Key Challenges
- After experiencing a flood, Kitselas First Nation, a self-funded and self-governing nation in British Columbia, needed new servers and a modern solution for simplicity, scalability, availability and disaster recovery.
- With only one person on the IT staff, Kitselas First Nation was in need of powerful systems capable of running workloads with efficiency and speed.
- Given the opportunity to explore other options, Kitselas First Nation was also looking for an affordable, reliable and easy-to-use solution capable of maximizing uptime.
Business Benefits Gained from Selecting Scale Computing
- Scale Computing’s HC3 solution provides Kitselas First Nation with disaster recovery and the ability to manage IT infrastructure without the need for local IT staff.
- Since implementation of Scale Computing HC3, Kitselas First Nation saved resources and 15% of time spent managing infrastructure, leading to an increase in time spent working on other projects.
- HC3 provides Kitselas First Nation with a simplified, highly affordable IT infrastructure with improved performance.
Kitselas First Nation - Background and IT challenges
Kitselas First Nation is a self-funded and self-governing nation in British Columbia made up of around 100 people serving a community of over 700 members. With a history dating back more than 5,000 years ago, Kitselas is one of 14 Tsimshian tribes in British Columbia. Kitselas means “people of the canyon” and refers to the Kitselas Canyon, a National Historic Site of Canada that is open to visitors. Half of the population resides in the Kitselas Canyon, which is the heart of the Kitselas nation and is located on the Skeena River on the Gitaus reserve. Others in the area live in Kulspai, a smaller reserve west of Terrace, and are also spread throughout Vancouver, Prince George and Prince Rupert, among other places.
Introduction to the Scale Computing Solution
After walking into a flooded office, Don Agnew, IT support and asset management officer at Kitselas First Nation, realized his servers were flooded and in need of replacement. With just one person on the IT staff, Kitselas First Nation needed to quickly find a solution capable of running workloads with efficiency and speed. Kitselas First Nation was also looking to replace their legacy virtualization system with an affordable, reliable and easy-to-use solution capable of maximizing uptime to focus attention on other IT projects.
Agnew reached out to Scale Computing and a few other vendors, but decided on Scale Computing when he realized one cluster would be able to service five sites and ensure business continuity. “We have an on-site backup and a Google Cloud Platform in Quebec,” Agnew said. “If another disaster strikes, the hardware component fails or the entire HC3 appliance breaks down, we’re covered. The Scale Computing HC3 cluster is highly available and keeps our systems running with no downtime. HC3 won’t let us down.”
Agnew replaced the legacy infrastructure at Kitselas First Nation with 14 virtual machines across the organization’s five sites to run on Scale Computing HC3 and handle everything from domain controllers to specialized medical reporting software to providing data storage. “I was mostly virtual before Scale Computing, but now I’ve saved 15% of time managing infrastructure,“ Agnew said. “Implementing Scale Computing HC3 was a piece of cake. The training Scale Computing provided was excellent and intuitive, so I was able to quickly and easily move data from my old virtual machines to the new ones.”
Scale Computing HC3 – Reliable, Efficient and Easy to Use
The all-in-one HC3 platform has provided Kitselas First Nation with virtualization, servers, storage, backup, and disaster recovery, combining the features into a single, easy-to-use platform ideal for lean IT teams spread out across several sites. All of the components are built in, including the hypervisor, without the need for any third-party components or licensing. “Scale Computing HC3 provides ease of use and instantaneous recovery from hardware failure. If I need to spin a machine up to try something, it’s as simple as clicking a button,” Agnew said. “I run around from one site to another and help with various projects. Implementing HC3 has made my life so much easier because I’m not worrying about running updates on my hypervisor and I can look at just one control panel for the 14 servers across each site. If HC3 needs an update, there’s one step and no downtime.”
After experiencing a flood, Kitselas First Nation looked to Scale Computing HC3 for its high availability and ability to run critical workloads on virtual machines, simplify management, protect sensitive data, and protect the local government from disaster. “With HC3, the recovery from hardware failure is instantaneous. When one of the servers went down at one of our locations, they were back up and running in no time thanks to Scale Computing. They provided us with the replacement server within four days! That’s the zero downtime you notice because you can keep your business running,” Agnew said.
The virtualization capabilities in HC3 enable users to automate overall management of IT environments within a modern, comprehensive system. Combined with hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI), Scale Computing HC3 reduces complexity and simplifies daily IT tasks, a necessity for a single IT person managing the critical workloads of a local government.
The simplicity of HC3 and ability to run workloads with efficiency and speed has enabled Agnew to spend less time managing infrastructure and have more time for projects that will move Kitselas First Nation forward. “As the only IT person on staff, it’s important to have a solution that simplifies the management and maintenance of its infrastructure. HC3 includes rapid deployment, automated management capabilities, and a single-pane-of-management, helping me streamline and simplify daily tasks, while also providing backup and disaster recovery in the event of another flood or accident,” Agnew said. “HC3 doesn’t need much oversight, which means we’re protected and I can shift my attention to other projects because I can restart a server and it’s back up in minutes. I finally have the chance to get my Laserfiche up and operational, which I could barely do with my previous servers because they didn’t have the horsepower to deliver the service we needed.”