Canada-Based Score Media Drafts HP 3Par

HP announced Score Media Inc. has selected HP 3PAR Utility Storage, an element of a Converged Infrastructure strategy, to manage its corporate data and media content, including high-definition (HD) video.

Score Media Inc. is the owner of ‘theScore’ sports television network in Canada, theScore.com and theScore Satellite Radio, as well as the No. 1 sports app for BlackBerry, ScoreMobile, which is also available on the Android, iPhone and Windows Phone 7 platforms. As the media company’s digital network and online presence have grown, its data storage requirements also have increased. Score Media chose the HP 3PAR F-Class Storage System to replace existing network attached storage (NAS) devices that were inefficient and costly to scale.

HP 3PAR F-Class Storage Systems are virtualized, multitenant storage arrays built for public and private cloud computing. As part of a Converged Infrastructure, HP 3PAR F-Class Storage Systems enable clients to service their data needs from a single storage platform. F-Class Storage Systems enable Score Media to meet the demands of multiple applications simultaneously, such as serving web content and streaming HD video together over the internet.

Score Media also chose HP 3PAR Thin Provisioning Software, enabling it to take a ‘pay as you grow’ approach to purchasing storage capacity. 3PAR Thin Provisioning Software improves storage system efficiency and optimizes capacity utilization by eliminating the need to dedicate storage capacity upfront on a per-application basis. This cuts storage cost per usable gigabyte (GB) by 50 percent.

In addition, clients need to purchase fewer disks, which results in reduced power consumption, cooling costs and floor space requirements. Thin provisioning technology also enables clients to cut storage administration time by up to 90 percent by eliminating preplanning as well as time-consuming manual storage provisioning.

"To improve our business operations, we needed an efficient and scalable storage solution that could handle the explosion of HD content – particularly with our digital properties – and also address the growing demands of our corporate infrastructure," said Oliver Gayagoy, vice president, Broadcast and IT, Score Media. "HP 3PAR Utility Storage enables us to meet requirements today while ‘future proofing’ our technology environment as we continue to advance our current offerings."

Score Media achieved the following benefits
with HP 3PAR Utility Storage:

• Improved data center efficiency by eliminating unreliable application performance associated with Score Media’s previous NAS storage system.
• Fifty percent reduction in storage footprint by consolidating application data onto a single storage system, which produced energy and floor space savings.
• Lowered equipment costs by eliminating the need to purchase multiple Fibre Channel switches versus competitive solutions.

"Score Media needed a storage infrastructure that met a variety of very different needs at the same time," said Tom Joyce, vice president, marketing, StorageWorks, HP. "The agility and efficiency of HP 3PAR Utility Storage provide Score Media the ideal platform to keep pace with its growing storage requirements, while delivering a world-class experience for its clients."