Sky-High Efficiency: How an East Coast Regional Airport Transformed Their Storage Infrastructure with WTG & Dell Technologies

Background

An east coast-based airport faced an imminent infrastructure challenge as its vSAN Ready Nodes approached the end of support in February of 2025. Additionally, their legacy EMC storage array no longer met their expanding storage requirements, particularly as they sought to enhance their video surveillance capabilities. With future growth in mind, the airport required a modernized storage solution that would integrate with their current infrastructure while providing the flexibility to scale as needed.

Assessment and Solution Evaluation

Recognizing the airport’s need for a scalable, cost-effective, and high-performance solution, Winslow Technology Group conducted a thorough evaluation of their environment. We proposed two potential options, one of which was Dell PowerScale, a storage platform designed for scalability, high availability, and seamless integration with existing systems.

The airport expressed strong interest in Dell PowerScale, and we suggested leading with this solution due to its ability to meet the airport’s expanding data storage and surveillance needs. To ensure a well-informed decision, WTG, along with Dell, performed a Live Optics Collect assessment, which provided valuable insights into workload performance, capacity utilization, and overall system efficiency. This analysis enabled us to present a data-driven recommendation tailored to the airport’s specific requirements.

Following a cost analysis of the available solutions, the airport ultimately decided to move forward with Dell PowerScale, as it aligned best with their business objectives, particularly their plans for expansion.

Implementation and Outcome

By integrating Dell PowerScale into their infrastructure, the airport achieved several key benefits:

Expanded Storage Capacity – The airport gained additional storage to support its growing video surveillance needs and other critical workloads.

Seamless Integration with vSAN Ready Nodes – The new solution complemented their existing infrastructure while maintaining system efficiency.

Future Scalability – PowerScale provided the ability to scale as needed by adding more nodes to the environment, ensuring long-term flexibility.

Stretch Cluster Configuration for vSAN – The deployment maintained the airport’s desired high-availability configuration, which is crucial for uninterrupted operations.

Cost Efficiency – By selecting a future-ready solution, the airport optimized its investment while ensuring sustainable growth.

Long-Term Impact

This successful implementation not only met the airport’s immediate storage and scalability needs but also positioned their infrastructure for future expansion. The ability to add nodes incrementally allows them to scale efficiently without overcommitting resources upfront. Additionally, by leveraging Live Optics Collect for data analysis, WTG provided a strategic, data-backed approach to infrastructure modernization.

Beyond the technical benefits, this engagement strengthened our relationship with the airport, building trust and confidence in our ability to deliver effective infrastructure solutions. The collaboration has paved the way for future opportunities, as the airport continues to evolve its IT landscape to support growing operational demands.