CHARLES TAYLOR CONSULTING IMPLEMENTS NEW STORAGE PLATFORM TO SUPPORT BUSINESS GROWTHUNDERWRITING THE BUSINESS CASE STUDY

CLIENT PROFILECharles Taylor Consulting is a leading international provider of professional services to clients in the global insurance market. It offers a wide range of high quality, tailored services, to cover underwriting, broking, loss adjustment, claims management and management services, designed to make the business of insurance work efficiently. Clients range from underwriters to brokers to clients. It manages mutual insurance companies, adjusts large and complex insurance claims and provides a complete range of outsourced insurance services. A wide range of technical skills and insurance knowledge, enables the management and resolution of virtually any insurance related matter, wherever it occurs in the world.

AT A GLANCE

IndustryProfessional Services for the Insurance Industry

The challengeCharles Taylor Consulting was experiencing difficulties with its storage platform, which was approaching end of life. Despite the efforts of a number of vendors, to identify a throughput issue, the problem couldn’t be located. The platform was also limited in its ability to support the company’s growth.

The solutionThrough assessment, MTI identified the issue and helped Charles Taylor Consulting solve it. It then designed and implemented a new storage solution, to support explosive data growth, while ensuring robust business continuity and disaster recovery.

Benefits• Design & implementation of new solution• Expert insight• Understanding of business needs• Consultative-based partnership• Proactive & responsive service management• Proactive & responsive account management

Insurance expert, Charles Taylor Consulting, was experiencing difficulties with its storage platform, which was also approaching end of life. Through analysis, MTI helped to solve a pressing throughput problem, where other partners could not. It subsequently went on to design and implement a future proof storage solution, delivering a raft of other benefits, further cementing MTI’s position as a valued partner to Charles Taylor Consulting.

THE CHALLENGECharles Taylor Consulting had a legacy storage platform, based upon Hitachi technology. The array had been in place for several years and had generally been performing well. However, the company began experiencing throughput issues and was struggling to identify the specific area of the infrastructure responsible for causing the problem.

It was also using Cisco switches and LSI equipment, to support virtualisation of the Hitachi storage platform. Specifically, it was experiencing time outs and slow performance from the SQL server, resulting in frequent calls to the helpdesk.

Several meetings were held with the relevant vendors, to attempt to identify and resolve the issue. Gordon Stockley, Senior Network Analyst at Charles Taylor Consulting explains: “The Hitachi and LSI equipment was limited to four ports, which in turn limited the throughput options. However, none of the vendors could actually identify the issue and after several fruitless meetings, it became apparent that the companies involved were beginning to absolve themselves of responsibility, pointing fingers at each other”.

THE SOLUTIONMTI, a global service provider, had been working with Charles Taylor Consulting for some time, supporting software applications used by the company. To identify the root cause of the problem, the existing vendors had been investigating the switches and storage platform, to no avail.

MTI offered to carry out an assessment and almost immediately identified the source of the issue in the switch environment. Free of charge, MTI swapped out the existing switches, implementing more suitable fibre replacements. This rectified the problem.

Charles Taylor Consulting then engaged MTI in discussions around a storage technology refresh project. Gordon Stockley said: “ The Hitachi platform was approaching end of life and we had also experienced other problems with it. Given the limitations of the four ports and MTI’s clear expertise, we began talking to them about an alternative storage solution”.

Following a more detailed assessment, evaluating Charles Taylor Consulting’s business requirements, MTI proposed investment into a new solution. Consequently, the design of two EMC unified storage platforms was implemented, one in the London production datacentre, with replication to the other in the secondary, disaster recovery environment in Liverpool.

DESIGN, REPLACEMENT AND MAINTENANCEFollowing an assessment consultation, MTI designed the new storage solution, to replace the existing platform. It also took responsibility for the data migration and confirmed from the outset of the engagement that it would handle any maintenance requirements, leaving day-to-day management in the hands of the team at Charles Taylor Consulting. Gordon Stockley said: “MTI brought a lot of fringe benefits to the table and today we see them as a close partner, not just a service provider. MTI has certainly proved its worth and the clues to this were already there when it helped us with our switch environment issues”.

GOODWILL AND EXPERT INSIGHT“A lot of goodwill has been established with MTI; it’s clearly a company that knows its business and one that doesn’t push technology sales down your throat. They really understand our business needs, which instils a lot of confidence”, added Gordon Stockley. In terms of the implementation, MTI established NAS replication and set up data stores in London, to ensure business continuity and disaster recovery. ‘We now have a unified storage solution that is underpinning the business and is powerful, scalable and robust”, quoted Gordon Stockley.

HANDLING EXPLOSIVE DATA GROWTHLike many organisations today, Charles Taylor Consulting is experiencing unprecedented data growth, which has been particularly marked over the last six years. MTI took account of this and designed a solution for Charles Taylor Consulting with the required capacity to cater for growth, which far outstripped the capacity of the previous platform. Gordon Stockley confirmed: “MTI had the foresight and understanding of our business to accommodate the explosive growth in virtual machines, integrating our ESX virtual servers with the EMC solution. This has given us a huge boost in capacity, which was much needed’.

PROACTIVE MANAGEMENTGordon Stockley speaks highly of MTI in a consultative context and says the company stands out because of its emphasis on building strong relationships with clients. “We feel well disposed towards MTI. Everyone is extremely proactive and responsive, dealing with any issues immediately. We have built a long-term relationship with our account manager, technical and services team, it seems that everyone at the company has longevity, which tells you a lot about the organisation”.

BUSINESS BENEFITS

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