Suffolk Coastal Port Health Authority Has Upgraded Its Storage Infrastructure

Suffolk Coastal Port Health Authority has upgraded its storage infrastructure to support a web-based core database application.

Suffolk Coastal Port Health Authority (SCPHA) replaced its legacy information management system with a web-based core database application, known as Philis.

SCPHA is the part of the Suffolk Coastal District Council that inspects cargoes coming into some of the UK's busiest ports. It has 500 IT users at its headquarters with another 50 based at various ports and using mobile devices.

When the organisation implemented the in-house, web-based application, it needed to refresh its ageing storage infrastructure.

Richard Jacobs, technical manager at SCPHA, said the old storage infrastructure needed replacing because there was insufficient disaster-recovery capabilities.

"We are a 24-hour organisation that operates 365 days a year, with customers all over the world. We needed a system that would not go down."

Jacobs also said it was difficult to develop applications on the previous storage infrastructure.

The organisation hired IT services firm CSA Waverley to design and build a storage infrastructure with dual site replication and full disaster recovery. A virtual server environment with multiple back-ups was built using VMware virtualisation software and HP hardware.

Jacobs said that, in the past, if the system went down it would take 24 hours to get back up and running. All data during this period would be lost.

Philis went live in 2009 and the organisation has had no problems since.