Sunnyvale, Calif.-September 14,
2011-Sacramento County, home to nearly 1.4 million
residents and the state's capital, is a recognized leader in
leveraging information technology to deliver citizen services. The
Sacramento County Office of Communications & Information
Technology (OCIT) is the centralized IT and telecommunications
service provider, enabling county workers to access the information
and data they need to respond quickly and effectively to resident
requests. But, like other counties throughout the state, Sacramento
County is faced with budget constraints that put an increased focus
on maximizing existing resources. To enhance its ability to deliver
these services, OCIT built its infrastructure on a NetApp®
(NASDAQ: NTAP) foundation, increasing overall IT efficiency and
flexibility while dramatically lowering costs.
OCIT's previous storage environment was made
up of disparate systems, which created numerous inefficiencies,
limited its ability to quickly back up data, and redirected
resources away from strategic IT projects. Furthermore, OCIT needed
a cost-effective way to back up its virtualized servers and quickly
restore them in the event of a server failure. To address these
challenges and free up resources and money to invest in other
innovative services, OCIT worked with NetApp reseller Applied Computer Solutions
(ACS) to transition to a NetApp unified storage
infrastructure.
News Highlights
- NetApp's deduplication and thin-provisioning technologies
helped OCIT immediately increase overall storage efficiency by
reducing storage space requirements within its Microsoft®
Exchange Server and Microsoft SQL Server® applications by up
to 80%.
- NetApp solutions for virtual environments have helped OCIT
reduce server operational expenses by 50%. For example, NetApp
SnapMirror® has eliminated the need to find budget for
additional storage while NetApp SnapManager® for Virtual
Infrastructure enables OCIT to restore virtual machines in 10
minutes rather than the several hours it used to take, freeing up
resources to focus on other innovative projects.
- To comply with requests through the Public Records Act, OCIT is
often required to produce employee e-mail from previous months.
This would normally take up to 24 hours to retrieve but now can be
done in just 2 hours, thanks to NetApp SnapManager for Microsoft
Exchange, which integrates tightly with Microsoft technology to
streamline storage management and optimize performance.
- Additionally, SnapManager for Microsoft Exchange enables OCIT
to perform e-mail backups every 2 hours throughout the day,
reducing the time it takes to recover an inbox or single e-mail
from 6 hours to less than 10 minutes. With SnapManager software,
OCIT is also able to back up its enterprise content management
application, which stores vital county records, such as birth
certificates, in seconds rather than the 48 to 72 hours it used to
take. The increased efficiencies have led to improved workforce
productivity and responsiveness. The 1.5 full-time OCIT employees
previously dedicated to monitoring backups can now focus on other
business-critical functions.
Supporting Quotes
- David Villanueva, Interim Chief Information Officer for
the Sacramento County Office of Communications & Information
Technology
"By making it faster to retrieve vital citizen and government
records, NetApp storage is markedly improving the efficiency of
OCIT. It has also allowed valuable staff to turn their efforts to
other important and strategic projects, ultimately enhancing their
productivity while still lowering county costs."
- Regina Kunkle, Vice President of State and Local
Government and Higher Education (SLED), NetApp
"NetApp is focused on working with our state and local government
customers to provide them with the storage solutions they need to
thrive in today's demanding IT environment. OCIT is a great example
of how the right storage platform can provide the necessary IT
efficiency and flexibility to enable counties to deliver the
services its citizens require while reducing overall costs and
expenditures."
Additional Resources
About NetApp
NetApp creates innovative storage and data management solutions
that accelerate business breakthroughs and deliver outstanding cost
efficiency. Discover NetApp's passion for helping companies around
the world go further, faster at www.netapp.com.
Press Contact:
Ryan Lowry
NetApp
(408) 822-7544
ryan.lowry@netapp.com
NetApp, the NetApp logo, Go further,
faster, SnapManager, and SnapMirror are trademarks or registered
trademarks of NetApp, Inc. in the United States and/or other
countries. Microsoft and SQL Server are registered trademarks of
Microsoft Corporation. All other brands or products are trademarks
or registered trademarks of their respective holders and should be
treated as such.