Windows Storage Server 2003 Case Studies

Atkins Denmark, a subsidiary of British consulting firm Atkins, is key infrastructure provider in Scandinavia, with five offices in the region. Its team of 320 engineers, architects, economists, technicians, and support staff produce vast amounts of data, which by law must be stored for between 10 and 20 years. However, locally managed direct attached storage had reached full capacity and could not be increased. Atkins decided to implement a centralised storage solution that would replicate data from each branch to its head office in Copenhagen. It selected a solution based on HP StorageWorks NAS2000 network attached storage (NAS), running Microsoft Windows Storage Server 2003. Administrators can now manage storage for each office from a single location, decreasing administration time and creating a more reliable backup and restore environment.

City of Copenhagen Council delivers local authority services to 500,000 people in the Danish capital and is the country's biggest employer. The council needed to replace its ageing Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0 infrastructure with a cost-efficient solution that would help reduce system administration time and reduce the risk of lost data. Working in cooperation with HP and Microsoft, COM-IT implemented new hardware running Microsoft Windows Storage Server 2003 with Active Directory. Not only has the city council saved money and continued its relationship with HP and Microsoft, but administrators now carry out backups automatically from a central location. Update management is also done remotely without human intervention, with accidentally lost data recovered in minutes rather than days.

Royal Appliance wanted to explore less time-consuming and costly ways of adding storage to its Fibre Channel storage area network (SAN). LeftHand Networks IP SAN, in combination with Microsoft Windows Storage Server 2003, provided the solution. Read the case study here.

Wells' Dairy (September 29, 2004): For more than 90 years, Wells' Dairy has been a leader in the manufacture and sale of ice cream, frozen novelties, and dairy products. To stay ahead of the competition, company managers sought to employ cutting-edge technology. The company's management consolidated its current file server and upgraded its file and print cluster. Wells' Dairy selected a solution based on the Microsoft Windows Server System. The solution is cost efficiencient, capitalizes on existing server assets, and helps Wells' Dairy meet its availability and reliability requirements. It also improves the company's reporting capabilities for more effective information management.

Meijer, Inc. (September 27, 2004): In 70 years, Meijer Inc. has grown from a Depression-era corner grocery store in to one of the largest privately-held companies today. Its long-term competitiveness hinges on cost control and efficiency. The company's retail information technology (IT) systems must support these goals. Over time, Meijer realized that it was extremely costly and ineffective to support and upgrade multiple configurations on its more than 150 distributed file servers, which are spread over numerous company locations. By migrating to an HP network-attached storage/storage area network (NAS-SAN) combination running Microsoft Windows Storage Server 2003, Meijer is able to define IT standards and consolidate its file and print services and storage infrastructure.

Ajinomoto System Techno Corporation Case Study (May 20, 2004): Ever-increasing demands of e-commerce, Internet-related businesses, and developments in broadband have caused the volume of data that businesses must store and manage to increase at a soaring rate. Data storage requirements for Ajinomoto System Techno Corporation are no exception. In order to cope with rising amounts of data among increasing numbers of business users, Ajinomoto implemented Microsoft Windows Storage Server 2003 with NEC Corporation's iStorage NS Series network attached storage (NAS) appliances as its data storage and management solution.

Microsoft Internal Internet Service Provider Case Study (October 13, 2003): The Microsoft Internal Provider provides ISP services to internal clients. To rapidly accommodate increased usage, Microsoft Internal Provider found it necessary to add storage to existing servers or acquire more servers. Such an approach created additional management complexity and didn't provide the long term solutions they were looking for. To achieve greater scalability and manageability, Microsoft Internal Provider wanted to move to a model where Web server content could be consolidated into a centralized storage solution. They explored the possibility of a storage area network (SAN), but instead chose the Windows Storage Server 2003 solution because it offered a cost effective solution that was scalable, convenient to manage, and integrated easily with their existing infrastructure.

108th Division Case Study (September 19, 2003): A training unit of the United States Army Reserve, the 108thDivision strives to provide its reservists with the information they need, when they need it. To ensure that it continues to do exactly that, the 108th became an early Microsoft Windows Storage Server 2003 customer. With Windows Storage Server 2003 powering the Division’s new INLINE FileStorm NAS devices, the 108th is consolidating servers from 23 separate locations into eight data centers, and increasing its storage capacity to 2.9 terabytes. Server consolidation is providing the 108th with the centralized administration and file recovery capabilities it needs, while reduced travel time for system managers, together with advanced management functions, is making administration of the servers easier and more efficient.