Cristie Data were selected by Alliance Homes to recommend a suitable solution to replace their existing SAN, which was approaching end of life. A Nimble Storage CS300 array was selected to support Alliance Homes’ heavily virtualised environment, and the hybrid solution has enabled Alliance Homes to try SSD storage without the expense of a pure SSD SAN. The hit rate from SSD is currently running around 97% minimum which is a marked improvement for Alliance Homes.
“I am really pleased with my SAN,” commented Philip Hill, IT Systems Analyst at Alliance Homes. “My Nimble’s brilliant and takes up less space in my racks. If it came down to it and I had to purchase another, I will certainly favour Nimble - it just sits there in the rack, doing its thing and getting on with it!”
Equally important for Alliance Homes, was the due diligence on the people they’d be partnering with. “More than anything I liked Cristie Data. I found them to be easy-going and not pushy, and I thought these are people I could really work with,” continued Hill. “When you’re making an investment that will last 3-5 years you have to be confident in that relationship, and Cristie had built that trust.”
“We have developed a great partnership with Alliance Homes,” concluded Peter Bennett, Business Development Manager at Cristie Data. “We knew that the Nimble was a really good fit for them and it’s really rewarding to know that it has surpassed their expectations.”