Massive data growth has changed the way SMEs operate, with it becoming increasingly critical for small businesses to store, protect and manage their data at scale. We explore how two US-based organisations used solutions from Nexsan to ensure their data was secure and scalable.
Wyoming Surgical Associates, PC deploys Nexsan E-Series P storage platform to support medical practice
Customer overview
Wyoming Surgical Associates, PC in Casper, Wyoming, is a surgical practice that strongly believes that patient choice on healthcare issues is vital to providing excellent care. It strives to offer the most comprehensive collection of doctors, specialities, services and facilities from which its patients can choose – which now includes a new data storage management, protection and security platform.
The challenge
Recently, as the Wyoming Surgical Associates was growing and deploying innovative new applications to support and enhance its ability to deliver the most modern and comprehensive patient care, as well as to optimise and control costs of back-office operations, it decided it was time to update its data storage infrastructure.
“For over five years, we had depended upon a Nexsan Unity NST 5000. For us, it was a great entry-level storage option because of its hybrid design, dependability and highly competitive pricing. It provided us with scalability, support for both NAS and SAN and universal connectivity for Fibre Channel, Ethernet and SAS – all at a price we could more than afford,” said Janis Black, Practice Manager, Wyoming Surgical Associates. “However, to support our rapidly growing medical practice, exponential data growth and rapid deployment of new applications, we decided it was time to update our data storage backbone.”
The solution
Recognising it was time for a change, the Wyoming Surgical Associates immediately turned to DigeTekS, its trusted Managed Services Provider (MSP) to research, evaluate and recommend potential solutions that would be able to meet its IT, business and budgetary requirements. Given Wyoming Surgical Centre’s success with its existing Nexsan, together with the extensive and positive experience DigeTekS also enjoyed, Nexsan topped the list of data storage platforms to explore. (DigeTekS manages numerous Nexsan client deployments across Colorado and Wyoming.) After careful evaluation, DigeTekS recommended the all-flash Nexsan E-Series 18P (E18P) storage platform.
“It’s critical that we maintain complete vendor neutrality and choose the ideal solution for each client’s individual requirements,” added Logan Greening, DigeTekS, LLC CTO. “Of course, we were not surprised, however, when Nexsan climbed to the top of the list. We continue to be very impressed with how the Nexsan architecture moves forward. We were a bit worried about an all-flash system costing too much for a medical practice their size – but Nexsan came in at the right price that fits their budget.”
Along with the ultra-reliability Nexsan is long known for, the Nexsan E18P offered unrivalled price and performance, robust connectivity options (FC, iSCSI) for seamless interoperability along with a robust qualified OS support matrix.
The Nexsan E18P sits in an onsite server closet at Wyoming Surgical Associates and is monitored and managed remotely by DigeTekS. For added protection and Disaster Recovery (DR), data is replicated back to the DigeTekS data centre via VMware. In case of a failure or cyberbreach, data is also backed up via SEP Software. The Nexsan E18P is so seamless to manage remotely and intuitive that recently when it was necessary to swap a controller, DigeTekS was able to talk Janis through it over the phone.
Endemol Shine North America relies on Nexsan storage solutions for TV show production
Customer overview
Endemol Shine North America delivers world-class content and compelling storytelling to multiple platforms in the US and across the globe. Endemol Shine North America is part of Endemol Shine Group, the global content creator, producer and distributor with a diverse portfolio of companies that are behind some of the most prominent hit television formats and series in the world.
The challenge
Just a few years ago it was standard to shoot a conventional television show on videotape and work in proxy resolution because editing at high resolution was prohibitive. This offline and then online editing process to conform each episode was labour intensive and required multiple assistant editors over two shifts, along with expensive broadcast decks.
The solution
File-based workflows were just starting to make their way into the industry about eight years ago and that’s what motivated Endemol Shine North America to look for a solution that would streamline their processes and save them a significant amount of labour and time in production. Endemol Shine North America developed a business model around a file-based workflow to give them the ability to have all of the camera masters available online, at the same time.
After a thorough review guided by a leading solutions provider in the media and entertainment space, Endemol Shine North America selected Nexsan as it met its criteria of affordability, stability and solid support. In addition, Endemol Shine North America was impressed with Nexsan’s market reputation, particularly its well-known engineering prowess. Avid was selected for the file-based workflow.
Alex Palatnick, Vice President, Post Production, Endemol Shine North America, said: “We developed a series of simplified file-based workflows over the years which have always relied upon top-notch stable equipment to support it. Nexsan has served as a critical element of this infrastructure.”
Continuous innovation
Endemol Shine North America’s first high-density storage array was a Nexsan E-Series 60 (E60) with 80TB, which is still used and still running perfectly today.
“Since our initial purchase, Nexsan and its product family have done nothing but evolve and continue to innovate,” Palatnick continued, “So, recently, when we required a solution that would also provide even greater throughput and bandwidth, we partnered with QSR Systems and together we agreed that Nexsan should be the first place we look. We knew it would be our best choice from a feature, functionality and ROI standpoint. And, while we did our homework and researched other potential options, Nexsan Unity stood out from its competitors.”
Since the Nexsan Unity deployment, the four Nexsan E60s with over 1PB have been aggregated at the subsidiary site 51 Minds and the Nexsan Unity at ½ PB is now serving as the backbone of the entire post-production network at the corporate site.