How to tame petabytes of data? An energy giant bets on performance with Infinidat
Data expansion, growing business demands, and pressure for performance — this is the environment in which modern energy companies operate. One of the largest energy providers in Europe has demonstrated how, thanks to Infinidat solutions and a modern storage infrastructure, it is possible not only to keep up with the exponential growth of data, but also to gain real operational advantage.
Client
A leading international energy company focused on value creation, innovation, and sustainable development. Operating in more than 14 countries on four continents and employing over 12,000 specialists, the company is the largest producer, distributor, and supplier of electricity in Portugal. It is also the regional leader in gas distribution across the Iberian Peninsula. Today, it provides electricity to nearly 11 million customers and manages 1.2 million gas connection points. Additionally, nearly 70% of the energy it produces comes from renewable sources, and the organization aims to achieve full carbon neutrality by 2030.
Infinidat exceeded our expectations in very demanding workloads. Thanks to innovative data storage solutions, we achieved high performance, ultra-low latency, easy integration, and advanced technical support — all within the planned budget. The solution has enabled us to deliver a better customer experience. As the company continues to grow, we are confident that we will keep benefiting from Infinidat’s low total cost of ownership (TCO).
Adapting to change has always been our primary driver. To achieve this, we must operate within an agile enterprise network infrastructure based on more efficient, intelligent, and sustainable solutions,” explains the Head of IT Infrastructure and Capacity Resources. “To fully meet these goals, we needed to process massive volumes of data. The growing demand for storage capacity was crucial to the success of our IT infrastructure, which is why investing in the most advanced technology became essential.
IT Infrastructures & Capacity Manager
The company currently operates two high-performance data centers and a highly qualified IT team that delivers a broad range of enterprise-class services for both employees and customers. This strategic investment enabled the deployment of innovative technologies, including a complete data-virtualization environment integrated with VMware solutions.
Challenge: Handling exponential data growth
“Before implementing the Infinidat solution, our storage needs were growing exponentially — we were managing an increase of nearly one petabyte per year,” explains the Head of IT Infrastructure and Capacity Resources.
Although petabytes are now a common unit in enterprise storage environments, managing such large volumes of data initially posed a major challenge. “We quickly realized that we needed new storage arrays that could provide sufficient capacity without compromising performance. Additionally, having two data centers capable of ensuring full disaster recovery was absolutely essential.”
The company began searching for a storage solution capable of keeping up with unprecedented data growth. Given the scale and requirements of the project, a detailed market analysis was conducted. “For many years, we have been a major consumer of enterprise-class solutions,” the manager explains. “This means we know the available technologies and what the leading vendors offer.”
“Infinidat’s unique, groundbreaking business model, flexible pricing policies, and modern technology made choosing the InfiniBox® platform a natural decision.”
Solution: Seamless deployment of a petabyte-scale environment
After selecting Infinidat, the company deployed two InfiniBox arrays — one in each data center — each with an initial capacity of up to one petabyte.
The solution supports virtualization environments on the VMware vSphere Enterprise platform and is fully integrated with Infinidat technology. The deployment was smooth and trouble-free thanks to support from the Infinidat team. Excluding the procurement phase, the entire installation was completed in just two months.
Result: Higher performance, ultra-low latency, hands-off operation — a “set it and forget it” approach
The overall experience of working with Infinidat was extremely positive at every stage. “Infinidat exceeded our expectations in very demanding workloads. Thanks to innovative data storage solutions, we achieved high performance, ultra-low latency, easy integration, and advanced technical support — all within the planned budget. The solution has enabled us to deliver a better customer experience. As the company continues to grow, we are confident that we will continue benefiting from Infinidat’s low total cost of ownership (TCO),” summarizes the Head of IT Infrastructure and Capacity Resources.
IT Infrastructures & Capacity Manager
Solution benefits
Hands-off, “set it and forget it” operation
Increased performance and ultra-low latency
Seamless integration with VMware
Infinidat
Infinidat is a leader in high-performance data storage systems, developing innovative solutions for companies around the world. Infinidat’s technologies enable organizations to reduce costs and increase the efficiency of their IT systems.
Learn more about Infinidat
To schedule individual demonstrations, partner training sessions, or pilot projects, please contact the Business Development Manager at Oberig IT, Krystian Hofman.