Shandong Telecom (part of China Telecom) Manages Rapidly Growing Unstructured Data With Hitachi Content Platform

Overview

Challenge

• Support and Protect Unstructured Data.

Solution

• Improve Data Protection, Implement Object Store.

Outcome

• Improved efficiency of backup and recovery by over 30%.

Challenge

Support and Protect Unstructured Data

Shandong Telecom, established in October 2002, is part of China Telecom, the state-owned telecommunication company. It is the largest fixed-line service and the third largest mobile telecommunications provider in the People’s Republic of China.

• All the unstructured data, such as call detail record (CDR), voice calls, scanned copies of financial files, and so forth, are in the tape library via Veritas NetBackup (NBU).
• Growing 4G traffic led to a massive increase in the volume of unstructured data, as well as an increase in purchasing costs of the backup software and tape library.
• Data backup and recovery was a long process. Plus, the data in the tape can’t be restored.
• The company needed to ensure business continuity of its key business systems, such as Management & Business Operation Supporting System (MBOSS).

Solution

Improve Data Protection, Implement Object Store

For greater data security and to manage rapid growth of unstructured data, Shandong Telecom moved from a tape library (NBU) to a Hitachi data protection and object storage solution:

• Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform G1000 with global-active device and Hitachi Universal Replicator replicate the of core business system, including MBOSS.
• Hitachi Content Platform (HCP) replaces part of the existing Sun SL500 tape library to archive unstructured data.
• HCP uses S3 (Amazon Simple Storage Service) protocol to create an easy user interface for Shandong Telecom’s existing environment for easy and better adoption.

Outcome

Time and Cost Savings, Top Efficiencies

Shandong Telecom now preserves massive amounts unstructured data for long periods of time, with the HCP object storage solution, which:

• Eliminated the time and effort needed for big data backup.
• Improved efficiency of backup and recovery by over 30%.
• Ensures greater business continuity.
• Reduced tape library purchasing costs and staff overtime. Estimated savings: US$0.9 million over three years.
• Allows more convenient data sharing (separates production and test environment).
• Reduces time and effort needed to locate information via new user interface.