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Medical Products Firm Migrates On-prem SQL Workload to Amazon FSx ONTAP to Reduce Cost

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NetApp Solutions Engineering Team

This real-world customer use case example illustrates the challenges, solutions, and outcomes of migrating SQL server workloads from on-premises to Amazon FSx ONTAP in order to reduce costs.

The Challenge

  • The customer had been running SQL server workloads in a private data center hosted by a third party. The increasing hosting cost had become an issue.

  • It lacked tribal knowledge of application architecture and existing infrastructure due to outsourcing and employee attrition.

  • It had little to no experience in managing NetApp ONTAP.

  • It's running against a tight schedule before a renewal decision on existing infrastructure.

  • The SQL Server environment is large (100TB) and complex with HA between two data centers via SQL Always On. Three transient environments created off secondary data copy using AppSync and data refreshed Daily/Weekly. Dedicated data flag changes required via sql scripts after each refresh from production data.

This image provides a detailed picture of the customer env configuration before migration.

The Solution

  • Migration from on-premisses, hosted Dell Unity SAN and AppSync environment to AWS Amazon FSx ONTAP with NetApp SnapCenter.

  • Amazon FSx ONTAP thin clone capability helps to reduce storage cost while fully automated SnapCenter clone lifecycle management meets all other transient environment requirements.

  • Primary SQL Server DB deployed on AWS EBS and replicated secondary copy on Single-AZ Amazon FSx ONTAP.

  • PoC proved that SnapCenter was suitable replacement for AppSync.

  • Trusted and experienced partners for setup, migration, and ongoing support. Detailed solution implementation guides helped first-time and inexperienced Amazon FSx ONTAP and SnapCenter users.

This image provides a detailed picture of the customer env configuration after migration.

The Outcome

  • 40% cost reduction compared to continue hosting on private data center.

  • Fully managed Amazon FSx ONTAP service with SnapCenter to support 300 customers.

  • Maintained ability to automate near instant, thin provisioned clones for PreProd, UAT, and QA environments.

  • On-time migration, renewal cost avoidance, shift from an unhappy vendor relationship into rewarding experience in public cloud.

  • SQL Server on Amazon FSx achieved additional layer of data redundancy while maintaining performance.

  • Ability to easily enable cross-region DR in the future.

Where to find additional information

To learn more about the NetApp enterprise database solutions, review the following website NetApp Enterprise Database Solutions