BIGLOBE

Big Lobe

BIGLOBE constructs lower-cost, high-density scalable storage environment

The challenge

BIGLOBE’s mail storage system supports 300+ million broadband users, and data requirements are growing exponentially.

The company was looking to migrate to a more robust, infinitely scalable solution that would support ever-expanding customer data requirements while significantly reducing the total cost of storage. For its new email storage environment, BIGLOBE chose to migrate to an HPE ProLiant SL4500 Scalable System solution.

In order to reduce costs for BIGLOBE’s mail service infrastructure, several changeovers were carried out. Initially, the original DNA setup was transitioned to NAS, which resulted in a 50% cost savings. Secondarily, the move to a virtualized server environment further reduced the cost to about 1/10th of the original system.

While managing growing data demands, the project team aimed to further lower the cost of storage. When attempting to solve this dilemma, the proposal of object storage piqued the interest of Mr. Ishige and his team — and, ultimately, Scality RING won them over as the ideal solution.

The outcome

BIGLOBE was impressed by the software-defined solution’s reputation as a proven product that has been successfully implemented by many data center operators, businesses in the communications industry, and service providers requiring large-scale storage environments.

Running on Linux OS, Scality RING’s ring-shaped structure operating on x86 server clusters distributes data efficiently and offers great flexibility with low TCO.

NEC Solution Innovators, Ltd. is a partner company that has been supporting BIGLOBE’s development and operations for more than 10 years in various systems, including this project.