Any company that has celebrated its centennial knows a thing or two about adaptability and agility. For more than 100 years, USG Corporation has built a premier portfolio of groundbreaking construction and remodeling products, continuing to set new standards for productivity and efficiency. With a reputation for quality, service and innovation, USG has demonstrated its resilience through a commitment to work smarter and faster… all to help customers achieve their visions.
To help USG achieve its own vision, American Digital applied its extensive data center expertise to execute a forward-looking solution to enhance the productivity and performance of USG’s technology infrastructure, positioning the company for rapid growth.
“American Digital was a valued partner who was fully engaged throughout the whole process. From the first meeting when we began to outline the project goals to final closure, American Digital was there to answer our questions and provide subject matter expertise when it mattered most,” said Larry Sullivan, USG Senior IT Manager.
STORAGE REFRESH
USG had separate applications running two distinct systems on two different storage platforms. Rather than addressing one expiring lease in isolation, USG’s plan was to consolidate its internal resources and merge its separate environments into a single platform. Combining its teams to focus on a single technology would allow USG to maximize its investment.
While USG’s internal teams were experts at maintaining its legacy systems, their destination of Tier 1 technology represented new territory. They wanted to partner with a team that was not only familiar with a Tier 1 storage platform, but one that had outstanding expertise in data migration. To support a technology refresh of their data center in its entirety, USG selected American Digital as its partner.
AMERICAN DIGITAL PROVIDES THE RIGHT TECH SOLUTION
“American Digital approached our project like a true partner. They weren’t trying to sell us products. They listened to our requirements, understood our project goals and helped design a solution that made sense both financially and technically,” recounts Sullivan.
American Digital conducted a comprehensive initial assessment of the storage and server environment at no cost to USG. As an HP Premier Partner, American Digital also created numerous opportunities for USG managers — at every level — to hear from HP executives about what the company was doing with storage technology and where HP was going in the future. According to Sullivan, “A lot of similar vendors have similar capabilities, but we have a strong partnership with American Digital and now, HP. Knowing that HP’s future road showed a clear path to 3PAR storage technology convinced us we had the right solution.”
In moving from two separate storage platforms into one consolidated, higher-performance platform, USG has realized benefits on multiple levels, including financial, performance, and flexibility. With one common lease for both its Windows and Open Systems environments, USG is reaping the financial benefits of better expense management and cost savings for greater capacity. The new storage solution offers minimum downtime for both production and non-production environments. And the streamlined solution allowed USG to manage its storage solution with existing resources, making it both easier and more efficient to operate.
Overall, the solution implemented by American Digital allows USG to be more agile as it adjusts to competitive forces and market trends. “American Digital offered the whole package: partnership, flexibility, technical expertise and a proven track record. All-in-all, I see the solution as providing great value to USG,” says Sullivan. “Even after the project completed, American Digital has continued to provide valuable input to help us fully leverage our investment.”
To learn more about American Digital and its solutions, visit American Digital’s case studies.