Overview

pTransCore provides technical solutions and engineering services for applications encompassing next-generation Open Road Tolling and Traffic Management Systems. The company operates award-winning tolling customer service centers for departments of transportation throughout the U.S. and internationally. A pioneer in RFID systems, TransCore secures access for airports, hospitals, parking garages, border patrols, trucking fleets and the rail industry. /p pTransCore was the first to deploy a toll system in the 1930s, and today 11 of the 15 largest toll agencies in the United States use TransCore’s systems./p

Supernova Award Category

Tech Optimization and Modernization

The Problem

pTransCore’s Albuquerque plant handles end-to-end production of tolling and RFID systems, from design to manufacturing – requiring hundreds of applications to get the job done. TransCore has been strategically virtualizing servers and desktops to reduce the company’s costs and IT complexity. However, with increasing virtualization, end users noticed spotty performance – especially on data-intensive applications such as AutoCAD and its enterprise resource planning software. Its Dell direct attached storage also neared capacity and slowed applications – it simply couldn’t keep up with the organization’s demands. Kevin Smith, Director of MIS, knew it was time to upgrade their IT infrastructure in order to elevate the user experience and meet the company’s growth goals./p

The Solution

pSmith and his team considered solutions from Dell EMC, Nutanix and Datrium. When looking for a solution, Smith wanted flash capability to run TransCore’s applications faster. With Datrium’s Automatrix platform, TransCore would be able to maximize storage headroom with always-on deduplication and compression. The company would also gain much-needed performance for the growing infrastructure with data close to workloads as well as the ability to manage VMware and Datrium in one interface. Smith also appreciated that he could add on easily as needed, rather than buying everything at once./p pTranscore selected Datrium because it offered strong support, increasing performance and a lower total cost of ownership. The company wouldn’t need to buy as much storage as they would with a traditional system and they could virtualize more desktops with no performance drags./p

The results

pAs TransCore deployed Datrium, the capacity gains exceeded the company’s expectations at an impressive 7X, due to the always-on compression and deduplication. Running in Insane Mode, TransCore’s latency improved by 5X-10X depending on the application. /p pFaster performance directly affected TransCore’s supply chain and delivery to customers – what took minutes for applications to re-render graphics on virtual desktops now takes seconds. “Engineers can complete designs more quickly, which leads to quicker product delivery in the end,” Smith said./p pWith Datrium, TransCore reduced their overall storage management time by approximately 95 percent. “I don’t want to be in the storage business. I want to be advancing strategic initiatives and helping end users. Datrium lets me do that. It runs itself,” Smith concluded./p pBesides day-to-day time-savings, Datrium support keeps an eye on TransCore’s system from afar and proactively notifies the company of anything out of the ordinary. For example, when a server went down overnight, Datrium was the first to notice and let Smith’s team know./p

Metrics

pAfter deploying Datrium, TransCore experienced:/p ul li10x lower latency/li liUp to 7x capacity gains/li li95% less storage management/li liQuick pay back period - Datrium paid for itself in just nine months/li liThe ability to shift focus from IT management to more strategic initiatives/li /ul

The Technology

pDatrium DVX/p pDatrium Cloud DVX/p

Disruptive Factor

pWhen TransCore’s IT team does need to spin up new VMs, they do so in approximately two minutes – compared to three days before. Along with eliminating LUN and artifact management, the team no longer has to shift workloads around and or check reports. In total, they reduced their overall storage management time by approximately 95 percent./p pDisaster recovery also factored into the company’s choice of Datrium. TransCore utilizes Datrium’s Cloud DVX to back up to Amazon Web Services (AWS). The IT team runs snapshotting and cloning every hour during the day for production servers, and once a day for VDI.  “Because they’re zero copy, that space-savings is huge,” Smith said./p pBased on projections, Smith expected Datrium to pay for itself in a year. However, Datrium paid for itself in about nine months, when he considered the savings of replacing desktops with VDI, data reduction rates and adding cost-effective flash to increase performance. “With Datrium, we don’t need to buy nearly as much space now or in the long run, which keeps our storage costs down. And we have the throughput to advance VDI. I could report to our VP of Finance that we reached payback in nine months,” said Smith./p

Shining Moment

p“Data-intensive computations that used to take four to five hours now take just an hour,” Smith said. “Instead of people complaining about VMs being slow, they are now coming to me asking for more VMs because they’re so fast.”/p