Case Study: City of Rochester achieves 30× faster Microsoft Exchange performance and scalable video storage with NetApp All Flash FAS and E‑Series

Communication Acceleration for a More Efficient City

The City of Rochester, NY, needed faster, more reliable storage to support critical services—email for 3,000 employees, about 200 virtual desktop users (including law enforcement), and a growing public-camera and planned body-worn camera program generating large amounts of video. Prior to the project, Microsoft Exchange experienced peak latencies around 30 ms and the city needed high-density, cost-effective archival storage that met enterprise reliability standards.

Rochester deployed NetApp All Flash FAS (AFF8020) for its website and Exchange environment, NetApp FAS8040 for virtual desktops, and NetApp E-Series for video archiving and backups. The migration delivered sub-millisecond latency, a 30× increase in Exchange performance, and up to 97% reduction in disk utilization, enabling scalable, cost-effective video retention and faster access to information for city staff and police.

City of Rochester

Ryan Strecker

Systems Engineer