St Andrews University holds Dell in high Esteem
Integrator wins deal to upgrade historic university's storage
Integrator Esteem has secured a contract to install a Dell Compellent storage solution at the University of St Andrews to help the organisation become carbon neutral by 2016.
The university is saddled with a storage infrastructure that can no longer meet its data requirements, but the new installation will centralise the university’s research data, providing instant access to information that can be securely shared among internal and external researchers.
Steve Watt, CIO at the University of St Andrews, said: “Our previous storage infrastructure was unable to meet our data requirements; we had multiple islands of storage infrastructure which were difficult to manage and the solutions were neither cost nor energy efficient.
"Students and staff expect to be able to access university systems on a 24/7 basis, using any device and from any location. The Dell Compellent SANs will ensure the availability and security of our data, without restricting access,” he added.
“Having a resilient platform with adequate DR facilities was a key requirement for us; our data is a critical asset for the university which needs a sufficient level of support.”
Another key driver for Esteem winning the deal was that it could help the organisation reduce power consumption as part of its plan to become carbon neutral.
Watt said: “Currently data is stored in more than 50 locations. The Dell solution will allow us to consolidate this data and reduce the number of locations used for storage to just two. This will result in a significant reduction in power required to run and cool these SANs, dramatically reducing our carbon footprint.”
Alastair Kitching, sales and marketing director at Esteem, added: “Educational organisations need to invest in IT in order to meet the ever-increasing expectations of students. As a committed Premier Partner of Dell, we are confident of the benefits Dell Compellent technology can bring to an organisation, in order to meet and exceed those expectations.”