Case study: Modernising VolkerWessels UK’s datacentres
Read about how we upgraded VolkerWessels UK’s infrastructure with an array of modern datacentre and storage solutions with Tintri.
Background
In this case study we hear from James Twyman, ICT Infrastructure Delivery Manager at VolkerWessels UK. James is responsible for the day-to-day running of the infrastructure, as well as implementing new technologies. Ultimately, his team oversees all of the infrastructure and connectivity for VolkerWessels UK, supporting 130 remote sites and around 3,500 staff.
VolkerWessels UK is a leading multidisciplinary contractor that delivers innovative engineering solutions across the civil engineering and construction sectors including rail, highways, airport, marine, energy, water, and environmental infrastructure.
“Our main goal then was obviously to have something that was much more reliable and sustainable, and we were against the clock with the old storage array.”
James Twyman, ICT Infrastructure Delivery Manager at VolkerWessels UK
The Solution
VolkerWessels UK relied on the strength of its existing long-standing relationship with Trustmarque to upgrade its storage swiftly.
Next, Account Manager Chris Barnes presented James with the Intelliflash solution from Tintri. The solution offered nearly 400TB of effective capacity across two datacentres and enabled VolkerWessels UK to consolidate various storage platforms under one single appliance, to vastly improve not only performance but also to simplify the overall management. The production array doubles the previous amount of Flash on the old array to 30Tib.
Moreover, the IntelliFlash storage platform is a fourth-generation Intelligent Infrastructure solution portfolio that delivers an exceptional user experience. In fact, these systems offer a differentiated combination of performance, automation, analytic insights, and time-saving management features to drive the most valuable workloads in today’s datacentres.
“The results speak for themselves – essentially we’ve migrated about 100 terabytes of data in two weeks, to prepare for the installation. We’ve also gone from nearly 40 cables down to 12 cables, making it easier to manage and we’ve more than halved our rack footprint.”
James Twyman, ICT Infrastructure Delivery Manager at VolkerWessels UK
Yet, this was a large, complex installation, with some additional training provided to James and his team to ensure the smooth running of the set-up. Thanks to its innovative approach to storage, Tintri is a major part of Trustmarque’s discussions and proposals when customers are looking at their datacentre modernisation. Tintri supported the specification and solution, as well as offering long-term collaborative engagement on replacement and upgrade processes. Trustmarque was also awarded Tintri’s 2021 partner of the year accolade, and because of this, we boast a strong team of datacentre experts, willing to go the extra mile for our clients.
Solution Benefits:
- Consolidating everything under one platform for the client.
- Less power and cooling costs due to cutting edge datacentre design.
- Hands-on training experience for James from the Tintri team to foresee any future issues
- Find out more about the technical specifications here.
“We knew where to go; the fact that we didn’t even entertain other suppliers speaks volumes. We come to Trustmarque time and time again because of the service we get from Chris. There’s no hard sell, and he genuinely wants the best solutions in place for us.”
James Twyman, ICT Infrastructure Delivery Manager at VolkerWessels UK
Storage and datacentre solutions from Trustmarque
We offer a number of services for cloud and datacentre which can either be carried out in conjunction with other projects or as a stand-alone service. However, if your organisation has a bespoke need, please speak to your Trustmarque Account Manager to see where we can help.
Written by Julia Bluckert.
