Case Study: U.S. Natural History Museum achieves scalable, cost-saving storage expansion with SHI, Microsoft Azure and Nasuni

U.S. Natural History Museum faces data storage problem of Jurassic proportions

The U.S. Natural History Museum, a century-old research institution with one of the world’s largest collections of scientific specimens and artifacts, faced a major storage challenge as it worked to digitize 30 million high-resolution images, staff files, and scientific data. Its aging SAN, tape systems, and failing drives could no longer keep up with the rapid data growth, and a new DNA sequencer added even more pressure on storage capacity. SHI International Corp. helped assess the environment and identify a better path forward, using Nasuni Enterprise File Services backed by Microsoft Azure.

SHI International Corp. implemented a hybrid cloud file storage solution with Nasuni and Microsoft Azure to provide unlimited capacity, automatic backups, instant disaster recovery, and centralized management. The museum was able to support hundreds of users without disrupting digitization work, while reducing its data center footprint and cutting file storage costs by 60 percent. The solution also saved the IT team up to 50 percent in time management and secured 70 terabytes of Azure cloud storage for future growth.