Designing a hybrid cloud strategy for The State Library of NSW

Project Challenges

The State Library of NSW collects and preserves materials and evidence on a national and global level, in order to make them accessible to NSW and beyond. The library is well advanced in its transformation project which is enabling the digitisation of its most iconic, at risk and highly valued collections.

The Digitisation Programme involves the creation and preservation of digital material, extending to over 20 million collection images, one of the most expansive collections Australia has ever seen. This large-scale initiative has seen the library recognised globally for its unyielding digital excellence, due to its ability to deliver high-quality collections across the world.

One of the biggest challenges faced by the library was the ability to deliver the necessary IT infrastructure at such scale, without jeopardising the high-speed access to its digitised assets for staff members.

Why iQ3 (now Tesserent)?

iQ3 (now Tesserent) was able to design a hybrid cloud strategy for the State Library of NSW which delivered the agility and scalability required to deliver such an ambitious programme. The solution involved iQ3 Cloud Storage to enable scalable high-performance storage including snapshot and geographic protection, accessible across highly secure, low-latency links.

In addition to this, a third backup copy of the data is duplicated to lower performance storage tier at AWS using AW DataSync to allow the library to experience an integrated service at the right price.

Project Benefits

Since initial engagement, the State Library of NSW has successfully migrated its entire environment from Google to Office 365, leveraging iQ3’s Microsoft partnership to deliver an affordable consumption-based model.

This migration assisted with the successful execution of the Digitisation Programme initiative, leveraging iQ3’s cloud compute and private cloud to deliver a highly secure and scalable tailored solution.

The partnership has continued to evolve, extending the number of Tessernet services leveraged by the Library. This broadened engagement now includes Cloud Compute for the development of the next generation of Digital Asset Management system, in addition to deploying Managed Security, Managed Firewalls and associated dark fibre connectivity to allow the organisation to securely scale.