With the increasing demand for online teaching activities and the significant growth of utilization of administrative information systems, the data storage demands have grown exponentially while the legacy storage systems could no longer meet the demands. To address this challenge, ICTO initiated a upgrade project in early 2023, implementing an all-flash storage architecture with new UPS system, to enhance overall storage capacity and performance, with the following features:

Enhanced Storage Performance:

The solution adopts the latest Huawei OceanStor all-flash storage products, establishes a complete and flexibe active-active architecture through integrating with the existing system virtualization platform. The new implementation ensures continuous availability of critical applications, minimizing downtime and improving productivity. During the two major power maintenance periods of the two data centers during summer vacation this year, even if one of the data centers was out of service, all ICTO critical information systems can still continue to operate normally, providing users with uninterrupted services.  In addition, after adopting the all-flash storage technology, the performance has been significantly improved. With low latency NVMe flash technology, users can experience faster access speed when using file sharing services or UMMoodle.

Scalability and Flexibility:

The centralized storage system offers 300TB of available capacity and can be expanded to meet future data growth needs. This system significantly improves cost-effectiveness and completes product lifecycle.

Reduced Physical Space:

The upgraded system takes up less physical space, can build a higher-density storages and thus optimize resource utilization.

Lower Power Consumption:

The new architecture consumes less power compared to previous systems, contributing to energy savings and environmental protection, and achieve sustainable development.

Improved Cooling Efficiency:

The upgraded storage systems require less cooling, resulting in reduced cooling costs and improved energy efficiency of our data center.

Furthermore, in order to improve the infrastructure performance of data centers and achieve the goal of green energy, ICTO has deployed a new generation of modular UPS in the primary data center. The system uses lithium iron phosphate batteries, which provide 120 minutes of backup power for the data center due to its excellent safety, long lifespan and small footprint.

Conclusion:
With the upgrade to an all-flash storage infrastructure, along with the implementation of new lithium UPS system, ICTO is providing more efficient, reliable, scalable, and efficient storage capabilities to meet the needs of faculty, staff, and students. ICTO strives to grow with the University and supports the University’s mission by constantly exploring, planning and deploying latest and appropriate information technologies and industry standards.

Marco and Kevin from ICTO-ACTS are now installing the new storage system

new storage system

Winson and Jack from ICTO-IUS,  introduces the new UPS