A healthy tape upgrade

Paolo Marcheschi, Director of IT at Fondazione Toscana Gabriele Monasterio oversees all IT activities for the Italian Foundation, managing the backup infrastructure for its staff of 500 and including back-up of its growing 100 TB of research and patient data generated by its two hospitals, which are based 60 km apart in Pisa and Massa. The Foundation made a decision to increase its storage capacity so that it can efficiently store the many kinds of DICOM (Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine) images from diagnostic acquisition modalities and laboratory tests, needed for its patients and research. Local law requires that the hospitals store patients records for ten years but as a research facility, the Foundation keeps them for much longer.

The existing IT system comprised an Oracle server with QStar Archive Manager HSM (Hierarchical Storage Management) software to manage the files stored in the Library. Due to the many TB’s of data health practitioners and researchers need to share at any one time, the Foundation has six servers supporting this system.

The criteria for the new LTO tape-based file storage system was determined on functionality and available resources. Hospital staff require access to customer data 24/7 so reliability was key as well as security for data protection purposes but as a small organisation with limited funding and just two IT administrators cost and ease to operate and maintain were also fundamental factors. Paolo looked at several options and chose the Spectra Logic T50e which combines best in class LTO tape technology, powerful library management functionality as well as increased security through integrated BlueScale® Encryption at a price within his budget.

The installation was achieved within the Foundation’s three month deadline and since implementation Paolo and his team are finding that the T50e is achieving on all objectives. He said, “All the data is sent for pick-up by the T50e through one server and we don’t have to do much, it’s working well. At the moment we have about 48TB stored on the T50e but the Foundation has plans to link its two hospitals by fibre channel over the next few months which will see that capacity increase as we mirror back-up at both locations.”

The T50e has been designed for organisations that need minimum downtime but have little time for maintenance operations as it self-monitors its media, drives, power supplies, controller and robotics, alerting administrators when they need attention.

Brian Grainger, Spectra Logic’s senior vice president of worldwide sales added, “The T50e is an economical archive solution that scales up to an impressive 5.8 TB/hr throughput and 313 TB of compressed capacity with best in class features that make it easy to use and maintain. In addition it is compatible with all major Active Archive software offerings, operating systems and platforms, making it a clear winner for organisations wanting to consolidate and expand their backup systems.”