.com.
