Transcript
I like to think of what we’re accomplishing with Hitachi Unified Storage as executing more value-added tasks. The result is greater efficiencies, better protected data, and a sounder way of managing the business.
SUCCESS STORY
Tim Lago IT Director Hitachi Automotive Systems Americas
Hitachi Automotive Systems Americas Test Drives Unified Storage for Better Handling and Performance of all Data Hitachi Automotive Systems Americas supplies top-quality products to the world’s biggest automakers. To drive home a better-built data storage environment, supporting growth and efficiency without compromising performance or availability, the parts manufacturer deployed Hitachi Unified Storage and Hitachi Data Protection Suite. Hitachi Automotive now has a modern, sleek design for universally managing block, file and object data, and accelerating backup and recovery. Sometimes, the sum of the whole is greater than its parts, especially when the individual components are top quality. For many of the world’s largest automotive companies, Hitachi Automotive Systems Americas, Incorporated, builds these quality parts.
offices in Michigan and California. This US automotive manufacturer is a wholly owned subsidiary of Hitachi America, Ltd. It operates with a philosophy of “Quality, Cost, Development, Delivery and Speed,” to deliver the best parts and service to the auto industry.
Established in 1985 in Harrodsburg, Kentucky, Hitachi Automotive Systems Americas is responsible for designing, manufacturing and selling thousands of OEM automotive products for GM, Ford, Chrysler and other car companies. From drive train components to electronic control technologies, Hitachi Automotive Systems Americas develops over 20,000 high-quality parts.
Upgrade Parts for a Unified Storage Environment
The company has a total of 5 US locations, including 2 manufacturing sites in Kentucky and 1 in Georgia, and regional
With business success comes data growth, and for Hitachi Automotive Systems Americas, so did the need for more modern and efficient data storage. Each location was handling data storage and backup independently, with various technologies from Veritas, CommVault and Acer. “We have very valuable data, everything from R&D to customer orders and sales information; it’s the data we use to run
Hitachi Automotive Systems Americas INDUSTRY Manufacturing
SOLUTION Unified Storage, Modular Platform, Business Continuity Hardware Hitachi Unified Storage, Hitachi Adaptable Modular Storage 2000 SOFTWARE Hitachi Data Protection Suite, Hitachi Tuning Manager, Hitachi Device Manager, Hitachi Dynamic Link Manager, Hitachi Dynamic Provisioning
SUCCESS STORY
It’s a top priority to ensure that I can meet all the requirements for internal customers, and by extension, external customers, and the Hitachi-onHitachi solution is making this a reality. Tim Lago IT Director Hitachi Automotive Systems Americas
the business. We manage about 23TB across our sites. Each site administrator was dealing with really long backup windows and numerous manual processes using older tape technology. As we’ve grown, the top priority has become better data protection,” explains Tim Lago, IT director for Hitachi Automotive Systems Americas. To create a greater sum of the parts, Lago wanted to unify storage across the enterprise, simplify backup and restoration, and improve administrative efficiencies. “One of our corporate initiatives is to utilize other Hitachi Group companies, which led us to Hitachi Data Systems,” he says.
Accelerate Capabilities to Manage All Data Hitachi Automotive Systems Americas had a lot of older storage area network (SAN) hardware and wanted to commence with replacement technologies that would accomplish the company’s goals. “We started by installing Hitachi Adaptable Modular Storage at our Michigan location and both Kentucky sites. With the release of Hitachi Unified Storage systems, we’ve begun implementing these systems for our backup solution across locations,” says Lago. Hitachi Unified Storage facilitates the consolidation of file, block and object data on a central midrange platform to unify the storage environment. By providing a balanced approach to scalability and performance, Hitachi Unified Storage enables support for critical applications, data center consolidations, and even cloud-ready infrastructure, all through a single intuitive interface. Hitachi Unified Storage is a purpose-built storage system with active-active dual controllers and
NAS heads that work together to achieve very high performance, scalability and reliability across all data types. Hitachi Unified Storage allows Lago and his team to universally manage file, block and object data at the midrange level, without compromising performance, scalability or cost efficiency. “What’s great is that the Unified Storage will allow us to manage easier and faster across the enterprise. If my internal customers can’t get reliable, instant access to their data, then ultimately, it’s the company’s external customers who are impacted. It’s a top priority to ensure that I can meet all the requirements for internal customers, and by extension, external customers, and the Hitachi-on-Hitachi solution is making this a reality,” Lago continues. Helping to expedite data management are built-in Unified Storage tools. These tools include Hitachi Dynamic Provisioning to pool storage for improved capacity utilization. They also include high-end functionalities such as dynamic load balancing and autotiering for predictable performance amid rapidly changing workload environments. Dynamic Provisioning furnishes pervasive data protection and replication to reduce business risk, downtime and migration issues, with ample support for volume snapshots and remote replication.
