HarborOne Credit Union Saves Money Through Centralized Storage and Faster Data Recoveries
Overview
Established in 1917, HarborOne Credit Union is the largest state-chartered community credit union in New England. With strong growth over the last three years and a rapidly expanding volume of valuable customer data, HarborOne needed a data storage solution that could grow in size and capabilities to support its more than 350 employees and $1.1 billion in managed assets. After evaluating multiple vendors, HarborOne selected Compellent to meet its data storage and management needs.
Situation
Previously, HarborOne had eleven servers, each with its own direct-attached storage. As a result, HarborOne’s system administrator adjusted storage volumes on a daily basis, struggling to maintain optimal resources for all applications. For data recovery, the company depended exclusively on tape backup. Although never faced with a major data recovery issue, when a set of files were corrupted or mistakenly deleted, the administrator’s only option was to go through the time-consuming and often unreliable process of recovering data from tapes.
Anticipating 5x storage growth over the next three years, HarborOne needed a storage solution that would grow with its needs, protect its data, and enable quick and efficient recovery – all without adding additional IT staff. And, with a limited budget and a move to a new corporate headquarters on the horizon, it was crucial that HarborOne evaluate new server and storage options to find the most cost effective solution.
Solution
According to John White, network administrator for HarborOne, the Compellent SAN paid for itself on the first day of installation. By using Storage Center’s Boot from SAN capability, White has been able to purchase diskless servers – putting the total cost of the SAN on par with an ongoing investment in direct attached storage. With Compellent, White centralized storage to a single pool, saving him five hours each week of hectic storage management. Additionally, with the SAN’s intuitive management software, White was able to easily train the six-person staff on how to quickly recover both individual files and a full volume in the event of a data emergency. Overall, Storage Center has exceeded HarborOne’s expectations – delivering a quick return on investment, rapid data recovery and ease of use.
Immediate Return on Investment With Diskless Servers
HarborOne used to purchase new servers for approximately $15,000 each. With Compellent, the firm has reduced server expenditures by $7,000 per server because it no longer has to purchase internal drives or array controllers with each server. Compellent's Boot from SAN feature optimizes the boot process by creating a golden copy of the boot image on the SAN rather than on the internal disk drives within every server – saving money, increasing performance and conserving capacity. According to White, Storage Center pays for itself in reduced hardware costs alone.
Data Instant Replay—Golden Boot Image
By combining Boot from SAN with Compellent’s Data Instant Replay application, White has optimized the boot process even further. Using Data Instant Replay, boot images for every additional server are now made from the original boot image by copying only the minor differences between servers. With Compellent, the boot images for all of HarborOne’s 13 primary servers are placed on the SAN and consume about the same storage space as each server – allowing HarborOne to recover 70-80% of the space formerly used by boot volumes. Additionally, these features reduce the time to deploy software upgrades or new servers form a long weekend of overtime to a fifteen-minute activity. With Storage Center, White saves both time and storage resources for more strategic purposes.
Data Instant Replay also enabled HarborOne to quickly roll back time and reboot during a recent server failure. The application automates recovery from data hazards by enabling staff to create any number of space-efficient replay copies through a simple, Web-based interface. For HarborOne, the system provided an alternative to data recovery from tape and had users back online within an hour instead of days.
Streamlining Storage Administration
In the past, once White allocated drive space to a specific application, it was very difficult to change. Each disk was tied to a specific server, and moving the customer service and office applications HarborOne’s employees depend upon to new servers was a timeintensive, cumbersome process. With Compellent, White is now able to constantly and dynamically expand drives so he doesn’t have to move applications. As a result, White can dedicate the five hours per week he used to spend managing storage space to creating additional IT efficiencies for HarborOne.