Boosting Storage Availability and Performance to Ensure Outstanding Customer Service

Overview

Challenge

• Maintain high performance and availability for mission-critical retail systems by modernizing the storage environment.

Solution

• Migrate seamlessly to Hitachi VSP One Block 24, delivering enterprise-class block storage for mission-critical applications

Outcome

• Boost storage capacity by more than 20%, reduce rack space requirements, and ensure near-zero downtime for retail operations

Challenge

A leading cosmetics retailer, this company offers customers a wide selection of brands via a mixture of physical stores and its e-commerce site. Digital systems play a key role in omnichannel operations across the company, and the company relies on its IT infrastructure to help it ensure seamless retail experiences for customers.

To support its digital systems, the retailer uses a virtualized IT infrastructure. Many of the company’s core business applications require low storage latency—so when the existing storage infrastructure approached end-of-life, the company decided to act quickly to find a replacement.

“We encountered limitations with our storage infrastructure that affected our ability to scale effectively and meet increasing demand from the business,” says a spokesperson for the cosmetics retailer. “Performance bottlenecks were becoming an increasing challenge, and it was difficult to get the level of support we expected from our previous storage vendor.”

Solution

To deliver the performance, availability and scalability to support its core business systems, the retailer selected Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform One (VSP One) Block. An enterprise-class block storage platform designed for mission-critical applications, VSP One Block incorporates NVMe technology for rapid data processing and ultra-low latency.

“After evaluating several storage vendors, we chose Hitachi for their impeccable reputation and the strong alignment between both of our brands as industry leaders in our region,” comments the spokesperson. “Our shared values and commitment to quality made Hitachi a natural choice.”

Another key factor in the selection process was the Hitachi solution’s space-efficient design. With a compact rack footprint, VSP One Block minimizes power and cooling requirements in the data center. In addition, the solution’s 32 fibre host ports eliminated the need for the cosmetics retailer to purchase additional SAN switches.

“By partnering with Hitachi, we felt that we would gain a simpler and more efficient storage infrastructure,” says the spokesperson. “Hitachi Vantara’s 100% data availability guarantee also gave us confidence that we could complete the migration to VSP One Block without impacting our day-to-day operations.”

Outcome

Working with Hitachi Vantara and a local technology partner, the company migrated its data to the new VSP One Block solution, which now supports the company’s mission-critical retail operations across its core markets.

“Hitachi Vantara delivered on schedule and within our agreed budget, and the migration project has been smooth,” says the spokesperson. “Other vendors were only able to offer remote assistance, but Hitachi gives us on-site support to help with technical issues, firmware updates, and other tasks.”

The VSP One Block solution will boost the company’s storage capacity by over 20% and eliminate performance bottlenecks, helping the company to ensure its retail operations run smoothly for years to come. The new solution also takes up 50% less rack space than the previous storage environment, reducing operational costs and complexity.

“VSP One Block helps us to support our high-speed retail environments and protect our data,” concludes the spokesperson. “Backed by a robust storage infrastructure from Hitachi, we can meet the beauty values and needs of our customers.”