As part of its latest system upgrade, Repsol Sinopec wanted to transition away from its current controllers and storage shelves that were reaching the end of service life. The company needed a cost effective way of maintaining its storage platform going forward, with the flexibility to deploy new opportunities such as cloud technology in the future.
Repsol Sinopec, working with Q Associates, opted to deploy two clusters powered by NetApp’s ONTAP data management software solution on FAS8040 filers, also introducing 4TB SAS drives to their storage estate. The two ONTAP clusters were deployed over 3 days with one in their business continuity site and then the other in their production data centre. NetApp’s SnapMirror technology replicates data from the data centre for disaster recovery and backup. With three years’ support and maintenance, the new solution also proves cheaper than extending Repsol Sinopec’s existing support and maintenance contract by an additional year.
This upgrade was performed using NetApp’s Copy Free Transition technology, which was first brought to market late in 2015, and this was the first Copy Free Transition completed in EMEA. The process reduced the migration time to the new solution from several months to just 10 hours. As a result, the process created minimal disruption and downtime, and sets Repsol Sinopec in a strong position for even more non-disruptive storage services further down the line.
Repsol Sinopec’s relationship with NetApp has spanned over 15 years, and NetApp has supported the company through a series of storage transitions, starting with a single filer head unit in 2001 to replace its Windows file services. Since then, the installation has transformed to add new, higher capacity disks, larger controllers and recovery replication solutions.
Repsol Sinopec operates 38 fields on the UK Continental Shelf with 12 offshore installations and two onshore terminals. The company is headquartered in Aberdeen, Scotland.
Andrew Bentley, Infrastructure Lead, Repsol Sinopec Resources UK Limited said: “We have used NetApp storage for many years. Although Copy Free Transition was very new we worked closely with NetApp to fully prepare for and successfully realise the benefits of the new upgrade methodology. This allowed us to achieve our goal of a cost-effective storage platform upgrade while reducing risk and business disruption.”
Andrew Griffiths, Director, Q Associates Ltd added: “As a specialist in ONTAP migration and a longstanding NetApp partner, we are proud that we were able to work with NetApp and Repsol Sinopec to achieve this storage system upgrade. By offering our insights around the migration process, and organising a workshop for Repsol Sinopec and NetApp, we provided the foundation for a successful project, and we look forward to continuing to support Repsol Sinopec as their business grows and develops.”
Matt Watts, Director, Technology and Strategy, NetApp concluded: “We have worked with Repsol Sinopec through many shifts and changes in the oil and gas industry. We understood their need for a reliable, cost-efficient solution and are proud to be able to offer them the confidence that their data is safe, as well as the ability to expand and grow at their own pace. We look forward to continuing to work with Repsol Sinopec as they explore the potential of data within their business.”
