Industry:
Healthcare
The Solution:
Engaged with MTI to design and implement storage platform based on EMC Isilon.
Benefits:
- Consultative relationship characterised by trust and a deep understanding of requirements
- Expert insight ensure top performance
- Value for money and future proof investment
- Ongoing development with responsive support
- Solid, agile storage platform
Company Profile
The Cancer Research UK’s Beatson Institute partners with MTI, building on a relationship established with sister organisation the Wolfson Wohl Cancer Research Centre, to develop a storage platform that meets growing needs and a relationship that is characterised by expert insight and trust.
The Beatson Institute is one of Cancer Research UK’s core-funded institutes and carries out a programme of worldclass science, aimed at understanding key aspects of cancer cell
behaviour. The Beatson translates these discoveries into new therapies and diagnostic/prognostic tools to help cancer patients.
The Wolfson Wohl Cancer Research Centre also focuses exclusively on cancer research and its aim is to shorten the time it takes to turn lab research into treatments for patients. It has strong links to the Beatson West of Scotland Cancer Centre, the lead centre for the delivery of nonsurgical cancer care for the West of Scotland.
The Challenge
The Beatson Institute needed to upgrade its legacy storage platform. After working with MTI at a sister organisation, the Wolfson Wohl, and developing a deep relationship based on trust and expertise, the organisation once again turned to MTI.
MTI’s consultative approach is encouraging and certainly builds trust. You know they are with you for the long haul and it’s not just a technology sale for them. They are extremely responsive and proactive.
Peter McHardy,
IT Manager, Cancer Research UK Beatson Institute
Business Benefits
Needs analysis informs decisions:
MTI developed a storage platform for the Beatson based on EMC Isilon: one that could accommodate production and research needs. It was a turnkey solution and one that will stand the test of time as the Beatson’s data and application requirements evolve. Peter McHardy said: “MTI sat and worked with us to ensure the Isilon system was the best fit for our needs. They provided expertise, and it’s clear they have a good relationship with EMC too.”
Expert insight ensures top performance:
This expertise manifested in a number of ways, for instance, MTI introduced Cisco 10GB fabric extenders to improve the backbone network performance. “MTI developed a tiered storage architecture for us, which was ideal given our competing storage needs. They used their knowledge and skills to ensure the best performance possible and have certainly added great value,” adds Peter McHardy.
Value for money and future proofed:
“There’s more to a relationship than pennies,” adds Peter McHardy “but, as a charity funded organisation, but we have a duty to secure the best value for money and return on investment. With Isilon, we are confident that MTI met our technical and commercial objectives, bolstered by real insight and expertise.”
A solid platform:
The Isilon platform enables efficient, costeffective storage from a single file system, serving I/O-intensive applications, storage, and nearline archives. It provides powerful tools to protect data, control costs, and optimise storage resources and system performance. MTI’s understanding of the Beatson’s needs around increasing amounts of data storage and analysis, coupled with the need for high performance production data, has provided the Beatson with a robust platform for growth and expansion.
Ongoing relationship with responsive Support:
MTI’s relationship with the Beatson is ongoing as it continues to work closely with the organisation to proactively plan how to avoid issues that could surface in the future. For instance, the production storage platform is currently being used as a short-term backup solution while a new business continuity strategy is mapped out for the future that can accommodate of petabytes of storage. “MTI’s consultative approach is encouraging and certainly builds trust. You know they are with you for the long haul and it’s not just a technology sale for them. They are extremely responsive and proactive.”
MTI developed a tiered storage architecture for us which was ideal given our competing storage needs. They used their expertise to ensure the best performance possible and have certainly added great value.
Peter McHardy,
IT Manager, Cancer Research UK Beatson Institute
Why MTI?
One of the features that Peter McHardy liked about working with MTI was the company’s “responsive approach to some of the more difficult questions.” A central tenet of MTI’s operation is a consultative approach that hinges on working closely with the customer to not only understand its immediate needs, but also how an organisation will grow and how this will influence technology choices.
During the Wolfson Wohl implementation, this approach was forefront and dovetailed with MTI’s technology expertise, ensuring the design of a storage platform that could easily scale to accommodate petabytes of data. Peter McHardy said: “MTI had earned our trust at the Wolfson Wohl and it was a natural choice that we would choose them for the Beatson.”
