Strengthening Global Operations: How Shell Transitioned to the HD6500 to Optimize Its Data

‘’The Synology RC18015xs+, already with expanded storage of half Petabyte, was running out of disk space along with a decrease in performance.

Together with Synology, a solution was created to replace the unit with the HD6500, filled with 512GB RAM, three 1.7TB SSDs for caching and 54 HDD of 16TB resulting in a volume of 670TB which worked to fulfill the needs of the division: the scalability and network throughput speed, while also preserving all the settings of the previous unit.

450TB+ of data was copied to the HD6500 in a little bit more than three weeks, while the RC18015xs+ was still in production. All without any data loss or outage for the business.

By importing the System Configuration file from the RC18015xs+ into the HD6500, all settings and configuration became active, and users moved to the new unit almost without noticing it.’’ mentioned Ruud Oostindien, Consultant and Advisor of Shell. 

‘’While the new NAS was simply meant to replace the older NAS system at otherwise same performance, our expectations were clearly exceeded. The new NAS solution fulfills all tasks as the previous NAS but at a significantly better performance, which is very helpful for our projects.

For instance, one of our high-performance image processing workstation computers achieves a data transfer rate to/from NAS between 400 MB/s and 1 Gbps is achieved, which is very helpful for the 50-400 GByte data sets we are dealing with.’’ added Mr Oostindien.

The unit owner and division extensively tested the HD6500 for a month and are impressed by the increased speed the new unit brought along. The process would not have been able to proceed without Synology’s technical team’s support.

Shell’s collaboration with Synology demonstrates the importance of integrating powerful and scalable data management solutions into a global enterprise. As a large multinational company, Shell required a robust and efficient system that could handle large volumes of data without compromising performance. The transition from the RC18015xs+ to the HD6500 not only met Shell’s immediate storage and speed needs, but also exceeded expectations with a significant improvement in performance and data transfer speeds. This seamless upgrade not only underscores the reliability of Synology’s hardware and the expertise of its technical support team, but also its ability to provide innovative and tailored solutions that meet the complex requirements of large-scale industrial operations.