Kögel Fahrzeugwerke Opts for Brocade File Lifecycle Manager

Brocade announced that Kögel Fahrzeugwerke, manufacturer of truck trailers for general and controlled-temperature transport, has streamlined storage of its vital business files thanks to Brocade File Lifecycle Manager (FLM). Brocade FLM enabled the Burtenbach, Germany-based firm to implement a two-tiered storage strategy, making its file data environment more efficient by storing only its most important files on its primary Networked Attached Storage (NAS) devices.

"Brocade FLM gives us complete control over our files, permitting us to store them according to our business needs," said Berthold Renz, IT system engineer for Kögel Fahrzeugwerke. "We now keep only current blueprints, designs, and business data on our high-speed storage platform where employees can access them quickly. With Brocade FLM, we’re cost-effectively managing our files by making more effective use of our storage hardware."

Kögel Fahrzeugwerke’s need for a file management solution stemmed from its deployment of a high-end, NAS filer from NetApp for high-performance storage and a less-costly NetApp platform for high-capacity storage. Despite the intention that users would store files based on priority (i.e. current files on the primary system and unused to the secondary system), users kept all of their files on the primary platform, which threatened to exhaust its two-terabyte capacity.

Administrators installed Brocade FLM and defined policies for file relocation, with last accessed time being a primary criterion, thereby non-disruptively moving all files meeting the policy criteria to the low-cost secondary NetApp platform, freeing up capacity on the high-end filer. The Brocade FLM solution leaves metadata for all moved files on the primary device, enabling Brocade FLM to retrieve files from the secondary system upon user access. In addition, Brocade FLM provides complete reporting of moved files, allowing the IT staff to adjust policies if users access files on secondary storage too often. As a result, Kögel Fahrzeugwerke better utilizes its primary storage system by keeping only active files on it, while moving less-active files to the more economical device, and all of this has been achieved without impacting day-to-day business processes.

"Brocade FLM automates the entire process so it is transparent to our users and non-disruptive to our business processes," concluded Renz. "Once we set our policies, our staff was free to move on to other tasks. We even configured the application to perform file tiering optimization at night, conserving network bandwidth during the business day for greater productivity."

Brocade FLM is a policy-based file management software solution that manages the lifecycle of files in heterogeneous storage environments. The solution allows administrators to reduce storage costs by analyzing, classifying, grouping, moving, organizing, and deleting files using policies that reflect the business value of the data. Brocade FLM can result in:

• More than twice the available primary storage capacity as inactive data is automatically moved to secondary storage
• Up to a 50 percent reduction in storage hardware acquisition costs
• Reduced backup window pressures and expenses for primary storage systems as less-important files get transferred to lower-cost storage devices