GlassHouse Delivers Comprehensive Storage Plan to the Government of the Northwest Territories

FRAMINGHAM, Mass., — GlassHouse Technologies, the global leader in independent consulting for IT infrastructure, has developed a strategy for the Government of the Northwest Territories (GNWT) in Canada that will move them to a more efficient and cost-effective storage service provider model.
The GNWT was facing some clear issues in their storage environment, and issued a Request for Proposal (RFP) for a thorough assessment and strategy that included a three-year plan. Like many businesses and organizations, their storage capacity needs were growing at a significant rate, they lacked a clearly defined data classification framework, backup times were increasing, and limited policies and processes were in place across their organization. The GNWT was also seeking an improved storage cost model to further refine their chargeback accounting process.

The GNWT has 2,500 employees in 14 government departments, with an additional 2,000 employees spread out across various schools, hospitals, boards, authorities and crown corporations throughout the territory. Their Technology Service Centre (TSC) has a staff of 55 supporting the entire organization. While they have experienced professionals dedicated to servers and networking in this environment, they do not have a separate storage support organization.

GlassHouse won the RFP process and subsequently engaged in a thorough current state analysis of the TSC’s IT environment, then developed a strategy that promotes alignment between organizational requirements and storage services, and continues to move them to a proactive supplier of infrastructure services.

“GlassHouse’s consultants helped us uncover the true potential of our existing technology investments, and designed a plan that maximizes efficiencies throughout our infrastructure,” said John Gabel, director of the Technology Service Centre for the GNWT. “Since they are independent consultants, they didn’t waste our time trying to sell us some great software or hardware fix for our issues. They focused on the capabilities we require, identifying the elements we already have and highlighting the gaps we need to fill for a streamlined, predictable and tightly organized storage environment.”

GlassHouse’s comprehensive strategy proposes following a framework that moves the TSC to a storage service provider model. GlassHouse recommended aligning IT service delivery capabilities with organizational requirements, and developing appropriate policies and processes to support meeting those needs. This includes conducting a data classification study to target appropriate tiers of storage and data protection standards, deploying standard infrastructure monitoring and reporting technologies for improved visibility into the environment to gain usage and trending data, and implementing clear data retention policies. Improved visibility into the environment and accurate metrics and reporting would allow for accurate forecasting and cost-modeling.

“The GNWT has a practical strategy to realign their IT service capabilities with their organizational needs,” said Michael Tobin, senior vice president for GlassHouse. “As more government organizations are facing both cost pressures and regulatory requirements, it’s critical that their IT infrastructure is organized, efficient and scalable. The storage service provider model accomplishes this.”