Royal Veterinary College chooses NetApp

The Royal Veterinary College, part of the University of London and one of the largest and longest-established vet schools in the UK, has chosen NetApp to revamp its data storage infrastructure and drive research in a more efficient manner.

As a leading veterinary college the RVC not only has a large clinical practice, but also undertakes a large body of research. Funded by the likes of Pfizer and other pharmaceutical companies, as well as the UK Research Councils and charities, it leads the way in many areas of research such as bioinformatics and DNA sampling. However, its research also extends into the field and includes projects such as tracking large cats in Africa, the evolution of dinosaur body shape and motion, and reassembling the first animal backbones using a particle accelerator to discover how they evolved.

Following a review of its research volumes and how data is collected and stored, the Royal Veterinary College wanted to establish a more rigorous process to safeguard against the potential loss of important information.

The Royal Veterinary College selected the NetApp running the clustered Data ONTAP operating system, with disaster recovery functions across both of its two sites. This solution consolidates SAN, NAS, primary and secondary storage across one single platform. Clustered Data ONTAP manages a set of storage-saving software, including deduplication and snapshot copies. The platform ensures scalability for the 2PB to 3PB of data that the college produces every day.
Farukh Zeeshan, Head of IT Infrastructure, Royal Veterinary College said: “The simplified management of NetApp makes it very easy for us to manage our data storage. This management performance is one of the strong points and makes the IT team’s job easier. In fact, the clustered Data ONTAP operating system has helped to revolutionise storage management. It’s highly scalable and can go up to 11PB, which is an enormous benefit, and is helping our private cloud flourish and is underpinning our future research and growth plans.”

Elliot Howard, UK & Ireland Country Manager for NetApp said: “NetApp FAS platform has clearly had a positive impact on employee productivity at the Royal Veterinary College. The availability of data is vital to any business – but it’s equally important for educational and research institutions to be able to access data at any time, for continued research. Establishing a rigorous data storage infrastructure can avoid the loss of important information, as well as freeing up time for research-critical work.”