How to migrate 300+ TB to NVMe storage in three months

By the Redsis Infrastructure team · October 2026 · 6 min read

An industry that runs on data

Colombia's software and IT services industry posted COP 44.2 trillion in sales in 2024, with 6,805 active companies and US$1.758 billion in exports, up 16% from the prior year, according to industry figures reported by Portafolio. Much of that business depends on data centers that store and process third-party information for public agencies, financial firms, healthcare and logistics.

For service providers, that means constant pressure: more structured and unstructured data, clients demanding ever-faster response times, and data protection requirements that are no longer optional. That is why our client refreshes its infrastructure frequently, looking for the best available technology at a competitive price.

First decision: renew the lease or buy?

Before talking technology, there was a financial question to answer. The existing infrastructure was leased, with a lease and support contract up for renewal. Redsis delivered a price-and-benefit comparison between extending that contract and buying new storage capacity.

The client chose to buy. Cost wasn't the only reason: the new platform would significantly improve response times for its systems and applications, and consolidate the production and historical environments its operations require onto a single, more modern infrastructure.

The architecture: NVMe, SAN and software-defined storage

The solution combined three building blocks, spread across two data centers:

• IBM FlashSystem 7200 with NVMe drives. NVMe is a protocol designed for flash memory that strips out much of the overhead of legacy interfaces and delivers microsecond-level latency. FlashSystem is IBM's all-flash family, with storage virtualization, replication and centralized management.
• IBM Spectrum Scale (now IBM Storage Scale) on IBM Power servers running Linux. It is IBM's software-defined storage platform for unstructured data at scale, with immutability features that protect files against modification or deletion.
• A SAN designed and implemented by Redsis to connect servers and storage.

Bucaramanga received two FlashSystem 7200 systems, four SAN switches and two IBM Power Linux servers. Bogotá received one FlashSystem 7200, two SAN switches and one Power Linux server. The entire infrastructure carries a 5-year warranty directly from the manufacturer.

Five lessons for migrating large volumes on a fixed deadline

1. Plan before you buy

Three months including hardware delivery leaves no room to start from scratch when the equipment lands. So the project opened with planning and prioritization sessions between the client and Redsis to identify every implementation activity that could be brought forward before the purchase.

2. Take the financial analysis as seriously as the technical one

Comparing the cost and benefits of renewing a lease against buying new infrastructure changes the conversation. A good architecture decision on the wrong financial model is still a bad decision.

3. Turn mandatory requirements into design decisions

Data immutability was mandatory. Rather than bolting on controls at the end, it was built into the architecture with IBM Spectrum Scale. That is the cleanest way to comply: the requirement lives in the platform, not in a manual procedure.

4. Design high availability across sites, not just within one

Two systems in the same data center protect you from an equipment failure, not a site failure. Spreading the platform between Bucaramanga and Bogotá, each with its own SAN, is what gives the service real resilience.

5. Treat the migration as a project in its own right

Moving 300+ TB isn't the last step of the project; it's a project within the project. Define up front the order of environments, copy windows, integrity checks and the rollback plan. In practice, migration is the most time-consuming part and the least forgiving of improvisation.

The result: lower latency, stronger protection, one environment

The client moved more than 300 TB onto current-generation storage with NVMe drives and microsecond-level latency, significantly improving response times for its systems. It now runs in high availability across two data centers, with data immutability, consolidated production and historical environments and a 5-year manufacturer warranty.

Where to start

If your organization faces a storage refresh with a deadline, data protection requirements or a lease about to expire, start with two questions: what can be done before the hardware arrives, and what is the right financial model? At Redsis we combine more than 25 years of mission-critical infrastructure experience with deep expertise in IBM FlashSystem, IBM Storage Scale and IBM Power.