The Challenge

Companies of all sizes are realising the importance of taking precautions to safeguard their data, and many are turning to cloud services like Acronis for assistance. When it comes to cyber security, Acronis has been there for people, companies, and service providers in 150 different nations since 2003. Eighty percent of the Fortune 1000 rely on Acronis solutions today, joining more than five million satisfied customers and half a million businesses.

Acronis must minimise storage expenses in order to stay up with the ever-increasing demands placed on their storage infrastructure. However, it was becoming increasingly difficult and expensive to operate a massive storage infrastructure that spans 14 data centres throughout the globe.

Storage solutions from several suppliers compounded the issue because they did not share an interface or a support team. Acronis also had to maintain its legendary reliability even as it expanded its storage capabilities. Acronis could not afford to skimp on quality as it relies on its cybersecurity and data protection offerings to stay in business.

The Solution

Acronis wanted to solve these problems and lay the groundwork for its next stage of expansion by standardising its global storage infrastructure on solutions from a single vendor. DIAWAY OÜ, a trusted partner in technology, was called in to help. Experts at DIAWAY fashioned a deployable, scalable architecture, and then built an in-depth financial model to foresee capital and operating costs for the next five years.

In doing so, DIAWAY compared products from a number of industry leaders in the storage space. Western Dig was the only supplier capable of meeting Acronis's long-term expansion needs at a reasonable price.

The Benefits

Acronis has completed the first step of its planned revamp by implementing Western Digital Ultrastar platforms in the majority of its global storage infrastructure. Its global environment presently comprises more than 220 petabytes of capacity, with additional capacity being added on a regular basis.

Through its partnership with Western Digital, Acronis has obtained the following advantages:

• Reduced total cost of ownership (TCO): Over the next five years, the Western Digital system will significantly cut Acronis' storage costs, including capital expenditures and operational costs for power, colocation, and maintenance, according to DIAWAY. The Ultrastar platform will cost more than 25% less per terabyte than competing options.

• Simplified Operations: Acronis is simplifying its massive storage infrastructure by standardising on Western Digital Ultrastar platforms at data centres worldwide. Today, infrastructure and storage teams use the same processes and technologies and contact the same Western Digital experts for support. A uniform global storage architecture makes capacity planning easier and more predictable.

• Long-Term Reliability: Ultrastar storage from Western Digital provides rock-solid reliability at scale and under demanding performance requirements. Ultrastar has redundant power supply units, IO modules, and fans. Western Digital covers Ultrastar platforms for five years. Western Digital gives Acronis' leadership team confidence to grow its storage performance, capacity, and density.