IT refresh for Cancer Research UK

Cancer Research UK has refreshed its IT infrastructure through a partnership with EMC, which has seen a number of new technologies deployed.

The organisation has implemented a private cloud and VMware for over 1,200 virtual desktops, which it hopes will provide its 3,500 staff with faster and more reliable access to supporter data, donor databases and critical applications that are accessed on a daily basis by the fundraising and marketing teams.

Michael Briggs, head of infrastructure at Cancer Research UK, said that the organisation had been facing “significant performance issues” since it had moved premises.

“Our previous IT infrastructure didn’t have the necessary storage processing power or flexibility to handle our growing data demands and the resulting delays that our users were experiencing was something we just couldn’t afford.

“We decided to transform our IT infrastructure using EMC technologies and began seeing the benefits straight away; both in terms of an immediate performance improvement and a reduction in backup time and cost,” he explained.

Cancer Research UK has replaced its legacy storage environment with EMC’s Data Domain deduplication storage systems, while also implementing EMC’s NetWorker unified backup and disaster recovery software.

The organisation believes the investment has improved storage performance and utilisation by 30%, which has made it possible to accommodate its 30% yearly data growth. The improved backup and disaster recovery capabilities have also reduced costs.

“Our staff have been delighted by the ease-of-use and scalability of Data Domain and NetWorker. The cost of our EMC backup solution means that we will break even within 18 months, compared with the cost of the older managed service,” added Briggs.