Zhejiang Provincial Department of Finance has successfully deployed its storage area network (SAN) infrastructure based on Brocade SilkWorm switches in a bid to cope with the department’s explosive data growth.

Zhejiang Provincial Department of Finance is responsible for the implementation of government regulations and reforms in Zhejiang, a province near Shanghai. It is also in charge of the economic and social development of this 45 million-strong province. In recent years, the department has extended its sphere of influence to the district level, which has resulted in a data explosion and led to the need for a consolidated and scalable storage and information management solution.

The SilkWorm 3252, 3850, and 3900 switches have already improved the department’s SAN availability, performance, and management. The resulting high-speed, robust storage network has provided the department with local area network (LAN)-free backup, along with server and storage consolidation. It has also enabled the department to access and share information in a secure and manageable manner.

We have been able to manage our data flow and storage more efficiently and our SAN performance has improved tremendously, with backup/restore time reduced by as much as 40%. Most significantly, we have been able to achieve a return on investment in just 12 months, commented Xu Zhimin, the department’s project manager.