Large Health System Integrates "Platinum" Storage to Increase Performance

Challenge

A major health system was looking for an ultra high-performance storage solution for its applications that delivered the highest levels of performance. The customer called this a "Platinum" tier storage rollout.

The challenge was to cut through the hype and help the customer choose a solution that offered the highest performance for their specific use case.

Solution

WWT started with a workshop to learn about the customer's needs and discuss the capabilities of our Flash Lab. At the end of the initial workshop and upon learning about the testing capabilities of our Advanced Technology Center (ATC), the customer's senior IT leadership made it clear to their technical staff that they wished to work with WWT.

In order to find the best solution for the customer's needs, WWT conducted a product comparison between three leading storage OEMs. Each OEM shipped two storage arrays, one each for the source and target. A three-node Oracle RAC database was set up to generate loads against the arrays to measure performance. Additionally, dedicated MDS fabrics were set up within our ATC environment to simulate the customer's WAN environment and mimic the healthcare system's network between sites to test the array replication functions.

All standard resiliency tests were conducted with performance and replication functionality as the primary focus.

At the conclusion of the testing, a detailed test report was presented to the customer illustrating the performance comparisons of the three competing storage solutions.

Conclusion

WWT was able to quickly set up an unbiased test between three flash solutions and provide the customer with objective performance in a lab environment that mimicked their own IT environment. Based on the results of the proof of concept, the customer selected EMC XtremIO and engaged WWT for fulfillment, integration and technical advisory services.