Growing number of educational institutions adopt DataCore

Information technology managers in the education sector are under increasing pressure to deliver more storage capacity, better resiliency and faster performance – all while managing costs. DataCore addresses these challenges with software-defined storage (SDS) solutions that deliver significant performance improvements, better utilization of storage devices and substantially improved reliability through redundancy.

Adding Campus-Wide Redundancy and Reducing Storage Costs at Bellarmine College Preparatory
In Bellarmine’s case, the San Jose, Calif.-based private secondary school deployed DataCore’s SANsymphony-V software to increase capacity utilization, performance, and reduce storage-related downtime.

According to IT director Chris Carey, Bellarmine has benefited significantly from DataCore’s software-defined storage solution.
“Having the ability to scale and work across multiple nodes campus-wide and to be able to fail over as needed for upgrades/maintenance/expansion – even during regular business hours – is a real luxury. DataCore SANsymphony-V hasn't been down since we installed it,” he stated.

Carey at Bellarmine has built a very cost-effective storage infrastructure with DataCore that allows ‘Freedom of Choice’ in using any hypervisor, any storage, on any server platform. Currently, the school is using Supermicro-based servers and a number of brands and models of disk storage to meet its needs.

Eliminating Dependence on Expensive Hardware at Thunderbird
Thunderbird has overcome its most pressing IT challenge – a dependence on expensive hardware – with a flexible software-defined storage architecture made possible by DataCore SANsymphony-V. The school’s IT organization also sought to open up its purchasing options and free itself from this hardware and system vendor lock-in. With data storage growth rates climbing, the institution also needed to find an economic way to add more capacity.

“The DataCore solution has allowed us to take a cost-effective approach when addressing our storage needs,” said Johan Reinalda, senior director, network infrastructure and support services at Thunderbird School of Global Management. “Due to the software-defined storage approach of DataCore’s SANsymphony-V, we are free to choose any hardware and no longer locked-in to a storage vendor, which gives us greater purchasing power."

Thunderbird has created a software-defined data center using DataCore and VMware to empower its HP servers and storage.

Nova Southeastern University -- Defining Storage Their Way
Nova Southeastern University is embarking on an education initiative centered on cloud computing. This initiative will be powered by Dell PowerEdge servers provided through the Dell Seed Grant program, storage virtualization software from DataCore Software, and managed services provider Host.net.

DataCore SANsymphony-V software will enable Nova Southeastern to virtualize its storage devices – eliminating storage silos by creating a pool of storage that is managed centrally by one platform delivering unified storage services.

Greater Productivity and Flexibility Driving Momentum
“Educational institutions of all kinds and sizes are turning to DataCore because they realize that it’s not just about the storage hardware,” said George Teixeira, CEO of DataCore. “Instead, it’s about maximizing IT infrastructure performance, availability and utilization by productively using smart software to virtualize and add the needed flexibility to meet changing demands.”

Bellarmine College Preparatory, Nova Southeastern University and the Thunderbird School of Global Management join existing institutions using DataCore, including Arizona State University, Chartered School for Applied Technologies, Florida Atlantic University (FAU), Midwestern University, University of Florida, University of North Carolina Wilmington, and Utah Education Network (University of Utah), among many others. Other recent DataCore customers in education include Colby-Sawyer College, Fargo Public Schools, South Carolina Governor's School for Science and Mathematics, St. Paul Public Schools, The Charter School of San Diego and University of Alaska Fairbanks.