Medical University of Vienna
"We made the right decision by choosing Synology RackStation RS4017XS+ for the teaching and research environment of Medical University of Vienna. We will be also placing special emphasis on the implementation of Synology devices in the future projects.” Engineer Bernhard Taschner - IT-Manager/Administrator, Center for Physiology und Pharmacologie of Medical University of Vienna
The Company
Medical University of Vienna is one of the most tradition-rich medical education and research facilities in Europe. With 8,000 students enrolled, it is the biggest medical university in the German-speaking area. It is also amongst the leading research institutes in Europe and has 27 university clinics, 3 clinical institutes, 12 centers for theoretical medicine and numerous highly specialized laboratories.
The Challenge
In the university, the center for physiology and pharmacology (CPP) teaches and researches the functions of organisms and their interactions with poison or medicament molecules. The CPP was looking for a high-performance, easy-to-maintain and cost-efficient storage solution to manage the incoming data volume from four institutes. The data consisted office documents, measurement data from over 200 users as well as backups of virtual machines. 100 terabytes of data were distributed between numerous old servers and had to be centralized in one modern storage system.
The solution CPP was looking for needs to operate 24/7, and provide High-Availability, integrated backup solution, as well as user-friendly appliance and administration. It also requires the possibility to use a "two-location-backup-concept" in the future without having the implementation of expensive cluster solutions.
The Solution
The responsible IT administrator has been working with Synology for the past 10 years and has a positive experience with various Synology NAS Systems in Small Office and Home Office (SoHo) Projects. Thanks to the intuitive and powerful operating system, DSM, IT personnel can quickly learn how to manage effortlessly.
Both Synology RS4017xs+ are equipped with 64GB RAM and 16 x 10TB Seagate Iron Wolf Pro HDDs each. They are used as a central file server for 400 clients and backup targets for 5 Virtualization Servers to replace the original 12 virtual File Servers. The expensive maintenance costs are completely dispensed. The seamless integration in the existing research institutes helps centralize precious data and enable staffs and clients to explore and access files from anywhere.
With Snapshot Replication, the main NAS generates local snapshots every 3 to 6 hours and synchronizes them through integrated 10GbE LAN ports to the second NAS. This way the snapshot versions created by the main NAS can be duplicated to a remote NAS. If a disaster happens, other staff can access the data in read-only-mode on the remote backup NAS. With the intuitive File Station or Windows File Explorer, staffs can perform self-service recovery without the intervention of IT administrator, users can still access their data in Read-Only-Mode on the Replication-Server.
The Benefits
Reliability & Future Security
The data was transferred from the previous systems without any difficulties to Synology NAS, that has been operating 24/7 since June 2017. In 2018, the CPP purchased another RS4017xs+ and one expansion unit to provide additional protection. Likewise, the two severs is placed at different buildings for security reasons.
Simple Operating Interface & Interoperability
The Synology devices offer an intuitive user interface, DSM, which is accessible via browsers on any operating systems. Since the CPP is mainly characterized by a heterogeneous IT landscape, interoperability proves to be particularly valuable here.
Performance & Variety of Functions
The built-in 10GbE port allows high data throughput for both systems. Moreover, Synology NAS can join the established Windows Active Directory to integrate with the CPP's existing account system seamlessly, allowing users to access the NAS without the need to remember another set of usernames and password.
Price-Performance Ratio
The chosen Synology products were more convincing comparing to other solutions, which were more expensive and did not offer the same range of functions. Moreover, Synology systems have 5 years of warranty and a free advanced replacement service.
Recommended Models
- RS4017xs+ × 2
Recommended Features
- File server
- Backup target for virtual machines
- Snapshot Replication