The global energy industry has been in a state of flux for the last few years, with no end in sight to the unpredictability. “The high energy prices of the past 18 months have cast a new light on the balance to be struck among energy security, energy access and energy sustainability,” according to Deloitte. As fossil fuels persist, despite volatility in supply and demand, renewables are on the rise: Renewables will become the largest source of global electricity generation by early 2025, surpassing coal, according to the International Energy Agency.
Amid this backdrop, Lummus Technology is delivering energy process technologies for the spectrum of global energy products–spanning clean fuels, renewables, petrochemicals, polymers, gas processing and supply lifecycle services, catalysts, and proprietary equipment. The Lummus IT organization is modernizing to stay competitive and has been moving to an all-cloud strategy focused on Microsoft Azure since 2021.
Yet the cost economics of the cloud aren’t quite working out to expectations. Its Azure NetApp Files service was too expensive for their use case, according to Lonnie Brown, IT systems administrator with Lummus. To develop a more cost-optimized cloud strategy, the company chose Komprise Intelligent Data Management to analyze its data first and then move it to the optimal storage, according to Brown.
Komprise Migrates to New Azure Storage & Improves User Experience
- Cloud Data Migration: Lummus used Komprise to migrate 40TB of data from Azure NetApp to Windows File Server on Azure and Azure Files for archiving. Komprise is now managing a total of 108TB of Lummus data in Azure—60TB of which had been moved prior to Komprise coming on board. Brown says that he wants to begin cold data tiering with Komprise after evaluating cloud storage options.
- Deep Analytics: Komprise Deep Analytics, which leverages the Global File Index to allow users to conduct custom queries and tag data for enhanced segmentation, is simplifying data movement decisions. “I was sold on Komprise because of the Deep Analytics insight that helps us understand business usage—especially seeing how much cold data we have so that we could get the migration done correctly,” Brown says.
“Now I don’t have to work with the departments to make these decisions; I can just put the data in cold storage. If users recall their files frequently, they will go back to the original location.”–Lonnie Brown, Lummus
Data Storage Cost Savings
Using Komprise to correctly identify cold data for archiving—which Lummus defines as not accessed after two years—is a major driver to significant annual savings.
Migrating from NetApp Azure to Windows File Server on Azure and Azure Files is saving Lummus roughly 80% on storage and backups annually.
- Right-placing data for business needs: Like many global companies, data is distributed and accessed in many different places around the world. This can create latency issues if users are not located close to their data. The ability to use Komprise to drill down into data ownership, location and access metrics helps IT make the best decisions for the business.
- Data lifecycle management through analytics: With granular insight into its data assets, Lummus now has the knowledge to make smart business decisions such as consolidating shares to single disks to free up space. “And because nearly all of our storage is now on Azure, I can use Komprise to make sure that Azure cold storage is the cheapest for me because Komprise is storage-agnostic,” Brown says.
- Improved business collaboration: When business users come to IT with requests for more storage capacity, Brown can quickly view metrics on owners and usage to eliminate any conflicts when making decisions. “Working with departments is a lot easier now and we can make decisions much faster,” he says.
“Komprise has been a wonderful solution for us to save a lot of money and analyze our data to optimize cloud data migrations and archiving,” says Brown. “As well, the Komprise customer success and support team has been super responsive to our changing needs during this journey.”
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