Multinational Firm Migrated Business-Critical Application
The Customer
The customer is a large multinational consulting and services firm with offices in over 150 countries. At one of its US data centers, the IT team needed to migrate one of its most essential business applications.
The Challenge
The firm needed to migrate their critical documentation management system (DMS) application. The firm enlisted the help of its technology partners, Dell EMC and Computex Technology Solutions, to identify a file solution to migrate the data from its source platform, Dell EMC VNX. The firm decided to migrate the 100+ TB of data from VNX to Dell EMC Isilon using DobiMigrate.
The firm faced many challenges with time, expertise, and risk. With old tools, the firm projected that migrating the application would take over two years to complete. The firm had a deadline to migrate the data within 10 weeks. In addition to the time constraints, an even bigger challenge was that one of the firm’s IT groups in the US had never deployed Isilon technology in their territory, and they lacked the necessary expertise and experience. The majority of the firm’s revenue is generated from this particular application, and it was required that the DMS application continues to encrypt the data at rest without any interruption to their business.
The Solution
Computex Technology Solutions worked with Dell EMC to propose deploying DobiMigrate software for the VNX to Isilon migration of the DMS application. In addition, Computex Technology Solutions managed and performed the professional services aspect of the project.
After deploying DobiMigrate, the firm was able to have its entire dataset migrated on target and in the prescribed timeframe. In just 20 days, 110 TB of data was migrated from VNX to Isilon and the cutover took place – as scheduled – a few weekends later.
“During the deployment phase, we encountered an ultra-visible, minor outage, where we had the inability to enter new data in the application. The files were exported as ‘read-only,’ said Derrick Kuhl, District Manager for Computex Technology Solutions, St. Petersburg, Florida location. “The Engineering team at Datadobi was very responsive and agile. They took our unique requirement; updated the software; tested it in a like environment; and within just a few weeks, the software was able to migrate according to our timeframe and regulatory needs.”
Metrics for Success
The firm’s goal was to migrate as quickly and efficiently as possible to Isilon without any disruptions to their day-to-day business. By utilizing DobiMigrate, the firm, Dell EMC, and Computex Technology Solutions achieved their overall project goals:
- Meet project deadline – The team had just a few short months to migrate its most critical application. DobiMigrate, being at a minimum of 10 times faster than any other solution, was able to migrate the data within the firm’s deadline.
- No application performance disruption – DobiMigrate’s built-in flexibility minimized disruption to daily business and allowed the firm to easily adapt to changing business priorities.
- Provide reports and documentation – Given the firm’s nature, they needed to provide documentation to senior management on an ongoing basis. DobiMigrate’s reporting functionality allowed them to provide real-time reports during each phase of the technology transition.
- Preserve security structures around data – DobiMigrate reduced risk by removing much of the manual process, automating repetitive activities, and streamlining complex tasks.
– Senior Manager of Infrastructure Services
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