ImageTrend, Inc. is cloud hosting and data management company based in Lakeville, Minnesota serving clients in over 30 states. ImageTrend first cut their teeth in supporting first responder agencies requiring the highest SLAs for systems availability, enterprise-level data management and storage resources. ImageTrend provides hosting services and supports over 1000 virtual machines running hundreds of proprietary and off-the-shelf applications for their customers including over 250 SQL instances.
We all love our old stuff, that car you’ve owned for years, maybe a ratty used book, perhaps those worn out flip flops. It’s normal, nostalgia is a powerful emotion. Old is comfortable yet often unreliable. It’s is that old car that breaks down when we need it the most. It’s those old flip flops that tear and trip you. Now image it’s your old and comfortable storage the breaks down. That’s not just inconvenient, it’s a catastrophe. That is what nostalgia with your technology can cost you. But the beauty of technology and IT, is that they have no room for nostalgia. Technology is about celebrating the new, the forward looking and seeing the exciting possibilities that come with the newer and better technology. It is with that forward looking spirit that ImageTrend decided to do away with their old and aging Compellent SAN and look to a future with Microsoft Hyper-V and Storage Spaces.
ImageTrend faced a classic IT challenge…how to cost effectively scale operations while managing costs. They are supporting multiple sites running over 1000 VMs, with a wide variety of customer developed and off-the-shelf applications, including over 250 SQL instances. They began with a new strategic plan to overcome the challenge of doing more with less. This included:
Customer Case Study
- Accelerating their migration to an all Microsoft and Hyper-V cloud infrastructure
- Leverage Microsoft Storage Spaces and SoFS to move away from their Compellent SAN
- Ability to leverage cloud bursting and DR with Microsoft Azure
- Unify management with MSSC and VMM
- Simplify VM migration between on premise and Microsoft Azure Cloud
- Leverage Hyper-Convergence architectures to lower OPEX, CAPEX and power
To start the implementation of this strategy they chose Microsoft Hyper-V as their standard virtualized environment, began replacing their aging Fibre Channel based SAN storage infrastructure and they looked at new Hyper-Converged infrastructure. In Microsoft Windows Storage Server 2012, with Storage Spaces and using the Scale out File System, ImageTrend saw a cost-effective way to lower costs, meet SLAs and provide high availability to their demanding clients.
In our next blog we will cover how ImageTrend moved away from their Compellent SAN and why they choose DataON Storage.
Comments are closed.