Case Study: Texas Tech University System achieves 20% faster IBM Cognos reporting with VMware vSAN

Texas Tech achieves a 20% performance boost running IBM Cognos on VMware vSAN

Texas Tech University System (TTUS), a multi-campus higher-education network, relies on IBM Cognos for critical, system-wide reporting but struggled with slow, resource‑intensive queries and legacy storage that caused performance, stability, and IT-efficiency problems for thousands of users. Cognos’ complex, data-heavy reports put heavy I/O pressure on the infrastructure, making fast, reliable access to reports a recurring challenge.

TTUS migrated Cognos and other production VMs onto an all‑flash VMware vSAN cluster (vSAN 6.7u1), gaining lower latency, greater stability, and features like erasure coding, automation, and unified management. The move delivered about a 20% performance improvement for Cognos reporting, fewer emergency restarts and help‑desk calls, streamlined operations, and reduced maintenance costs—prompting TTUS to standardize on vSAN going forward.

Texas Tech University System

Dustin Jordan

Assistant Director of Technology Operations and Systems Management