Tyler Grange

When surveying land, ecologists used increasingly complex instruments to record footage and audio, which were then analysed using a powerful piece of software to identify any present species. These instruments required a huge amount of data which had to be retained for a number of years, so data storage was getting more costly year on year.

In addition, the software used to analyse this data resided on one main computer in each office, which ecologists would have to visit every time they wanted to analyse their data. Since the computer could only be used by one person at a time and often took hours to analyse, Tyler Grange required a better system for managing, analysing and storing data. 

We came up with a phased plan to fulfil the company’s needs with minimal disruption and maximum cost savings:

Step 1: Reduce initial storage requirements. This involved identifying all of the data, working out what needed to be kept or deleted, and then deleting the data. 

Step 2: Backup required data using boxxe backup-as-a-service solution (Druva).

Step 3: Set up Azure Virtual Desktop to allow ecologists to analyse data from anywhere with an internet connection.

We started off categorising their data, deleting what we could, and storing the remainder in the most cost effective places. We implemented our backup-as-a-service solution (Druva) to move the categorised data to cheaper and more efficient storage options, including SharePoint Hot storage, SharePoint Cool storage and archive storage.  

Once their data was in order, we moved onto the big challenge: building Tyler Grange a bespoke high-powered environment with Azure Virtual Desktop. We used Nerdio to autoscale compute power up and down depending on use.

Having removed 5-7 terabytes of data, Tyler Grange saw immediate cost savings. And once Druva, Azure Virtual Desktop and Nerdio were in place, staff benefitted from a high-powered solution which allowed them to compute and analyse data from anywhere with an internet connection.