DSRD to Update SAN Infrastructure

May 25, 2007: In an effort to update its core IT infrastructure, The New South Wales Department of State and Regional Development (DSRD) will soon be ditching its legacy NetWare systems and making the switch to Linux.

According to Computerworld Australia, the department is currently seeking quotes from 23 firms to replace its enterprise SAN infrastructure and supply services and training.

The department has 20 NetWare servers spread over 18 regional centres and at its headquarters, all of which need to be replaced with servers that can work within Linux, Windows and NetWare environments. This is especially important when it comes to storage as the DSRD’s current tape backup system has proven to be patchy.

The department is apparently looking to replace its aging tape system with a centrally managed data replication and backup solution. It wants data from regional areas to be replicated to a Sydney SAN where it will then be backed up to tape for offsite storage.

The tender takes a serious look at the department’s growth in storage requirements, noting that initially the new system needs to cope with 4.33 terabytes of data, which will rapidly balloon out at a rate of 150 to 160 percent within two years. It says that scalability is paramount as within five years storage capacity is expected to be 53 terabytes.

“The SAN solution must be capable of incremental growth which is both vertical and horizontal and must provide a scalable storage infrastructure to meet DSRD's expected storage growth for the next 5 to 10 years,” reads the tender according to Computerworld. “Respondents should provide details of how the SAN solution can be incrementally expanded and should also specify the incremental stages and the cost of each increment.”

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