The Bluetouch Ultimate Host solution utilises a ‘Network Appliance’ Storage Area Network (SAN).  Network Appliance (NetApp) is a leading full-line provider of unified enterprise storage solutions that deliver simplified data management, flexible and scalable storage infrastructure, comprehensive data protection, and reliable data access. Founded on a vision of providing simple solutions to complex business problems, NetApp has established itself as a leader and innovator in the storage industry through a passionate commitment to simplicity, innovation, and teamwork.

The SAN consists of a Netapp FAS 920c for primary storage which is housed in a Global Switch datacentre facility, and a Netapp NearStore R200 for backup and resilience which is housed in a Heathrow datacentre.

VMWare Ultimate Host images are stored on the SAN, so all of the client operating system and data is stored as a single image file server. In the event of a hardware failure on the host hardware machine, a new hardware instance can simply be pointed at the server image on the SAN.

All server images are replicated to a backup SAN unit at the secondary datacentre in Heathrow.

Benefits of SAN Storage:

• Higher performance disks
• Higher MTBF (Mean Time Before Failure) than traditional disks
• Upgradeable on the fly in 36GB increments
• Options to snapshot or mirror data for greater resilience
• Faster recovery from hardware failure