To Invest In Infrastructure, Or Not?
Jin Tang, DCJ’s ICT Specialist for Technology Operations and Information & Digital Services, says the Government’s timing was perfect for the organisation. “We had a very large footprint in the networking shared file system which was supporting more than 20,000 of our people. As the system was rapidly aging, we had to decide whether to upgrade or buy brand new infrastructure and continue to run and manage it internally. Or pay for the storage used from elsewhere.”
It wasn’t a difficult decision. New infrastructure would cost DCJ well over $1M. Plus the operational costs to house the storage, and employee costs to manage it.
A True Partnership
Over the years, the relationship between DCJ, Meridian IT and NetApp has gone from strength to strength.
“DCJ have been on our NetApp NSW GovCloud Infrastructure as a Service platform for over four years now,“ says Matt Hurford, NetApp’s VP Solutions Engineering and Field CTO NetApp. “It’s been great to see them not only remain with us, but also grow with additional requirements over this time for themselves and the whole DCJ cluster.
We’re proud to provide DCJ with a best of breed platform which they can rely on daily to serve their data requirements. With the NetApp NSW GovCloud (Community Cloud) via Meridian IT, we aim to provide our customers with an easy to use scalable and affordable compute and storage platform to give them a real alternative to public cloud where public cloud is not the right fit.”
Tang is deeply appreciative of the value of the partnership. “Meridian IT understands how we operate and knows our internal policies and processes. Their knowledge and approach to customer service, combined with NetApp’s technology, is a perfect match.
“We have more than just a supplier and consumer relationship with Meridian IT. We are partners in this together. I think we’ve learned from one another over the years, and they are always keen to exceed our expectations by looking for ways to do better. They make our life easier.
“DCJ and Meridian IT have a robust, honest and transparent relationship. They have earned my respect as a trusted advisor, and I depend and lean on them. It’s always my pleasure to recommend them to others.”