In today’s uncertain economic times, the need for cost-effective file storage and data management solutions has never been more urgent. The constant surge in enterprise storage volumes (and their associated costs), together with the COVID-accelerated adoption of remote work models, are driving enterprises to transition from legacy hardware-based storage architecture (NAS) to modern, cloud-enabled global file systems.
Global file systems help large distributed organizations save up to 80% on storage costs by leveraging elastic, low-cost cloud object storage. Local caching of frequently used files ensures high-speed file performance for remote office and WFH users. In a social-distanced work environment, global file systems allow companies to maintain business as usual without a drop-off in user productivity.
As global organizations rethink their IT strategies, CTERA is seeing strong demand for its edge-to-cloud file services platform. In this post, we wanted to share some stories showing CTERA’s customers in diverse sectors are benefitting from our global file system.
Festo
Festo is the world leader in industrial automation technology, employing 21,000 employees in 170 locations worldwide. While embarking on a cloud-first IT strategy, Festo’s management recognized it wasn’t feasible for public cloud infrastructure support all IT services, including file services, to remote locations due to bandwidth and latency issues. Accordingly, Festo identified the CTERA global file system as a key enabler in its cloud strategy, allowing the firm to modernize file infrastructure without compromising performance or security.
CTERA’s edge-to-cloud approach helped Festo close the gap between local on-premise infrastructure and scalable cloud-based services. The company is now using CTERA’s global file system to support users in over 50 locations worldwide, with between five and five thousand users per site. Edge filers at each site enable users to access files locally for the best user experience. By deploying CTERA’s scalable edge-to-cloud file services infrastructure, Festo has achieved its cloud transformation goals with reduced IT costs and lower TCO.
Watch the video with Festo Head of IT Marcus Masching here.
Global Defense Company
This defense company, which we cannot name publicly, previously had legacy NAS solutions that could no longer cost-effectively address its rapidly growing data storage needs.
The firm wanted to modernize and consolidate its IT infrastructure around a single global solution to simplify management and improve user productivity across remote offices. Among the several vendors it evaluated, only CTERA was able to securely scale to hundreds of distributed sites and tens of thousands of users, as required. CTERA was also chosen for its FIPS 140-2 validated security capabilities that met defense industry requirements.
CTERA’s hyperconverged cloud edge filers (X Series) are deployed at larger sites, while CTERA H Series edge filers are deployed at smaller sites. All files are asynchronously replicated and stored in a single global namespace in the private cloud, where they can be accessed from any remote office or location.
Using CTERA’s solution, the defense firm has reduced storage costs by 50 percent while infrastructure consolidation at hundreds of remote sites significantly reduces IT management efforts and maintenance costs.
Churchill
With its file storage requirements increasing by 10 to 15 percent every six months, world-renowned ceramic tableware maker Churchill (UK) needed a way to lower the cost and complexity of managing file storage services.
Data volume growth, including large video and graphics files from the commercial department, had reached 2TB per year. Expanding its HPE 3PAR SAN array to address its constant data growth would carry a hefty price tag. Accordingly, Churchill chose to transition its file services to a hybrid cloud architecture based on CTERA’s global file system.
The hybrid cloud meets Churchill’s requirement for infinite storage capacity and simplified data management, while saving tens of thousands of pounds on disk storage. A CTERA Edge Filer is installed at Churchill’s main site and serves as the primary NAS. All data is synced and stored automatically to virtual private clouds. Equally important, the CTERA Drive app has enabled seamless file access and collaboration for Churchill’s WFH users during the COVID-19 pandemic.
British Council
The British Council builds human connections between the UK and other countries through culture and education. It operates in 120 countries, with a staff of 10,000 distributed across 240 local offices.
Reflecting its global scope, the British Council’s IT infrastructure was scattered around the world. Its legacy data storage solutions were approaching end-of-life and IT management seized this opportunity to modernize and consolidate its file services infrastructure.
A key requirement was the ability to access data storage on demand from any point on the globe. With its legacy solution, if a site went down, the local data became unavailable. To ensure 24×7 data availability, the IT team wanted a cloud-based backup solution.
CTERA’s global file system gave the British Council a single, easy-to-manage solution combining on-premises infrastructure and cloud storage. Data is backed up locally and in the cloud for maximum availability. Remote users can access data quickly and easily – anytime, anywhere – while minimizing the risks of remote management and reducing IT overhead.
