JKR choose Huawei for major systems upgrade

Challenge

JKR is a globally recognised packaging design specialist with offices in London, New York and Singapore and currently works with more than 75 of the top 500 brands in the world. Before selecting Huawei as its storage and server supplier the company’s IT estate was entirely Mac based. However the Mac servers were coming to end of life, and Apple’s development attention had shifted to its consumer products such as the iPad and iPhone. This led it to decide to move to a Windows based storage and server infrastructure.

JKR is a business which can’t function if its IT infrastructure is compromised. Even a short period of downtime could not only be a deal breaker for a specific piece of work, but could damage the company’s outstanding reputation. Reliability and excellent technical support were both vital for the new system selected. Designers work in a range of data hungry media including animations, video, 3D structures and more and so files can be In looking for the right supplier, it wanted to achieve a balance between financial efficiency and optimal performance. This is what it found when it chose Huawei to provide a major systems upgrade.

Solution

The solution chosen by JKR was based around the new OceanStor S5500T with a Fiber Channel connection to servers and Ethernet to end user desktop computers. This combination provides fast, secure access to the large data files that are so important to JKR’s everyday work. than this if the need arises with a clear understanding of the infrastructure cost implications.

UK distributor Zycko has played a key part in the solution design. Its consultative approach during the planning phase helped give JKR confidence in the Huawei platform, and excellent pre and post-sales support meant JKR was sure the solution chosen was the best fit for its needs. Free upgrades to the latest firmware have also been a huge benefit.

Value

Value The solution provided by Huawei has brought benefits not only for the end user but the business as a whole. Cost efficiency was an important driver in the initial selection of supplier and Huawei offered more for less in this respect. Reliability was also a key component in making the choice with Huawei’s strong reputation in this respect helping to seal the deal. This has been born out since the system was installed. With two years of operation that has included site moves, there have been no major issues. Future proofing was also key and in this regard there were several very attractive elements of the Huawei offer.

Mixing iSCSI and Fibre Channel connections was important to JKR and the system includes both. With JKR’s huge data growth rate, Huawei’s ability to offer a guaranteed price for equipment five years into the future was a real bonus. It means JKR can plan for an expected level of growth in terms of storage requirements, and cater for more business. Zycko’s first- class proven solutions demonstrate its significance as a value added IT distributor.