Karl Gross – Optimised data storage system with Pure Storage

Karl Gross – Optimised data storage system with Pure Storage.

From its hub in Bremen, northern Germany, Karl Gross Internationale Spedition GmbH delivers customised logistics solutions to most parts of the world. The specialists proactively and flexibly cater to the individual needs of its customers according to its motto “Better logistics for you”. A modern corporate group, Karl Gross remains a privately-owned SME. In order to boost performance and allow the optimised integration of VMware into the data storage system, Bechtle implemented a Pure Storage solution, which is fully automated, secure, easy to use and offers much greater capacities.

Project details.

Services

Server & Storage

Industry

Transport / Logistics

Manufacturer

Pure Storage

Company size

< 250 employees

Challenge.

The Karl Gross Group is an international freight forwarding and logistics provider specialising in air and sea freight transport solutions and project logistics with a focus on tailored transport solutions and custom services. The transport chain as a whole generates a lot of sensitive data, which Karl Gross needs to store to facilitate day-to-day business. When the time came to renew the data storage system linked with VMware, the logistics provider commissioned its long-term IT partner, Bechtle, to carry out a system analysis. The result showed that the hardware in place could no longer be upgraded, making a new investment unavoidable. Karl Gross wanted a powerful, modern and future-secure solution that was compatible with VMware and protected against ransomware.

Everything went extremely smoothly with Bechtle by our side. With their help combined with that of Pure Storage, we are now able to manage our storage better than ever before and with SafeSnapshot, ransomware protection is embedded, giving us an extra layer of security.

Oliver Waldmann, Head of IT, Karl Gross Internationale Spedition GmbH

Solution.

Karl Gross became aware of Pure Storage and was impressed with what it saw during a presentation held by Bechtle. The Pure Storage data backup system is stable, easy to operate, requires very little manual intervention and, importantly for the logistics company, includes robust security against ransomware attacks thanks to features including SafeSnapshot and Dark Shadow Copies. What’s more, Pure Storage’s unified block and file architecture make data backups more flexible and allow the dynamic configuration and use of global resources, making it easier to consolidate workloads.

Bechtle implemented a Pure Storage X20R3 all-flash solution with 33 TB, using the existing fibre channel switches to carry out the migration once all connection paths had undergone thorough testing. Once Bechtle had consulted Karl Gross on adapting VMware, the IT partner used VMware tools to migrate all data to the new Pure Storage solution without interrupting operations and then decommissioned the outdated storage system. The new solution created a uniform, maintenance-free and automated data storage area which provided Karl Gross with plenty of capacity thanks to the data reduction and compression properties of the built-in FlashArray™ Purity operating software. Thanks to the operating system’s always-on encryption and comprehensive fabric support, the data storage system is automatically equipped with the latest security standards meaning that most things run completely automatically between Pure Storage and VMware so Karl Gross is relieved of most manual interventions. What’s more, the Pure Storage Pure Evergreen programme delivers upgrades that mean the system is always kept up-to-date without causing system downtime to boost efficiency and performance.

Business Benefits.

The new Pure Storage data storage solution has considerably simplified Karl Gross’ data management process as it has drastically reduced the need for manual intervention, while automation between Pure Storage and VMware allows seamless and secure data management. Thanks to deduplication and compression features, the freight forwarding and logistics provider is now able to store much more data than it could previously, ensuring it is fit for the future. The Pure Storage solution also fulfilled the requirement for simple operations as well as protection against attacks thanks to integrated and automatic security features, while high performance means that data can be restored and recovered quickly.