Case Study: Northern Council for Further Education (NCFE) cuts storage needs by 70% and enables 300-user VDI with HPE Nimble Storage

Nimble Storage Reduces NCFE’s Data Storage Space by 70% and Underpins 300-User VDI Project

NCFE, one of the UK’s largest regulated awarding organisations serving around 600,000 learners, needed to relocate offices and roll out a 300‑user VDI environment to enable agile working. Their existing VMware estate and Dell EqualLogic SAN could not deliver the required IOPS, compression or 10Gb connectivity, and virtualised SQL servers were underperforming, so NCFE commissioned a review to find a future‑proof storage and networking solution.

They chose Nimble Storage (2× CS240, 15TB each) with InfoSight, Nimble snapshots and Veeam backup, supported by SITS Group/Pivotal Networks’ 10Gb network and VDI stack. The deployment delivered smooth migration and improved user experience, reduced disk capacity needs by 70% versus traditional disk SANs, halved support tickets, simplified capacity planning and backup/DR, and achieved these gains at lower-than-expected cost.

NCFE