UTILITY STORAGE: HYPE OR REALITY?

Utility Computing is the latest trend with the press, but is it possible for the everyday IT professional to take advantage of these technologies? Is it all just hype? Has it been successfully implemented anywhere?

3PAR has been providing real-world Utility Storage implementations longer than any other vendor, offering a range of solutions to suit specific company needs and budgets.

The foundation of any Utility Computing environment is server and storage virtualization. Utility Storage is storage virtualization made simple.

Is Utility Storage the right choice for you?

Utility Storage is ideal for IT professionals who are under the gun to decrease costs and improve efficiency within their data centers. The best way to meet these requirements effectively is to simplify and consolidate the storage environment. Utility Storage can make this a reality.

The following 3PAR case studies demonstrate just how “real” Utility Storage is.

Utility case study—The Allant Group
Simplifying with 3PAR

The Allant Group™ purchased and deployed 3PAR’s InServ® Storage Server to consolidate numerous applications (including Oracle®, Microsoft® SQL Server®, and SAS) from multiple storage devices onto a single cost-effective solution.

As a result, Allant has cut its storage administration burden by over 50%. They also calculate that the company will save over 25% of its storage acquisition costs over 3 years thanks to 3PAR Thin Provisioning, a unique technology that eliminates wasted capacity.

3PAR enables us to be more efficient and more responsive at the same time... 3PAR was the obvious solution to simplify our storage services.

—Bob Hroma, Director of IT, The Allant Group

Administrative tasks such as provisioning storage and creating file systems now take minutes rather than hours, and other tasks have been eliminated altogether. Allant has improved the availability of its environment, rewarding its clients with faster, higher quality results.

... Allant is further proof that 3PAR Utility Storage is a solution that makes effective use of virtualization.

—Randy Kerns, The Evaluator Group

For more information
SearchStorage: Startup steals a win with thin provisioning
3PAR press release: The Allant Group

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Utility case study—American Management Systems (AMS)
Fortune 1000 company consolidates with 3PAR Utility Storage

American Management Systems (AMS) immediately experienced a decrease in complexity and an improvement in efficiency after its decision to consolidate with Utility Storage. AMS was able to

• realize a 40% improvement in storage utilization.
• increase flexibility and improved response times.
• centralize volume management, implement no-host software and reduce complexity.
• achieve seamless scalability, taking 30 minutes to grow from 6 to 10 terabytes and from 10 to 24 terabytes.

  
  ...3PAR Utility Storage empowers us to respond in record
  time. We no longer have to think about storage. It's just
  there when we need it.
  
  —Don Hirsch, Vice President of IT, AMS

AMS is a global business and IT consulting firm servicing the public sector, financial services and communications industries. With nearly $1 billion in annual revenues, AMS supports scores of mission-critical applications for its more than 6,400 employees.

After considering solutions from several traditional suppliers, AMS invested in 3PAR Utility Storage to consolidate multiple storage devices and applications onto a cost-effective 3PAR InServ Storage Server. 3PAR is now deployed as the primary open-systems storage solution at AMS.

For more information
Case study: AMS (.pdf)
3PAR press release: AMS

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• saved over $500K in up-front deployment costs.
• anticipates saving $1-3 million in future expense as requirements grow.
• required less headcount to manage its storage.
• experienced a deployment time of less than two hours.

  ...their [3PAR] Utility Storage solution gives us a tremendously
  flexible, simplified and powerful storage platform that
  can match the pace of our business.”
  
  —Andy Palmer, Senior Vice President of Operations,
  Infinity Pharmaceuticals

Infinity Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a leading drug discovery company, selected 3PAR Utility Storage as its sole enterprise storage platform. Infinity’s pre-existing IT environment consisted of Direct Attached Storage using Dell RAID Arrays and embedded disks. This environment supported Infinity’s proprietary business-critical applications as well as general applications such as Microsoft® Exchange, Oracle® and file services.

Infinity was confronted with increasing management complexity as it was quickly outgrowing its existing environment. Infinity needed a “longer-term” solution to balance a storage requirement that could grow massively over time with a solution that was both affordable and simple to manage. The solution would need to facilitate the fast and flexible use of data, critical to accelerating Infinity’s time to drug discovery.

Infinity evaluated three vendors: 3PAR, HDS, and EMC. 3PAR Utility Storage was the only solution to meet Infinity’s specific requirements. Infinity selected an affordable 2-Node 3PAR InServ S800 Storage Server with a full complement of software that included 3PAR Thin Provisioning. The 3PAR InServ S800 attaches to dual Cisco MDS Switches, connecting more than 25 Linux and Windows® host servers.

For more information
Case study: Infinity Pharmaceuticals
InfoStor: 3PAR advocates 'thin provisioning'
Storage Magazine: Firm finds happiness with startup vendor
3PAR press release: Infinity Pharmaceuticals

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