Paternoster
BT Engage IT solves storage challenge for city insurer
When it was formed in early 2006, Paternoster needed cost-effective, enterprise-class data storage that met their needs but would keep pace with future growth.
Business challenge
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Regulated insurance firm Patenoster needed a cost-effective storage solution that would match its current needs but also keep pace with future growth
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Business-critical data had to be secure, readily available and accessible from multiple sites
Key relationship features
Since its inception, Paternoster has used BT Engage IT for the majority of its hardware
and software procurement, inc. desktop,
server, networking and communication
BT Engage IT’s technological expertise combined with a willingness to quickly solve problems has forged a close and trusting relationship.
Although it has strong vendor alliances, BT Engage IT is vendor agnostic so can propose varied solutions that are the very best fit for customer needs.
Benefits
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BT Engage IT provided flexible, end-to-end solutions, supply and services
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It presented Paternoster with different solution options and specialist advice on making the right selection
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Invaluable software and licensing advice saved the customer a considerable amount of money and resulted in a more efficient solution
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Paternoster now has an enterprise-class storage solution that will meet its business needs well into the future requirements
" We already had an excellent relationship with BT Engage relationship with BT Engage IT and when we asked them to implement our new Storage Area Network, they were totally professional from start to finish. They have provided us with a system that supports our current storage needs and will grow to meet future business challenges. ”
Elliot MacInnes, IT Manager, Paternoster
The solution was a Storage Area Network
(SAN) based around the NetApp FAS series of
fibre attached technology and the catalyst
for this was BT Engage IT.
Headquartered in central London and with an office in Mumbai, India, Paternoster is a regulated insurance company that takes on the risks associated with companies’ final salary and defined benefit pensions schemes and assumes the responsibility for paying their pensions into the future.
Demand
“From day one, the IT infrastructure was set up to accommodate a SAN rather than purchasing direct attached storage with each server,” says Paternoster IT Manager, Elliot MacInnes. “We had an open-ended situation because document, email and database storage growth were all dependant on many factors in the initial period of the company. We had to implement a flexible and scalable data storage solution that was in-line with market and company development.”
Rapid growth meant that the need for a SAN soon became a pressing reality. In the first year, storage requirements reached 500 GB and in the next three months it more than doubled in size. Databases are being developed that currently use 250 GB but could grow to 1TB in the next six months and additional capacity is required for analytical and Microsoft® Exchange data. The team has grown to 40 in the UK and 50 in Mumbai.
Based on Trust
Implementing an initial 1TB SAN solution required an IT partner that combined trust with technological expertise and for Paternoster, which meant BT Engage IT.
“Since joining Paternoster, BT Engage IT has provided us with the majority of our hardware, from PC’s to router and switches. Our hardware support contracts are handled by the same BT Engage IT support team, and we MacInnes. “Although we considered other suppliers we decided to stick with BT Engage IT, partly because this would mean a single point of contact but mainly because of the excellent relationship we have built up with them.”
BT Engage IT presented Paternoster with different potential solutions then advised it on the decision to go for a NetApp 270c installation. Designed to combine fast data access with extremely low maintenance, it also met Paternoster’s requirement for easy scalability and support for multiple sites.
Totally Professional
“BT Engage IT took a proactive end-to-end
approach,” says MacInnes. “They listened
to our requirements then put forward the
possible options to enable us to make the
best decision. They designed the solution
then provided professional services to assist
with the installation, configuration and
set-up of the SAN.
“BT Engage IT’s advice also enabled us to cut down on the amount of NetApp software we purchased which helped our budget and enabled us to invest more in hardware, giving us a better matched solution to our initial requirements.
“Previously BT Engage IT gave us immensely useful advice on Microsoft licensing so that rather than paying a one-off lump sum initially, we are now paying over three years which gives us the option to upgrade the software “Thanks to BT Engage IT, we now have a system that is adaptable and can grow to meet our future business needs,” concludes MacInnes.
