In addition, there were management issues with the current system. “We constantly had to juggle files around to meet limitations. Obviously, when we have to move 700 gigabytes to a terabyte of data around it is very time consuming. We have to take the servers down for the time period the data is being moved and that is disruptive to the client,” said Marcus Kwan, manager of network operations for Omnicom Management Services. It was also difficult to plan downtime for any maintenance to the server or storage hardware. Because Omnicom’s clients are in a very deadline driven industry where projects often come up quickly, scheduled downtime becomes a low priority when other pressing needs arise.

THE SOLUTION - MULTI-PROTOCOL SYSTEM THAT PROVIDES NAS AND SAN CAPABILITIES AND DATA REPLICATION: Omnicom Management Services was looking for a technology refresh of its disk array that would provide the latest in drives, speed and capacity; the organization also wanted a solution that would decrease downtime, improve performance and meet a recovery time objective of less than 24 hours. Upon assessing Omnicom Management Services’ existing environment, as well as its future requirements and objectives, Datalink weighed the pros and cons of various solution architectures and hardware and software technologies. Ultimately, Datalink recommended a Network Appliance-based clustered solution that supports multiple protocols and provides failover in the event of a disaster. In evaluating recommendations from several storage solution and technology providers, Omnicom looked at some of the more traditional Fibre Channel SAN arrays, according to Kwan, but the solution Datalink designed held more appeal because it offered everything the organization required in one system that was turnkey. “We gained a solution that could act as a traditional Fibre Channel RAID controller as well as an integrated host for network attached storage—with all the integrated functionality that Network Appliance provides,” said Kwan.

Datalink installed a NetApp FAS 3050 modular enterprise storage system, with Fibre Channel and Users have seen overall performance improvements of 15-20 percent but,
more significantly, have experienced no performance degradation during peak usage times. SATA disks, that provides block level and file level data access in an IP SAN and CIFS environment. The storage system uses the iSCSI protocol to provide access to storage for email, SQL, and application servers. Both Windows-based and Macintosh-based platforms utilize the CIFS protocol to access shares hosted on the Network Appliance device. In order to gain greater compatibility with the CIFS protocol
on the Macintosh side, the organization utilizes Thursby ADmitMac® software.

For data protection, Omnicom is using SnapMirror® software to take hourly snapshots of the data, replicating from the Fibre Channel to SATA disk. That replicated data is then
backed up to tape. If access to the primary storage were lost, it would take less than an hour to re-route all users to the serial ATA storage and the replicated data. Then, once the
Fibre Channel arrays were operational, Omnicom could mirror the data back to the Fibre Channel disk in the background and fail back over to the Fibre Channel.

THE BENEFITS - PERFORMANCE, SCALABILITY, AND INCREASED DATA PROTECTION: Kwan cites steady performance and scalability as key benefits. Users have seen overall performance improvements of 15-20 percent but, more significantly, have experienced no performance degradation during peak usage times. “We’re seeing a very steady, non-degraded performance no matter what we throw at it,” Kwan elaborated. And the ability to grow seamlessly and dynamically has reduced the need for downtime and outage windows. This enables Omnicom to accommodate its client requirements much more effectively. Life has also been made easier from a management perspective, according to Kwan. “All the disparate components of storage management have been integrated into one box,” Kwan said, noting the learning curve for the new technology has been minimal.
Most importantly though, the organization has greatly exceeded its 24-hour RTO for restoring data to its clients in the event of a system failure. In adding another layer of data protection, Omnicom has further showed its commitment to serving its clients.
“Everything went pretty much flawlessly,” Kwan said of the solution implementation. “Datalink was very responsive in terms of providing a design that met our requirements and responding to any of the unforeseen obstacles that came up during implementation. With this solution, we have gained features and integration without sacrifice,” he said.

LOCATION: Dallas, Texas

SOLUTION: Modular enterprise storage system that offers multi-protocol support for both Windows and Mac users.

DATALINK PROFESSIONAL SERVICES: Analysis, Design, Implementation, Support

INDUSTRY: Management Services