Handle Better Backup and Recovery Maneuvers Bolstering backup and recovery for Hitachi Automotive Systems Americas is Hitachi Data Protection Suite, powered by CommVault. Sleek and modern in its delivery of a truly unified data management solution, the Data Protection Suite of software automates and speeds backup and
recovery of data. Hitachi’s 3rd-generation deduplication technology reduces data at the source to shorten backup windows and minimize bandwidth requirements. It also seamlessly handles direct recovery from deduplicated disk or tape media. Data Protection Suite uses global reporting for quick status checks of data protection, resource consumption and any hot spots. “We’re using Data Protection Suite to back up all our servers at each location. It’s helping to eliminate most of the manual processes and local administration demands, and the dedupe technology also means that we don’t have to run full backups, which is a huge time saver,” says Lago. Also working for the Hitachi Automotive Systems Americas is Hitachi Dynamic Link Manager. “It’s a host-based multipath software that we’ve installed on a few servers for server failover scenarios. If we ever have an issue with one controller, we can automatically fail over to another,” he points out.
Results: Road Tested and Precision Crafted Lago’s team is halfway through implementing the Hitachi solution at all locations. With an enterprise-wide unified storage environment, Hitachi Automotive Systems Americas can now back up, restore and protect data across multiple sites in a consistent and secure manner. Each of the 5 facilities has primary storage, backup targets and replication capabilities, which contribute to better disaster recovery and overall business continuity. “The near-future plan is to move toward replication between sites for disaster recovery, delivering it to the Harrodsburg location. Then we’ll be looking at hot-site technologies and file server consolidation. When we’re all done, we will be able to capture significant reductions in backup requirements, administrative time, and overall risks,” Lago details. Already, the company has realized operational improvements and better service. “Before, we would have to pull tape, search tape, that whole manual and tedious process, just to meet a request for finding or restoring a data file. Of course, now it’s so much faster
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because, if the data is within our retention window, we simply locate and restore the file instantly from online disk. So we’re meeting service requests faster,” he explains. Regarding backup, Lago cites dramatic improvements. “We would spend 16 to 18 hours for backing up to tape, for a single file server. Now, we can do it in a 4-to-6-hour window, for a 75% savings in time per server. We no longer have to tie up administrative talent at each location for backup. We’ve
removed manual processes and have been able to reengineer how our administrators accomplish the work. We’ve consolidated backup responsibilities, retasked administrators with new job functions, and are better managing IT priorities. I like to think of what we’re accomplishing with the Hitachi Unified Storage as executing more value-added tasks. The result is greater efficiencies, better protected data and a sounder way of managing the business,” Lago concludes.
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© Hitachi Data Systems Corporation 2013. All rights reserved. HITACHI is a trademark or registered trademark of Hitachi, Ltd. Innovate With Information is a trademark or registered trademark of Hitachi Data Systems Corporation. All other trademarks, service marks, and company names are properties of their respective owners. Notice: This document is for informational purposes only, and does not set forth any warranty, expressed or implied, concerning any equipment or service offered or to be offered by Hitachi Data Systems Corporation. SS-419-A DG February 2013
