Success Stories

Czech Library Chooses Infortrend SAN for Virtualization Clusters

Organization

The Municipal Library in Prague, the Czech Republic

Challenges and Requirements

No vendor-lock components
Easily connectable with existing SAN
Capacity of backup devices was running out
Price level and durability of the solution
Data tiering architecture

Solution

EonStor GSa 3000, DS 4000 with SSD Cache, and DS 1000 for virtualization servers:

All-flash array GSa and high availability SAN DS 4000 with SSD cache for primary load of critical data
DS 1000 for secondary operational tasks
Expandable HDD capacity for storing the library digitized materials

Czech Library Chooses Infortrend SAN for Virtualization Clusters

“We have been purchasing Infortrend storage since 2013. We also have experience with other famous brands, so we can compare. Infortrend does not lag behind them, offering comparable performance and quality without the need to pay “for brand”. At the same time, many Infortrend technical solutions come to us even more modern and better than those of branded competitors. So, we are definitely satisfied with performance and pricing policy,” said IT specialist of the Municipal Library in Prague.

Founded in 1891, the Municipal Library in Prague is the biggest and one of the most important libraries in the Czech Republic, playing an important cultural and community role. The library IT team modernized and digitized the library and is constantly working on introducing new technologies. Their workflow required powerful SAN storage with high flexibility and massive capacity to run virtual servers and backup digitized materials. Infortrend has won several times in tenders for the library IT projects.

Challenges and Requirements:

As an organization in the budget sphere, the library is bound by the conditions for tenders, so they always try to find an optimal solution without unnecessary vendor-lock components
Block-level storage easily connectable to existing SAN architecture was needed
Capacity of existing storage for backup purposes was no longer sufficient
There was a great emphasis on price and durability of the solution
Not all data was equally important or frequently accessed, so there was a need to optimize infrastructure performance in accordance with data prioritization and ensure high performance for processing critical data

Solution: EonStor GSa 3000, DS 4000 with SSD Cache, and DS 1000

EonStor GSa 3000, EonStor DS 4000, and EonStor DS 1000 were chosen as shared block devices for virtualization clusters. LUN size max. 64TB is used for multiple virtual servers consisting of 8TB disk arrays in RAID 6 configuration (for its great security). The data is moved between virtual fields according to requirements: virtual servers, repository of backups or non-critical data, etc. Critical data run on all-flash unified storage EonStor GSa 3000 (5,000 IOPS performance, latency below 1.5 ms) and high availability DS 4000 with dual redundant controller and SSD cache. DS 1000 was set to handle secondary operational tasks and provide capacity for the digitized data of the workplace. To a pleasant surprise of the library IT specialists, DS 1000 greatly lightened the operation of DS 4000 eliminating bottlenecks, even under a load of 40 virtual severs and almost constant flow of 2,000 IOPS.

Why Infortrend

Great price level allowing to win tenders
High performance block-level services to run multiple virtual servers
Wide range of products for different virtualization fields
Compatibility with existing SAN infrastructure
Expandable capacity for the backup and digitized library data

About the Municipal Library in Prague

The Municipal Library in Prague is the most important and the largest library in the Czech Republic with more than forty branches. For more information, please visit: https://www.mlp.cz/en/