Customer Overview:

PreRack IT helped a recognized industry leader specializing in the safe management, transportation, and disposal of radiological materials. With operations spanning complex regulatory environments, system reliability and data protection are non-negotiable.

Challenge:

EnergySolutions needed to establish a disaster recovery (DR) site to ensure business continuity, but the project faced two major roadblocks:

1. High Storage Requirements: The DR site required 300TB of usable storage, a significant capacity need for a secondary environment.
2. Network Licensing Costs: The cost of Cisco’s annual network licensing was projected to push the project well beyond budget.

The customer initially engaged NetApp, who proposed an AFF-C250 solution offering 120TB usable storage at a cost of $130,000, including three years of support. To meet the 300TB target, NetApp claimed the array’s deduplication features would bridge the gap, but understandably, EnergySolutions remained skeptical of achieving those numbers in real-world use.

Solution:

Pre Rack IT stepped in to reimagine the project from both a technical and financial perspective.

• Storage:
  We proposed a Certified Pre-Owned NetApp AFF-A800 configured with 30 x 15.36TB NVMe SSDs, providing 300TB usable capacity before dedupe — more than double the usable capacity of the new AFF-C250 proposal.
  • Included: 5 Years of 24x7xNBD support
  • Benefit: Greater performance, scalability, and extended lifecycle coverage
• Networking:
  To address networking costs, we supplied Certified Pre-Owned Cisco Nexus switches already equipped with perpetual LAN Enterprise licenses.
  • Benefit: Eliminated the need for recurring Cisco licensing fees, significantly reducing total cost of ownership.

Results:

By sourcing high-quality, certified pre-owned infrastructure, Pre Rack IT delivered a complete, enterprise-class DR solution at a fraction of the original budget.

Metric	NetApp / Cisco Proposal	Pre Rack IT Solution	Cost Savings
Storage(before dedupe)	AFF-C250 (120Tb Usable)	AFF-A800 (300TB Usable)	$30,000
Support	3 Years	5 Years
Networking	N9K-C93180YC-FXH3	N9K-C93180YC-FX-24	$20,000
LAN License	Separate cost	included

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Outcome:

EnergySolutions gained:

• 2 additional years of full support coverage
• 2.5x the storage capacity
• Enterprise-class networking without annual licensing costs
• Over $50,000 in upfront savings

All for the same price as a single new AFF-C250 system.

Summary:

Through smart sourcing and creative solution design, Pre Rack IT empowered EnergySolutions to build a robust, scalable DR environment — proving that with the right partner, budget constraints don’t have to limit capability.