Macmillan Cancer Support moves file storage to the cloud

Macmillan Cancer Support has opted to move its file storage from traditional hardware into the cloud.

Working with cloud storage provider Nasuni the charity’s 1,500 employees can now access standardised information without the need for replication of workflow data.

Unstructured data now scales in the Azure Blog Storage, while Nasuni Edge appliances cache frequently accessed files locally, maintaining fast access for Macmillan’s end users.

Previously the cancer charity’s IT team relied on a time-consuming data recovery approach that involved replicating backups to a second London data centre.

Using Nasuni Continuous File Versioning has eliminated the need for additional backup and makes it easier to recover lost files. The IT team also use Nasuni Management Console to control and monitor their infrastructure remotely.

Tom Steven, Macmillan server engineer, said: “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, added: “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.”

“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.”