University of Toronto Deploys OpenSDS Platform

The University of Toronto has implemented an open source-driven software defined storage (OpenSDS) platform to support its server virtualization, network storage and centralized data backup systems.

The university serves more than 84,000 students and 19,000 faculty and staff across three campuses. The Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions (EIS) department plans and manages all of the university's enterprise-level hardware, systems and network infrastructure, which is located in a central administrative data center and serves all three campuses.

The EIS team was looking for a standard storage area network (SAN) solution to support all of its enterprise services and any other departments at the university. Some of the decision makers were initially drawn to big brand names because they felt like a safe bet, but the team eventually settled on the NexentaStor with the NexentaStor high availability (HA) plugin.

"Our decision to go with Nexenta will have saved the university around $9 million over a five-year period," said Patrick Hopewell, director of the EIS department, in a prepared statement. "Other storage vendors were more than three times what we ultimately negotiated with Nexenta and yet the functionality was basically the same."

The EIS team worked closely with Nexenta's engineering team to implement the system for the university's data center and its disaster recovery solution. The NexentaStor system integrates with the university's VMware vSphere 5.5 system running on Cisco's Unified Computing System (UCS) hardware. According to a press release from Nexenta, "there are now more than a thousand virtual machines running in the data center, with around three petabytes of raw storage provisioned in Nexenta. All of this is now running on commodity hardware, which has been optimized by joint efforts between Nexenta and the university."

About the Author

Leila Meyer is a technology writer based in British Columbia. She can be reached at [email protected].

Featured

  • university building with classical architecture is partially overlaid by a glowing digital brain graphic

    NSF Invests $100 Million in National AI Research Institutes

    The National Science Foundation has announced a $100 million investment in National Artificial Intelligence Research Institutes, part of a broader White House strategy to maintain American leadership as competition with China intensifies.

  • black analog alarm clock sits in front of a digital background featuring a glowing padlock symbol and cybersecurity icons

    The Clock Is Ticking: Higher Education's Big Push Toward CMMC Compliance

    With the United States Department of Defense's Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification 2.0 framework entering Phase II on Dec. 16, 2025, institutions must develop a cybersecurity posture that's resilient, defensible, and flexible enough to keep up with an evolving threat landscape.

  • blue AI cloud connected to circuit lines, a server stack, and a shield with a padlock icon

    AI Security Controls Lag Behind Adoption of AI Cloud Services

    Nearly nine out of 10 organizations are already using AI services in the cloud — but fewer than one in seven have implemented AI-specific security controls, according to a recent report from cybersecurity firm Wiz.

  • Training the Next Generation of Space Cybersecurity Experts

    CT asked Scott Shackelford, Indiana University professor of law and director of the Ostrom Workshop Program on Cybersecurity and Internet Governance, about the possible emergence of space cybersecurity as a separate field that would support changing practices and foster future space cybersecurity leaders.