Hitachi Data Systems and HBF Success Story
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HBF, Western Australia's largest private health insurer, modernized its storage infrastructure using the Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform to support a virtual desktop initiative involving over 650 desktops. This solution provided enhanced scalability, improved data management, and supported performance-efficient virtual workloads, resulting in reduced operational costs and faster response times. Through dynamic tiering and virtualization, HBF was able to consolidate its storage assets and position itself for future growth and cloud integration.
Hitachi Data Systems and HBF Success Story
- 1. S U C C E S S S T O R Y “We needed a mechanism that HBF allowed us to be more efficient when INDUSTRY Insurance provisioning storage and consolidate our existing storage assets. We now SOLUTIONS Enterprise Platform, Virtualisation have a storage environment that is Hardware — Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform Software — Hitachi Command Suite, Hitachi Dynamic Tiering over 50% virtualised, and with the Services — Provided by Hitachi TrueNorth™ Partner UXC Connect vast scalability provided by the Virtual Storage Platform we can quickly meet project requirements, no matter how big or small. ” Colin Rutherford Senior Network Engineer (Infrastructure) HBF
- 2. S U C C E S S S T O R Y 2 a revamped storage architecture all in the HBF Embraces Virtualised Storage Infrastructure with one package,” he explains. Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform “In addition, with a looming virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) project that involved HBF is the largest private health insurer in Western Australia more than 650 desktops being brought into the data centre, we needed a platform and has been supporting the health and well-being of Western that would deliver a seamless user experi- Australians for nearly 70 years. With a network spread across 19 ence when transitioning from physical to virtual desktops. Performance tiering service centres and its head office, HBF was planning to introduce and dynamic pooling efficiencies were a virtual desktop infrastructure and needed a way to efficiently also key to meeting the highly volatile and performance-critical VDI workload without manage and store this data. Hitachi Data Systems was selected to costing the earth,” Rutherford adds. meet this requirement with Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform. The Solution: A Virtualised Background located at the head office. With an enter- Storage Infrastructure prise storage platform that was beginning HBF engaged independent information Established in 1941, HBF (http://www. to sprawl and components of that platform and communication technologies (ICT) hbf.com.au) is Western Australia’s leading nearing end of life, HBF was looking to provider UXC Connect to identify the health insurer, providing health coverage modernise its storage infrastructure and most suitable solution to meet its storage for 900,000 members across the region. bring greater flexibility in the way it stores requirements. Following an assessment HBF also sells general insurance prod- and manages its data. of the key technologies in this space, ucts, including travel, car, life, and home HBF decided on Hitachi Virtual Storage and contents insurance and prides itself “Our existing storage network was starting Platform (VSP), with UXC Connect provid- on providing the best personal experi- to become fragmented and difficult to ing support with the configuration, builds, ence possible for members. It is a strong manage with aging storage practices. We quoting and ordering of the products. supporter of community initiatives, such were ultimately limiting any future scalabil- as the HBF Run for a Reason and the ity,” says Colin Rutherford, senior network Enabling virtualisation of external SAN HBF Rottnest Channel Swim. In 2010 and engineer, HBF. “We have multiple manage- storage from Hitachi and other vendors 2011, HBF paid out AUS$928 million in ment points for storage infrastructure, so into one pool, Hitachi VSP is the only 3D health benefits, equating to over AUS$2.5 were looking to introduce storage virtu- scaling storage platform designed for all million every day. alisation to underpin all new and existing data types and the only enterprise storage storage resources. This would allow for architecture that flexibly adapts for perfor- HBF has around 650 staff spread across easier data migrations off aging hardware mance and capacity. 19 service centres and its central office in and consolidation of storage resources Perth. These users all require access to Combined with Hitachi Command Suite for improved utilisation, performance and the data and internal business applications management software, the VSP gives “When introducing a technology change that affects so many end users, the user experience factor is absolutely crucial. The leading storage performance provided by the VSP has been an integral part of this successful deployment, giving us an extremely flexible and scalable virtual storage infrastructure for VDI and beyond.” Colin Rutherford Senior Network Engineer (Infrastructure) HBF
