From its beginnings in 1902, when it was established as a self-help mechanism to assist pharmacists with obtaining favorable credit, Deutsche Apotheker und Ärztebank—or apoBank—has evolved into a large institution with thousands of customers and multiple product offerings. As the bank has matured, its data management and storage needs have become increasingly complex. To better manage its data at lower cost, apoBank adopted a modern information lifecycle management (ILM) strategy for its corporate data. Chief among its requirements were the ability to securely store and be able to trace corporate data, reduce backup times and simplify storage administration, in part by reducing the number of interfaces between the bank’s technical applications and the storage system.
apoBank selected Sun to help it develop an innovative ILM infrastructure that offers a high-performance, fully redundant storage solution with standardized interfaces. The bank’s storage area network (SAN)-based infrastructure comprises eight network switches with nearly 300 host ports. It incorporates two Sun StorageTek 9980 systems, each with 14 terabytes of capacity . The tape drives and media for the bank’s existing Sun StorageTek L700 tape libraries were converted to current LTO 2 technology to enable apoBank to store up to 200 gigabytes of uncompressed data (native capacity) on each tape.
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The high efficiency and reliability of the Sun ILM storage solution allows the data management for more than 150 technical applications to be carried out by just one member of staff.
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— Dr. Lars Knohl, Deputy Divisional Manager, Informatics & Organization, Deutsche Apotheker und Ärztebank
Sun StorageTek Storage Archive Manager (SAM) software provides apoBank with efficient data management and utilization via data classification, centralized metadata management, policy-based data management, long-term retention and recovery, a task that the bank previously accomplished manually. Sun StorageTek Operations Manager software enables apoBank to centrally administer and monitor all SAN components while Sun StorageTek Automated Cartridge System (ACSLS) Library Manager Software provides automated centralized control for more efficient use of the company’s tape libraries. Sun StorageTek 9900 TrueCopy software provides improved business continuity and recovery management to minimize downtime and help ensure nonstop access to data. Sun Professional Services was engaged for project management and implementation of the ILM infrastructure in concert with the bank's partners. The entire storage solution is covered by SunSpectrum support.
With its Sun-based storage infrastructure, apoBank can more efficiently store its data while meeting its requirements for security and traceability. For the bank’s IT specialists, a key advantage of the new architecture is that it minimizes the number of interfaces required for document management, providing a single interface between the bank’s applications and its data archive. Backup times have also shortened thanks to increased throughput of the tape drives of 80 megabytes per second. Automation of disk and tape storage retrieval has reduced administrative costs associated with controlling and monitoring the backup process. These features combined allow a single administrator to handle storage management and archiving of the bank’s 150 technical applications. The solution also enables the bank to monitor storage use and carry out user-related billing, dramatically improving the transparency of its overhead costs.
