Every organization needs to invest in storage that performs better, faster, and more efficiently. By modernizing storage technology, companies position themselves to better serve customers and drive lasting efficiency. But storage migrations can be complex, especially when they involve moving petabytes of data across hundreds of hosts. This results in a classic modernization dilemma: We want all the advantages of new technology, but too often it’s expensive, risky, and time-consuming to make the change.
This is exactly what a leading software insurance provider encountered in a recent storage modernization project. Replacing its aging HDS and NetApp arrays with all-flash Pure Storage arrays enabled the software provider to deliver better service to its more than 21,000 agency partners. But this was not a small or simple migration. The company had to migrate 2.5PB of block data across 320 hosts in two data centers within a six-month timeframe. Cirrus Data partnered with the storage provider to simplify this complex migration, achieving the desired results quickly and efficiently. Here’s the story.
The Challenge: Perform a 2.5PB Block Data Migration Across Two Data Centers with Zero Downtime
Migrating a whopping 2.5PB of mission-critical block data – live – within a tight six-month timeframe was no small feat. Making matters more complex, the insurance industry’s round-the-clock demands meant downtime was not an option. The migration solution had to ensure uninterrupted access to key applications and databases—and because there were multiple storage vendors in the mix, native migration tools would be too slow and inflexible to do the job.
All the while, the customer’s IT team had other strategic projects to manage. This storage modernization project demanded the full attention of the data migration experts who could own the management, coordination, and execution of the 2.5PB migration. To free up its internal experts to focus on other strategic projects, the software provider turned to a trusted data mobility partner: the Cirrus Data professional services team.
The Solution: Using Cirrus Migrate On-Premises to Simplify a Complex Data Migration
Because the storage provider had partnered successfully with Cirrus Data on multiple occasions, the company knew the Cirrus Data team could execute this complex migration with ease utilizing their pateneted solution. Key to this decision was the pMotion functionality in the Cirrus Migrate On-Premises solution. pMotion enabled Cirrus Data to execute the block data migration rapidly and without disrupting any critical applications or databases. This empowered the software provider to continue its operations smoothly and without any downtime from the migration.
The Cirrus Data team went beyond merely implementing their solution. Collaborating closely with the storage provider’s experts, the Cirrus Data Professional Services team managed every detail of the complex migration project. This teamwork and communication proved critical when the team discovered that the company’s Oracle RAC instances required dedicated migration resources due to their unique performance needs. To resolve this unexpected problem, Cirrus Data’s Professional Services team worked hand-in-hand with the client’s DBAs and administrators to segment the Oracle instances into their own separate migration wave.
The Result: Executing a Complex Migration 300% Faster
Not only was the entire storage modernization completed within the six-month timeframe, but the Cirrus Data team also achieved a 300% improvement in the customer’s previous time for migrating and cutting over 320 hosts and migrating 2.5PB of block data. Adding to this success, Cirrus Data completed the migration with zero disruption and no downtime to the company’s business operations or clients. This result was made possible by Cirrus Data’s partnership with Pure Storage as well as Cirrus Migrate On-Premises’ built-in any-to-any API integrations with all of the customer’s block storage vendors.
In short, the insurance software provider found a solution to the classic trade-off between the benefits of storage modernization versus the challenge of requiring downtime for the application to complete the migration cutover process. By engaging a proven block data mobility partner with the expertise and technology to execute a zero-downtime migration, you can achieve the same advantages of new storage technology without excessive cost or delay. To learn more about how Cirrus Data simplified this complex data migration, read the full case study.