- 3. S U C C E S S S T O R Y 3 optimal infrastructure growth in all dimen- fleet of HP thin client PCs to its 650 users An added benefit is that HBF has the sions and supports automated storage across all offices. The organisation has flexibility to decommission old storage tiering, known as Hitachi Dynamic Tiering, also been able to lower its information systems and move data between storage to automate the movement of data be- technology services disk costs by taking systems without any outages or impact to tween tiers for higher performance and advantage of storage pooling and tiering. performance, ensuring business continuity lower cost. at all times. “When introducing a technological change Sitting above 3 existing Hitachi stor- that affects so many end users, the user A Look Forward age systems (Hitachi Adaptable Modular experience factor is absolutely crucial,” Storage 500 and 2500, as well as Hitachi notes Rutherford. “The leading storage HBF is looking to further consolidate its Network Storage Controller 55), the performance provided by the VSP has SAN storage platform in line with growing VSP enables HBF to view all of its data been an integral part of this successful its virtual-to-physical server ratio. Having as one entity. This means data can be deployment, giving us an extremely flexible tight storage integration to support this will easily moved, allocated and provisioned and scalable virtual storage infrastructure.” be crucial, as more reliance is placed on across environments. The VSP now hosts virtual infrastructure as opposed to physi- “To serve our performance requirements cal infrastructure. HBF’s core internal applications, including we are able to use our existing disk assets VMware View for its 650 virtual desktops, HBF will also be looking to take advantage and dynamically tier across them. Rather Microsoft SQL Databases, MRM (Siebel/ of cloud storage offerings where possible, than having all our data sit on Tier 1 disk Tibco/UDB) and Microsoft collaboration particularly with its development and testing on a single storage system, we can now tools Lync and SharePoint. environments. Additionally, the company is tier this data via pools and automatically “Hitachi has proven its success in deliver- place the most frequently accessed data looking to the cloud for data replication and ing high performance and reliability in the on the more efficient, faster disk, while the disaster recovery capabilities. last 10 years that we have been using its least accessible data is moved to the less "Over the coming months the VSP will storage systems,” says Rutherford. “Its expensive, slower disk. allow us to further consolidate our storage technology concepts are easy to digest, platform, leading to a reduction in cooling “During periods of high performance de- with benefits immediately recognisable, and power costs and freeing up valu- mand, we can dynamically move our data and it integrates seamlessly into our exist- able rack space in our data centre,” says up to a higher tier to get the best perfor- ing infrastructure environment. Rutherford. “The VSP uses energy-efficient mance. This functionality was a key reason “We needed a mechanism that allowed for us choosing the Hitachi solution, as it technology such as 2.5 inch drives, which us to be more efficient when provision- allows us to use far less physical disks,” consume up to 40% less power than 3.5 ing storage and consolidating our existing recalls Rutherford. inch drives.” According to Rutherford, over storage assets. We now have a storage time, disk costs will slowly drop as more HBF has also been experiencing faster and more projects can take advantage environment that is over 50% virtualised, response times following the deployment, of the pooling and tiering technology. and with the vast scalability provided by which has resonated well with its end users. Traditional spindle to performance relation- the VSP we can quickly meet project requirements, no matter how big or small,” ships no longer exist. “Our core VDI deployment is currently expe- he explains. riencing 3-4 millisecond response time when “With its VMware integration, the VSP also accessing ‘writable disks,’ and the replicas allows for a move toward private or public “Furthermore, with storage lead times are peaking at 1 millisecond per 650+ cloud, with IT infrastructure being treated often delaying projects, we now have a desktop read requests. Users have really em- as a service to the business. HBF is a keen mechanism to help alleviate the impact. braced the technology as the performance adopter of new technologies that can help This is achieved through dynamic provi- has been better than that provided by the improve business operations, so cloud for sioning and zero page reclaims to see the previous physical desktops.” us is not a matter of ‘if’ but ‘when’ and actual storage being used and implement- ing temporary overprovisioning,” says the VSP is a step in the right direction,” Rutherford adds: “While providing us with Rutherford. concludes Rutherford. a better user experience, it allows us to react quicker to growth demands and The Result: Improved Disk provision storage more effectively.” Utilisation and Lower Costs Since deploying Hitachi VSP, HBF has been able to seamlessly introduce its VDI project, progressively deploying a new
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