Intelligent CIO Europe Issue 25 | Page 59

CASE STUDY B ezeq, a leading telecommunications provider based in Israel, has deployed the Excelero NVMesh as the centrepiece of a new scale-out storage architecture behind its mission-critical data warehouse. Replacing a high-end all-flash array with the simplicity and scale of an architecture using Excelero NVMesh along with Fujitsu servers and Mellanox 100 Gbps Ethernet switches, Bezeq has achieved a 2x–3x throughput improvement and cut database run times by up to 90%. As NVMe SSDs overtook traditional Flash SSD sales in 2019, they are expected to grow into a US$9 billion market by 2022, up from just US$2 billion in 2017 (G2M Research, December 2018). Bezeq’s results with Excelero, a disruptor in software-defined block storage, typify the advantages that NVMe over fabrics architectures deliver in superior throughput, ultra-low latency, scalability and flexibility. computing and hosted cloud services. Several years ago, Bezeq migrated from an Oracle Exadata system to a Hitachi UCP with internal Fusion IO and a Hitachi VSP F400 all-flash array connected via Fibre Channel. Bezeq offers phone and Internet services, smart devices, cybersecurity and cloud backup services. But recently, the storage solution’s insufficient throughput, slow response times and inability to be expanded led the IT team to seek a revamp. Its data warehouse holds more than 118TB of vital data on sales, services, financial transactions, engineering device and customer interactions – data used to generate reports that help management streamline operations. The data warehouse is also supporting an expansion into promising new lines of business such as high-performance “The Excelero NVMesh software-defined technology is the only technological solution that meets our performance demands and has proven to be an excellent decision,” said Igal Muginstein, Storage and Backup Team Manager at Bezeq. “As a leader in the national communications market, we are on the lookout for promising THE EXCELERO NVMESH SOFTWARE- DEFINED TECHNOLOGY IS THE ONLY TECHNOLOGICAL SOLUTION THAT MEETS OUR PERFORMANCE DEMANDS. new technologies. NVMesh is a highly advanced solution and we have quickly seen the tangible benefits of replacing the complicated server with internal SSD and all-flash array with the simplicity and scale of Excelero NVMesh.” The new infrastructure incorporates Excelero NVMesh running on a Fujistu RX4770 server, featuring 96 cores and 1TB memory, and Fujitsu RX2540 storage nodes with 4 TB NVMe drives – totalling 48 TB. The servers are connected with Mellanox 100 Gbps www.intelligentcio.com INTELLIGENTCIO 59