Case Study: Simon Fraser University achieves non-disruptive storage modernization with Scalar Decisions and NetApp

Simon Fraser University – Taking the Disruption out of Education

Simon Fraser University (SFU) needed to replace aging storage technology while supporting rapid growth across its campuses in Vancouver, Burnaby, and Surrey. With a small servers-and-storage team managing about 1,200 virtual machines and several petabytes of data, SFU wanted to avoid disruption, protect its existing NetApp investment, and simplify planning as user demand and storage needs kept increasing.

Scalar Decisions worked with SFU to implement a new NetApp-based solution, including a NetApp FAS8040 at Burnaby and a FAS8020 at Surrey running Clustered Data ONTAP. The result was non-disruptive storage operations, faster and more frequent backups with SnapVault, better monitoring, and easier capacity planning, helping SFU scale without downtime while keeping costs and disruption under control.

Simon Fraser University

Randy Raine

Associate Director of Servers And Storage