Client story International Economic Organization Modernizes Data Storage for Faster, Better Access and Creation of Economic Models
By Insight Editor / 22 Apr 2020 / Topics: Data center Migration Storage Consolidation
Facts at a glance
Client industry
Financial services
Insight provided:
- Project initiation and discovery
- System architecture design
- Storage consolidation with flash-based technology from Pure Storage
Insight services:
- Consulting services
- Migration and consolidation services
Outcomes:
Download the client story
- Easier, faster access to real-time data from around the world
- Efficient, cost-effective and scalable storage
- Consistent performance across the entire network
- Consolidation of stand-alone 56 servers
The client
Established in 1945, the client is an international organization dedicated to fostering global monetary cooperation and promoting financial security throughout the world. Teams of economists monitor economic and financial data from 189 member countries, analyzing and synthesizing the information to guide decision-making for the client’s $1 trillion development and lending programs.
The challenge: Transform data storage to enhance access and operational flexibility while ensuring future scalability
The client's team of economists creates models employing a wide array of open-source indexing, analytics and deep learning tools. In the past, the client relied on 56 stand-alone servers, each with approximately two terabytes of data of direct storage, to house, access and share data and to run their applications.
This antiquated storage infrastructure forced the client to segregate various applications across their bare metal/DAS environment, often resulting in the classic problem of not having resources available when and where they needed them. For an organization that relies on real-time modeling of data from around the world to make decisions, the slow setup and transfer speeds created real problems. The inability to efficiently access remote data and manage the environment in remote locations further hindered the client’s ability to run effective analytic models.
The client knew they needed to digitally transform how their economists stored and accessed data, yet they weren’t sure of the possibilities for this process.
The solution: Consolidation of data silos through a parallel, all-flash storage platform
Insight worked previously with the client to replace an existing legacy data storage platform with FlashArray™//M70 from Pure Storage. Based upon the success of this initial migration, the team believed that the client would benefit greatly from consolidating all 56 legacy racks into a single, scalable solution: the FlashBlade™ from Pure Storage.
After consulting with the client’s IT decision-makers, we identified and deployed a data storage solution designed to handle their unstructured workloads, accelerate applications, and enhance operational flexibility. In fact, deploying FlashBlade allows the client to achieve a more dynamic allocation of resources and enables their economists to easily prototype and run new analytics tools without the hassle of engineering, procuring and deploying new solutions every time.
By initially helping the client successfully deploy FlashArray//M70, the team laid the groundwork for the client to make a successful consolidation to FlashBlade, with minimal interruption to their operation. Ultimately, the client achieved a 10:1 storage ratio after deduplication and compression — three times better than their old system.
The benefits: Expertly managed storage transformation and faster data access
The client’s environment is constantly changing, so implementing a scalable, future-proof solution was a key objective. By investing first in FlashArray//M70 and then in FlashBlade, the client has the technical framework to implement greenfield solutions as needs arise.
Today, the client is able to address additional workloads and scale compute completely separate from their data storage, bringing them in line with optimal practices within the analytics market. Through Pure’s Evergreen Storage™ ownership model, the client will continue to see increases in operational value through reduced costs, improved manageability and multidimensional data support.
