Brant and his team conducted an extensive review of potential solutions, looking at both hyperconverged and converged infrastructure in addition to the latest generation of traditional three-part architecture.
The final decision was to opt for Cisco’s Unified Computing System (UCS) architecture using FlashStack converged infrastructure solution from Cisco and Pure Storage. FlashStack consists of Cisco’s compute, networking, and management technology combined with Pure Storage’s flash array storage to deliver a 100 per cent flash environment.
“The FlashStack made a lot of sense to us,” Brant says. “It ticked a lot of boxes for what we needed it to deliver, and also having the one company to deal with was a massive advantage.”
According to BDO’s IT Operations Manager Kim Johr, opting for FlashStack over a traditional architecture did require a degree of convincing.
“But it didn’t take long to see the value in it once we got through the set-up,” Johr says. “It was not particularly complex, and I didn’t realise we could do so much with it. Once we customised the Cisco UCS kit to suit the design that we wanted, the FlashStack attached to it and we’ve never looked back.”
Read the Cisco UCS Solution Overview
