University of West Florida (UWF)

It’s all about good data at the University of West Florida. Keeping it safe, reliable, and accessible is exactly how Carl Howell wants it to stay. Howell is the lead enterprise systems engineer at the Pensacola-based campus, which is a leading economic engine of Northwest Florida.

“I guess for any institution data is the most important thing we have,” Howell said. “The data that we have on our NetApp systems is critical to day-to-day operations for students.”

For more than 20 years, the university has relied on NetApp’s expertise to guide its critical systems – from data and storage to infrastructure and cloud.

But like most educational institutions, budgets are always tight, which means making the most of what you have – and being strategic about new investments. 

“The biggest challenges we're facing right now are budget issues,” Howell said. “I think a lot of companies are going through technology debt. We've got a lot of aging hardware we need to replace.”  

In addition, while there is always a desire to modernize, not all systems can easily transition. 

“Some vendors are moving very strongly to push us into the cloud for their services,” Howell said. “We have a lot of applications that aren't ready to make that jump.”  

Which is why Howell appreciates NetApp’s thoughtful approach to its architecture. With NetApp’s leading unified data storage, Howell can upgrade the systems on his terms, without jeopardizing the university’s complex interoperability of the applications and systems. 

“NetApp helps us through its unified platform,” he said. “We're able to run all of the university's enterprise applications on one storage platform.

“We have all of the Oracle databases for ERP. We have all of our other databases for homegrown applications, VMware for the enterprise applications. Citrix for students. All of that runs on NetApp. It's resilient. It's scalable.” 

Howell likens NetApp to Grand Central Station, handling hundreds of terminals, thousands of connections, millions of data points. 

And with all of this information comes security risks. 

“Security is top of mind for us,” he said. “But NetApp's tamper-proof Snapshots, multi-admin verify, and SnapLock compliance have been instrumental in protecting us from ransomware attacks.” 

The confidence that NetApp brings is a relief for Howell, who doesn’t have to waste cycles on security or infrastructure reliability. The interoperability of both on-premises and cloud integration is also a huge benefit. 

“NetApp gives us confidence in the sense that we have it on-premise, but we also have it in the cloud,” he said. “We use the same tools on-prem as we do in the cloud. The NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP product was instrumental for us going to the cloud. We have all of our critical data mirrored.” 

Even with all of the unstructured data generated at the university, NetApp's power and scalability make it easy to manage. 

“We have been able to meet every challenge for unstructured data,” he said. “NetApp was there for us. We needed a platform for Oracle. NetApp was there for us. We needed a platform for SQL, for VMware, for Citrix. NetApp was there for us.” 

In the end, all of these technology improvements ultimately help the students and faculty. As NetApp transforms the university's backend systems, it sets the stage for a host of student benefits that elevate their learning experience.

The university gains enhanced operational efficiency and agility, which translates into improved administrative processes, streamlined workflows, and faster response times. As a result, students enjoy a smoother enrollment process, efficient access to academic resources, and more personalized support from faculty and staff. 

Knowing that budget is always an issue, Howell said his NetApp team recently approached him about Keystone, which can help the university better manage costs using a storage-as-a-service model. The team analyzed the existing environment, pointing out potential areas of savings. 

“We have looked at the Keystone platform,” Howell said. “We're excited about its capabilities so that we can get out of the business of hardware refreshing every three to five years.”