Dell | EMC storage solution supports Luton's drive to meet 2005 e-Government deadline

Bracknell, 20 March, 2003 - Luton Borough Council (LBC), has selected Dell to design and implement an Enterprise Storage Network. The solution will support Luton's drive to become one of the first councils to e-enable its public services inline with the Government's 2005 deadline.
E-government presents a huge opportunity to transform council services by delivering cost efficiencies and increased integration with adjacent public services. It will also help to offer Luton's 185,000 residents and business community greater choice, convenience and accessibility.
As part of LBC's e-enabling initiative, it has established a new customer services centre to offer Luton a single point of contact with local government. The Centre's requirement to have immediate and accurate real-time access to information, such as council tax records, amenities and parking permits allocation, has driven the need for the Enterprise Storage Network.
"Our existing two-terabyte system, with 100 Microsoft Windows NT servers, was already proving difficult to manage, so it was imperative for us to have increased control over our data with the new storage solution," said Chris Kadwill, ICT manager, Luton Borough Council. "With our new call centre in mind, we needed an infrastructure that was resilient, worked 24 hours a day, and featured best-of-breed components. We also needed to reduce the TCO, and most importantly, make sure that any transition to a new system was undertaken without impacting the users in any way.
"At this stage it was hard to predict future storage demands. Financing the solution through EMC Global Asset Management was perfect for Luton Borough Council because it enabled us to incorporate a capacity on demand framework giving the Council the agility to seamlessly scale the service we deliver to our customers," Kadwill continued. "The solution is implemented across two sites in Luton for service continuance purposes, which allows us to go scale beyond 17 terabytes on both sites."
Martin Boyce, general manager, Dell Enterprise Business Systems,
commented: "Businesses across the UK are increasingly turning to Dell for storage solutions. Luton Borough Council needed a suite of products that would be able manage several terabytes of data and also comply with the governments guidelines. The Dell storage solution offers real, tangible business benefits, whilst minimising effect on the end-user, and gives Luton a robust platform that can be adapted to future requirements."

Dell | EMC storage solution
The Dell solution comprises two Dell | EMCTM CX600 enterprise disk systems delivering 4TB useable capacity and eight Dell |EMC 16-Port Fibre Channel Switches. In addition, StorageTek tape libraries and a comprehensive portfolio of Veritas management and virtualisation software were included in the total solution.
The transition to the Dell | EMC solution will take place over three phases. By the third phase in June 2003, LBC will have consolidated all their capacity into the Enterprise Storage Network supporting both Windows and Solaris applications and services. Working closely with Dell Technology Consultancy - integration, automation and project management services - all the old systems will have been transferred into the new one with no noticeable impact on the user, commented Kadwill.
"As well as being the best technical solution, the Dell | EMC solution will also help us to reduce the TCO, a critical objective for the Council. Quite simply, this solution was chosen over competitors after it became clear it was the only one which met all the criteria LBC needed," concluded Kadwill
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