The Department of Communities, Child Safety and Disability Services

Data^#3 deploys new Storage as a Service (StaaS) solution for QLD Department of Communities, Child Safety and Disability Services

Background
The Department of Communities, Child Safety and Disability Services (DCCSDS, the Department) is a Queensland Government agency that provides support and services to vulnerable people throughout the State.

The agency assists in delivering the Queensland (QLD) Government’s objectives for the community, including building safe, caring and connected communities, delivering quality frontline services, and creating jobs in a diverse economy.

Business challenge
DCCSDS was running an older set of storage arrays that had limited capacity and increasing maintenance costs due to the age of the infrastructure. This could have resulted in inefficiencies across the Department, particularly when it came to the time internal IT resources spent on addressing management and maintenance issues.

DCCSDS was therefore seeking a new, state-of-the-art storage solution to meet the future needs of the Department, including the flexibility to scale capacity up and down as required.

The Department also identified the need for an external partner to provide a managed service model wrapped around the technical solution, featuring flexible monthly pricing that fluctuated in accordance with consumption, and would allow the Department’s technical staff to focus on more strategic activities.

Whilst the QLD Government supports a strategy of moving to ‘as a service’ models where practical, this type of solution had not been implemented within a QLD Government Department. As such, DCCSDS had to develop a sound business case for the proposed solution and the engagement of an external vendor to provide ongoing management and support.

“Data^#3 has provided professional support when and where we need it and DCCSDS values this strengthening relationship,”

Pat Hannan, Program Manager, Information Services, DCCSDS

Solution details
Utilising the Queensland Government’s GITC Standing Offer Arrangement ICTSS.1010 – Foundation Infrastructure, Consolidated Storage, Data Protection and Services, a comprehensive tender process was conducted by the Department. Data^#3 was chosen to implement a new Storage as a Service (StaaS) solution using EMC technology (a requirement of the tender).

Data^#3 has a long-standing partnership with EMC, which helped reinforce their credentials as a trusted vendor partner.

In conjunction with EMC, the Data^#3 Professional Services team designed and implemented the new StaaS technical solution from scratch. Additionally, through a series of consultative workshops with key stakeholders at DCCSDS, the team also designed the managed service component to support the technical solution. This collaborative approach was vital in ensuring a clear understanding of the project elements and the Department’s pressure points were clarified and addressed.

The end result was an integrated StaaS solution that seamlessly linked into the Department’s broader infrastructure, operating as a scalable SLA-based storage ‘black box’.

Solution highlights:

• Configured and installed an EMC VNX8000 Storage Array in the Polaris data centre.
• Built fibre connectivity into the data centre and connected it to the DCCSDS network.
• Designed and implemented a managed service around the array to provide full StaaS.
• Data^#3 manages the array for DCCSDS with SLAs on a three-year contract.
• Flexible consumption based pricing model where DCCSDS scales up and down as needed.

Business benefits
The benefits of the new StaaS solution have been significant, particularly in regards to cost savings. For example, the Department saved an upfront capital expense by moving to an opex model and not having to replace the ageing infrastructure.

Maintenance costs have also been greatly reduced, plus the new solution has created efficiencies across the network in the form of less input required from internal resources. What’s more, the flexible consumption based model makes it easier to plan and budget around the Department’s storage needs each month.

The new solution also delivers increased storage capacity to DCCSDS, as well as the flexibility to scale capacity up or down as required. This serves to future-proof the Department’s storage needs and enables quick provisioning of additional storage.

DCCSDS now has a reliable technology partner in Data^#3; a partner that provides ongoing management and support to help reduce risk, respond to changing storage demands, and identify any issues before they become a problem.

Summary of benefits:

• Cost savings – the solution saved significant capital expenditure by moving to an opex model, reduced maintenance costs, and introduced a consumption based pricing model.
• Reduced risk – Data^#3 becomes a reliable and trusted technology partner that provides ongoing management and support.
• Increased capacity – greater storage capacity to meet demand now and in the future.
• Improved scalability – flexibility to scale capacity up or down according to demand.
• Greater efficiency – allows DCCSDS to focus on the strategic value of technology solutions.

Conclusion

Working closely with DCCSDS, Data^#3 and EMC have successfully implemented a robust, technical solution that meets the Department’s operational and security needs.

This technical solution is supported by a consumption-based StaaS model that allows storage capacity to be scaled up and down as required, resulting in significant cost savings on capital expenditure and ongoing maintenance costs.

“This type of StaaS solution had never been implemented within a QLD Government Department, so this was a significant step forward for DCCSDS,” said Pat Hannan, Program Manager, Information Services, DCCSDS.

“However, through a collaborative and consultative approach, the Data^#3 team ensured the process was as seamless and stress-free as possible. They were flexible with our shifting requirements and took the time to understand both our immediate and future needs.”

Download The Department of Communities, Child Safety and Disability Services Case Study.

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