Macclesfield Borough Council
The pressure on local and central government to move to eGovernment has been a worry for ICT managers in councils throughout the country. One of the more challenging elements of eGovernment is data storage. Much new legislation such as business continuity and disaster recovery has increased the pressure on local councils to store the vast amount of data securely and efficiently
Macclesfield Borough Council has recently completed a large scale project to replace its existing, disparate, data storage with a central storage pool. The new storage system will allow Macclesfield to deliver key benefits such as e-mail archiving and the simplification of tasks such as technology refresh and information lifecycle management.
The challenge facing all councils when implementing any major ICT programme is finding a vendor that can be flexible and work within a tight budget. Macclesfield was no exception and through GCat partner Viglen Storage Group (VSG), selected Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) as the vendor that could do this.
Melvin Taylor, Network Manager, Macclesfield borough council, discusses the council’s need for a storage system, “System Delivery is no longer just a 9-5 operation, it needs to be always on 24/7, we needed the delivery of a centralised storage and backup solution that would allow for easier management and greater resilience
The project initially only included a Storage Area Network (SAN) of 6 servers and 2 terabytes of storage, but we wanted it to be easily scalable to cover more servers in future expansions. VSG not only worked to our time scales, but provided all the functionality of a high-end Hitachi Data Systems Storage Area Network at an affordable price. With the added benefit of ongoing maintenance support and training provided has provide a complete storage solution to fit into our current systems
Dave Haslam, UK Technical Solutions Director, Hitachi Data Systems, comments "Councils have been put under a lot of strain recently with the push to eGovernment and legislative demands such as the Civil Contingencies Act, and as such data storage has become a priority overnight. Some of the major problems have come about due to the current infrastructure of councils. Networks and back-up system were built in, but did not take into account the fast pace at which ICT changes and the need for systems to remain flexible and scalable. Working in partnership with VSG has enabled us to gain insight and traction within the local government sector. Macclesfield Borough Council is one of the many councils that VSG and Hitachi are working side by side with, allowing councils to meet new legislative storage demands in a quick and efficient way, but leaving room for further development.