Instem is a global organisation, providing world-class information solutions for drug and chemical development. Established in 1969, Instem's continued success is based on technological expertise, a thorough understanding of its market's business and regulatory requirements combined with long-term commitment to the success of its customers. Instem's customer base is drawn from the world's leading pharmaceutical, chemical and contract research organisations and its solutions are used by over 50 of the world's leading global research & development organisations at more than 80 sites worldwide.
BACKGROUND
Following a successful WAN upgrade and acceleration work by SICL, Instem decided to review its overall infrastructure seeking efficiencies in performance, resilience, scalability, security, predictability and productivity. Instem also sought to reduce infrastructure resources where practicable so as to reduce operational costs and contribute to lowering carbon footprint.
APPROACH
To meet the requirements SICL designed and implemented an integrated solution bringing together best-of-breed technologies and services from world leading manufacturers. Prior to receiving the contract SICL worked closely with the Instem in-house team to set up and run a full proof-of-concept and user acceptance testing project, successfully demonstrating the effectiveness and performance enhancements of the integrated technology operating under conditions typical of the Instem daily working environment. Based on a high resilient Cisco WAN infrastructure the architecture included Riverbed Steelhead acceleration technology to facilitate high speed file transfer requirements and remove the need for local file storage; a centralised VMWare server farm to reduce hardware real estate; a Hitachi SAN system to provide scalable file storage and CommVault for secure backup and data retrieval.
RESULTS
The final approved system was installed and configured within budget and agreed timescales producing immediate operational productivity benefits for Instem. For example, a daily task for the development team involves setting up a test environment, which under the old system took 8 hours to complete. Post-project the same task takes approximately 10 minutes, from start to finish, thanks to “snap-shotting” functionality.In addition to providing Instem with a modern, high speed WAN, based on the latest technology the SICL solution has provided a range of indirect benefits both for the company and ultimately the wider environment. Through the reduction in server hardware, power consumption and air conditioning requirements the company has been able to improve its carbon footprint and remove risks associated with operating local file storage.
“With our infrastructure project SICL demonstrated that they clearly understood the operational needs of our business and had the expertise to deliver all of the requirements of the project. SICL have become a trusted technology partner supporting our business in moving forward both in terms of internal efficiency, productivity and social responsibility.“
Jim McLauchlan
Financial Director
