Case Study: University of Aberdeen achieves unified storage consolidation and faster backups with Dell EMC

University of Aberdeen - Customer Case Study

The University of Aberdeen, a 500‑year‑old institution serving 16,500 students, faced rapidly growing storage needs—data had been growing as much as 70% year over year and was forecast to continue growing—while its SANs were full (about 75 TB) and tape backups could not meet a 10‑hour window. To consolidate siloed file servers, improve backup and replication, and control costs per managed terabyte, the University selected Dell EMC and its unified storage offerings (including Celerra, Centera and the EMC File Management Appliance).

Dell EMC implemented an active‑active unified storage solution across two sites using Celerra for Tier 1/2 data and Centera for long‑term Tier 3 archives, plus the File Management Appliance and replication/protection tools. The deployment consolidated disparate file servers, transparently archived inactive data (an audit showed 86% of research files hadn’t been touched in six months) to reduce backup footprints, simplified management so growth can be handled with existing staff, and delivered a scalable, cost‑effective platform—outcomes the University attributes to its partnership with Dell EMC.

University of Aberdeen

Mike Whyment

Project Manager