ST Mar-Apr 2021

CASE STUDY: CASE STUDY: WATERAID
"Our joint objective was to really home in on the business objectives behind the
requirement for the upgrades and changes and translate them into practical technical
solutions, using the best of breed platforms, in which we hold a high level of expertise.
A lot of thought went into the analysis of workloads to ensure that appropriate solutions
were designed. It's of utmost importance to neither over-specify nor under-size."
between the two sites. The input and guidance
of someone experienced in completing
hundreds of migrations was crucial to the
success of the process.
"Our joint objective was to really home in on
the business objectives behind the requirement
for the upgrades and changes and translate
them into practical technical solutions, using
the best of breed platforms, in which we hold
a high level of expertise," explained Ben
Spode, Client Director at Recarta. "A lot of
thought went into the analysis of workloads to
ensure that appropriate solutions were
designed. It's of utmost importance to neither
over-specify nor under-size - and this analysis
and consultation with Richard Landon and his
team meant we jointly reviewed and explored
relevant options and collaboratively agreed
upon the recommended optimum solutions.
This planning and preparation work meant the
extended team of WaterAid and Recarta had
confidence in the designs based upon
empirical analysis and accurate projections of
the workloads running in different scenarios.
The technical solution needed to be right, and
Recarta's primary focus is our customers results
and objectives."
The migration successfully delivered the
improved data onto the new system, with
minimal impact on business during the
transition. The transition showed immediate
positive results and there have been some
major business benefits of this equipment.
With data processing speeds drastically
improved, the organisation can work much
more efficiently.
WaterAid has also experienced an increase in
computing resources, where the IOPS
(read/write) performance has increased
dramatically compared to WaterAid's old
equipment, which will reap huge benefits to
other services. The environment has been
consolidated from 6 servers and 2 storage
arrays to 3 servers and 1 array, making it
easier to manage. Looking to the future, the
improved storage performance means backup
process time for a future disaster recovery
solution will also be reduced.
The success of the project resulted in
significant speed and process improvements:
Processing speeds have improved
significantly with the new equipment and
now, loads from the data warehouse only
take 9-10 minutes compared to 20
previously. This has resulted in jobs now
running on time (due to quicker overall
completion) rather than being bottlenecked
behind other SQL jobs.
WaterAid can also now stack jobs to be
closer together.
The CRM is now 6 hours faster and has
seen a real performance gain.
For the data warehouse, process time
reduced by 8 hours during an evening
sync. For example, a process took 13
hours overnight, whereas previously it was
more in the order of 21 hours.
Results met key business and project
objectives, which allowed various projects
such as Power BI reports to transform and
finish the files at night, to avoid congestion
in the next daytime run.
A collaborative approach between IBM,
Recarta Technology and WaterAid's IT team
yielded a successful data centre migration that
was completed as planned, on time and
without any negative impact on business
operations.
More info: www.ibm.com
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@STMagAndAwards Mar/Apr 2021
STORAGE
MAGAZINE
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