Algonquin College is a post-secondary academic institution located in Ottawa, Ontario. Their overall mission is to transform hopes and dreams into lifelong success. The organization looks to be a global leader in personalized, digitally connected, experiential learning.

Goal

Due to the focus on digital innovation, Algonquin’s Department of Applied Research & Innovation was looking to create a digital “canvas” of their campus by using Building Information Modelling (BIM) standards. A digital canvas like this is created through conducting laser scans across the campus, which results in large data sets. These data sets need to be organized, processed and shared across multiple stakeholders. Algonquin needed a solution that had significant storage space for the raw scanned data as well as the combined and refined scans.

SupportMyMac Consultation

Our team at SupportMyMac enjoys the consultant role because it gives us the opportunity to chat with new and existing clients in order to understand their IT needs. The team looks to understand these needs and digs deeper into how they are truly impacting the organization. Then, we help generate a solution that helps create an opportunity.

Once we met with Algonquin College, our team understood their goal of creating a digital “canvas” of their campus. The problem was they needed a large amount of storage space for the scans and applications. They planned to use the data in different presentation formats including Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality.

A large part of consulting is having the proper resources and partners to provide the right solutions to our clients. Based on Algonquin’s goal, we felt that one of our partners, Promise Technology could have a solution. Promise Technology recommended their VTrak D5000 storage array. They felt as though this could be a perfect solution for Algonquin College and we couldn’t have agreed more.

Our team has deployed hundreds of Promise storage solutions, so we know they are a great team to work with. Promise is the industry leader in rich media storage solutions across many different vertical markets. For Algonquin College, as a leader in their unique field, they were looking for a storage solutions from an industry leader.    

Outcome

Promise Technology’s VTrak D5000 storage array was a solution that met all of Algonquin College’s needs. Through this solution they were able to store and combine all large laser scan data sets while maintaining the integration with their current server computers.

Some of the Key Results include:

  • Resolves storage limitations and performance bottlenecks.
  • Cost-effective as this storage solution eliminates the need for internal computer storage, external driver, internal storage devices and multiple USB sticks.
  • VTrak D5000 offers VMware certification.
  • The solution encompasses flexibility for the ability to scale up if needed.

Algonquin’s team immediately saw that this solution provided the capacity needed to manage the large data sets for this project. They were also happy to see that this solution offers the flexibility needed to accommodate any unknown future needs that they may run into as they conduct this research.