Associa Using Pillar Data Axiom

Associa, in community association management, has implemented the Axiom 600 unified storage system from Pillar Data Systems to support a consolidation and virtualization effort encompassing 250 virtual machines and more than 100 TBs of storage capacity.

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As the nation’s largest company devoted to the management of community associations, Associa provides thousands of users with immediate access to mission-critical data, including Microsoft Exchange, SQL-based ERP and SharePoint applications, as part of an overarching goal to deliver the highest levels of customer service and hands-on support.

To better control constant business growth, which resulted in 30-percent annual spikes in data storage, the company migrated to VMware ESX Server and sought a unified storage system capable of consolidating all crucial applications on a single platform.

In evaluating options, Associa determined that upgrading its legacy EMC platform would require multiple storage arrays while managing a system from 3PAR would necessitate professional services for even minor configuration changes, such as adding capacity. In contrast, Pillar provided a singular platform architected to adapt easily to dynamic environments with thin provisioning, I/O prioritization and scalability.

According to Associa, Pillar’s system-wide Quality of Service enables better provisioning and management of its increasingly virtualized environment while improving business agility and operational efficiencies.

Streamlined, Scalable Pillar Storage
Offers Room to Grow

Associa reports that provisioning, maintaining and managing its Axiom 600 are straightforward processes that don’t require special training. Adding more storage was handled easily and without any downtime or business disruption.
The ability to take advantage of differentiated services from multiple LUNs striped across high-capacity spindles enables Associa to achieve the highest levels of performance and utilization.
Seamless scalability ensures that Associa can scale over time to keep pace with continuous business growth.
The flexibility to mix and match drive types helps Associa fine-tune performance as needed. The company currently has a blend of SATA and Fibre Channel drives with more than 100 TBs of capacity. Plans are underway to add Solid State Drives to maximize performance of vital SQL databases.

Jon Krueger, Director of IT Infrastructure for Associa, said: "We were impressed with how the Pillar platform leverages a common pool of storage to provision capacity while system-wide Quality of Service enables us to assign performance levels based on our application needs. This approach was highly compatible with the demands of our dynamic environment."

"Growing our Pillar system is easy, as we rely on the intuitive user interface and Axiom One Storage Manager to set policies for provisioning storage based on dynamic performance prioritization. You don’t have to do manual computations as the system conveys what you need to know."

"We really liked how easy it was to add another Slammer when we wanted to extend port capacity. We were able to install a second FC Slammer over a weekend without problems, so now we have one storage controller dedicated to high-performance, Exchange transaction data alongside backup and archive data. We then have another controller assigned to our virtualized environment; we couldn’t have achieved this level of multi-tenancy on a different platform."

"Pillar Axiom enables us to be very agile in supporting critical applications while assuring tight control over QoS and performance. In doing so, we’re meeting business objectives without having to buy more storage."