Case study: Jungle IT & Digital Media Services

The solution
DMS UK purchased two Overland (OVRL) SnapServer 620 devices and two SnapServer Expansion S50s from Jungle IT. Apart from the  16TB capacity that each configuration of SATA HDDs offered DMS, the solution also gave DMS the possibility to expand the capacity further in the future with the addition of more S50s.

Both SnapServers 620s use RAID 5 data protection technology which resolves the issues surrounding disk failure. DMS has deployed the two SnapServers, with the aim of automatically replicating one to the other. 

The primary SnapServer 620 is connected to the main DMS network. The secondary SnapServer is based 100 metres up the road in a separate office, acting as a backup and recovery device.

Holmes continues: “Replicating data has proved a useful way to guard against data loss. This was illustrated recently when an administrative error caused us to delete some data from our primary Overland device. All we had to do was simply recover the required data from the second device, where it had been replicated, and save it back to the main device with minimum worry and effort.”

Growing the data
With the ability to scale from 1TB to 176TB of storage capacity, Holmes was able to right-size DMS UK’s storage environment by purchasing only what he needed. Using SATA storage, DMS currently manages 16 TB of data on each SnapServer, four drives on the main chassis and the rest populating the Snap Expansion S50.

He elaborates: “We are now at the stage where we need to add a couple of terabytes of data to each SnapServer every month, so adding drives is becoming a regular requirement. We have already drawn up contracts and pricing with Overland for the next JBOD upgrade because the existing chassis’ are already at capacity.

“Fortunately, the scalability of the SnapServer 620 solution allows us to just keep adding capacity.”

Adds Asquith: “Since installing the solution, DMS has been able to get rid of its existing costly and unreliable NAS drives, and put in place a scalable storage solution that will give years of expansion and growth. The replication has proved very useful; DMS recently had an administrative error, which resulted some of its data from the primary Overland device, being deleted. All DMS had to do was recover the data from the disaster recovery site, and they were back up and running in minutes.”