German Energy Supplier Stadtwerke Tuttlingen Opts for Nexenta

Nexenta Systems, Inc. announced that Stadtwerke Tuttlingen (SWT), a regional German energy supplier, has chosen its SDS solution to underpin its entire infrastructure.

Founded in 1896, SWT is responsible for providing electricity, gas, and water utilities to over 34,200 residents across 980 square miles in the South West area of Germany. Along with its responsibility for the power grid, SWT also supplies natural gas to private and business customers while managing two-thirds of Tuttlingen’s drinking water and urban drainage.

SWT was running multiple databases (Oracle, MSSQL) but the existing storage solution was hampered by relatively bad optimisation. The system was only four years old but also incapable of supporting a planned VDI deployment.

After testing and evaluating a system that was recommended by Nexenta’s German partner Sievers Group, SWT opted for a 60TB NexentaStor license to underpin the entire SWT infrastructure at its HQs’ data centre.

Meik Müller, IT manager, SWT, commented: “To keep our IT-system flexible enough to react with a rapidly evolving energy market, we were looking for a new storage system that offered high performance, flexibility and HA. We already had experience with software-defined storage but it was when we met Nexenta that we knew we had the right solution.“

Using NexentaStor, SWT has increased the performance of its storage environments while keeping its costs low. One of the key selling points for SWT was the simplicity: there was no need for complex licensing. NexentaStor features, such as unlimited snapshots, thin provisioning and hybrid storage pooling, helped SWT to implement cost-effective storage with performance.

Mark Jordan, VP and GM, EMEA, Nexenta, said: “Our SDS solution cuts vendor lock-in, improves TCO and offers improved performance and scalability. Our solution helps companies like SWT avoid the MESS (Massive Expensive Storage Systems) and concentrate on growing and building their business – boosting productivity and customer service. It’s a win win for everyone.“

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