Qumulo’s Scalability Enables ON24 to Keep Growing at Breakneck Speeds

ON24 made a critical decision: replace its legacy system with new file storage that would simplify and support its workflow. They chose Qumulo’s hybrid cloud file storage.While cost was a secondary concern, Qumulo’s pricing for both capital and operational areas was extremely attractive.

“Pricing was one of the reasons we selected Qumulo,” said Sudershan Virdi, Senior Director of Network Operations, ON24. “We had compared the cost of Qumulo’s system against those of its high-end competitors, and frankly, the cost difference was ridiculously wide.”

But the lower cost would prove to be just a bonus. Scalability was ultimately the key factor in Qumulo’s favor.

With Qumulo, ON24 operates a massively scalable storage infrastructure that enables dynamic capacity growth, reliable data protection, actionable visibility, and management simplicity.

MASSIVE CAPACITY

The ON24 team deployed a 700TB system with Qumulo. The company is confident they will not have to add another node for 1 or 2 years. And when they do scale, the process will be simple and non-disruptive.“The main thing is that we don’t have to worry about storage issues anymore, which we were constantly doing before we had Qumulo,” said Sudershan. “Scaling our Qumulo file system is a simple process, and we expect the system to last at least the next 3 to 5 years.”

HIGH-SPEED REPLICATION AND RAPID RESTORE

With its previous storage system, ON24 replicated files between its data centers in San Francisco and Denver.

Qumulo’s storage software provides native snapshots and encryption to easily protect multiple sites with high-speed data movement and rapid restores. “Replicating files between our two data centers used to take days and now takes less than a minute. It’s a 2000X improvement, and takes risk out of my organization,” said John Funke, Director of Platform Operations at ON24.

ACTIONABLE VISIBILITY

Consolidating its file storage, while also leveraging Qumulo’s built-in storage analytics, enabled ON24 to gain visibility into its data. Admins are able to drill down to the directory level to fix hotspots and manage very large and growing directories.

The process is fast and simple. Admins can quickly view directories and system usage from a simplified user interface. This visibility allows them to monitor existing files and system usage and forecast long-term trends. Actionable reports keep everyone on the same storage planning page.

MANAGEMENT SIMPLICITY

Ease-of-use was another key benefit that ON24 saw with Qumulo. Qumulo’s management interface dramatically decreased the time that the team spends on administrative tasks. “We used to take a whole day to manage the system,” said Funke. “With Qumulo, what took most of the day takes an hour at most. Instead of concentrating on keeping the technology going, we can concentrate on our business.”

TECHNOLOGY EMPOWERING BUSINESS

With Qumulo, ON24 was able to evolve to a simplified, consolidated, scalable, simple storage infrastructure.

Sudershan put the shift into perspective. “We needed to update our technology so it would support our business. We decided to consolidate on a scalable NAS environment. We needed fast snapshot replication, simplified architecture, more capacity, and in-depth reporting to the file level. Qumulo gave us all that, plus cost benefits and great customer support. We definitely made the right move.”