Macmillan Cancer Support consolidates file servers in the cloud

Nasuni, a leading provider of cloud file storage, has been selected by Macmillan Cancer Support (Macmillan) to move its file storage away from traditional hardware infrastructure and into the cloud. Macmillan shifted to Nasuni to overcome the limitations of traditional on–premises Windows File Servers and create a single, cloud-native global file system. This means that the charity’s 1,500 employees now have standardised information without the need for repeated weekly replication of workflow data as happened before. 

At Macmillan, unstructured data now scales in unlimited, cost-effective Azure Blob Storage, not on-premises hardware. Lightweight Nasuni Edge Appliances cache frequently accessed files locally, maintaining fast access for Macmillan’s end users, but unstructured data scales in the cloud. Previously, Macmillan’s IT group relied on a time consuming disaster recovery (DR) approach that involved replicating backups to a second London data centre. Nasuni Continuous File Versioning has eliminated the need for additional backup and makes it easier to recover lost files and folders.

In addition, Macmillan’s IT group utilises the Nasuni Management Console to control and monitor their infrastructure remotely, speeding up communication around growth and usage to management.

Who is Macmillan Cancer Support?

Macmillan Cancer Support is one of the largest charities in the U.K., providing healthcare, counseling, information, financial support, and more to people impacted by cancer. The organisation goes all out to support people with cancer and help them live their lives to the fullest. 

Macmillan Cancer Support supports local information and support centres, cancer support groups, benefits advisers and cancer support specialists, and can help with practical, medical, financial and emotional support. 

Why did Macmillan Cancer Support choose Nasuni?

Tom Steven, Macmillan Server Engineer, commented, “By moving to Nasuni, we consolidated our two main file shares in London and avoided the expense of refreshing the ageing file server infrastructure at our satellite offices. At the start of the pandemic, we were scrambling to get people working from home as quickly as possible. With Nasuni being in the cloud, and us just having an edge cache in each location, all we had to do was get people onto our VPN and redirect them to Nasuni for their file shares. It was very smooth. Nasuni has played a key part in our larger strategic shift to becoming a more agile, cloud-first organisation.”

Andres Rodriguez, founder and chief technology officer at Nasuni, commented, “The business continuity risks and costs associated with operating and maintaining Windows File Servers have caused enterprises to seek low-impact approaches to file storage and disaster recovery. Macmillan sought a more efficient and agile cloud infrastructure and have found that with Nasuni Cloud File Storage. Coupled with cloud object storage like Azure Blob, Nasuni has made it easier for data-intensive organisations like Macmillan to store, protect, synchronise and access file data from anywhere in the world.”