Business needLifeChurch.tv, a fast-growing

congregation with 24 locations,

wanted to find a stable and scalable

file storage solution to support its

comprehensive video ministry.

Solution

The organization implemented a

solution featuring the Dell Compellent

FS8600 NAS storage appliance

with Intel® Xeon® processors, Dell

PowerEdge servers with Intel® Xeon®

processors and Dell Networking

switches to support its live streaming

and online video.

Benefits• Saving 144TB of storage and

$150,000 through built-in

compression and deduplication

capabilities/features

• Offering reliable, high-quality video

every day to congregations in seven

states

• Taking advantage of simplified

storage management and flexibility

to re-allocate storage

• Ensuring critical applications

stay online during data center

migrations

• Providing faster, better kiosk-based

guest services

Solutions at a glance• Client Solutions

• Storage

“We are saving 144 terabytes of the 500 terabytes of total video space we have because of the compression and deduplication in the Compellent FS8600. That’s amazing for us because it gives us more room to grow, and it also represents $150,000 we don’t have to invest anymore.” Zach Gilliam, Interactive Director, LifeChurch.tv

Making the mission possible with a video-focused ministryLifeChurch.tv leverages high-quality video to reach tens of thousands of people with a flexible and cost-effective storage solution

Customer profile

Company LifeChurch.tv

Industry Nonprofit

Country United States

Website www.lifechurch.tv

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To support that goal, the fast-growing Christian congregation with 24 locations in seven U.S. states relies heavily on modern technology. In addition to streaming its worship services live to more than 60,000 attendees at all locations every weekend, LifeChurch.tv broadcasts weekly interactive worship services online to an additional 135,000 people. And the church’s popular mobile Bible app, YouVersion, has been downloaded on more than 180 million mobile devices.

Video lies at the heart of the church’s technology strategy. “Our pastor uses video to supplement his message and it allows us to function as a multi site church with live video broadcasts to all our other campuses nationwide,” Gilliam says. The church uses a video-based curriculum for children and youth, which is also provided free of charge through the Open.Church website. “This curriculum has high-quality video, and we use our own producers, camera operators and writers to bring it to life,” says Gilliam. “We also have an internal team of 12 video editors using Adobe Premiere applications to support all our video capabilities. Overall, video is a huge part of how we get our message out.”

Searching for stability and scalability Although LifeChurch.tv had long supported its comprehensive video infrastructure with Apple Xsan storage technology, it had to change course when it realized Apple would no longer be doing any additional development on that technology. To address the issue, the church deployed new storage

technologies from two other vendors but soon ran into new problems. “One of those storage providers shut down, so we were sitting on 250 terabytes of storage with no way of getting support for it,” says Gilliam. “At the same time, the other technology we had implemented was aging, so we were going to need to replace that as well.”

“Our video team can edit video faster and quickly get it out to the people who want to engage with it, all because of the auto-tiering capabilities in the Dell Compellent.” Zach Gilliam, Interactive Director, LifeChurch.tv

Oklahoma-based LifeChurch.tv has an ambitious mission:

to lead people around the world to become fully devoted

followers of Jesus. “We believe the Bible is the greatest story

on earth, and our mission is the greatest mission on earth,” says

Zach Gilliam, the church’s interactive director.

Products & Services

Services

Dell ProSupport

Hardware

Dell Compellent FS8600 NAS featuring Intel® Xeon® processor E5 family

Dell Compellent SC8000 array featuring Intel® Xeon® processor E5 family

Dell EqualLogic PS6500 storage array

Dell Networking MXL10/40GbE blade switches

Dell OptiPlex 3010 all-in-one desktop

Dell PowerEdge M1000e blade chassis

Dell PowerEdge M620 blade servers featuring Intel® Xeon® processor E5 family

Software

Dell DR4100 Disk Backup Appliance

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Faced with these challenges, LifeChurch.tv knew it needed to find a new video storage solution. “These were major concerns, because video supports so many mission-critical activities for the church,” says Gilliam. “We had to find something stable that could scale capacity as we continued to grow.”

Adding to a growing Dell infrastructurePrior to searching for a new storage solution, the church had implemented several new Dell technologies in its primary data center, including a PowerEdge M1000e blade server platform with M620 blade servers featuring Intel® Xeon® processor E5 family and the Dell Networking MXL blade switch. In addition, the organization had moved from EMC storage to a Dell Compellent SC8000 array featuring Intel® Xeon® processor E5 family. “We were impressed with the performance of the Dell server technologies, and we also really liked the automated data tiering in the Compellent array,” says Gilliam.

When it came time to evaluate video storage solutions, LifeChurch.tv considered technologies from EMC, PROMISE and Dell, but Gilliam and his colleagues kept coming back to Dell storage. “The Compellent might not be something you naturally think of for video, but we had such a great experience with the Compellent in our data center, and our local Dell representatives were really helpful in terms of understanding what we wanted,” says Gilliam.

The church tested a Dell Compellent FS8600 NAS appliance featuring Intel® Xeon® processor E5 family, with the Dell Fluid File System. “Because Dell is willing to go the extra mile, they gave us the opportunity to prove that the solution worked for video before we deployed it,” Gilliam says. He was particularly drawn to the solution’s native compression and deduplication capabilities, which can significantly reduce the amount of

physical storage space required. After a testing phase, the church deployed a Compellent FS8600 NAS appliance with a combination of flash and near-line SAS drives in its main data center and another at a secondary data center to support the church’s virtualization environment. With the FS8600, the church sees performance of about 900 MB/read and 700 MB/write across 182 drives, with 15TB of flash storage and 600TB of 7,200 RPM storage.

The organization also deployed a Dell EqualLogic PS6500 storage array to back up video data, and a DR4100 Disk Backup Appliance with Veeam backup software to increase backup capabilities. Additionally, LifeChurch.tv implemented several Dell OptiPlex 3010 desktop computers with Intel® Core™ processors that teams use to check in attendees.

Gaining 144TB of storage and saving $150,000 LifeChurch.tv has been able to save significant storage space with the compression and deduplication features in the Dell Compellent FS8600. “The Dell storage solution has soared past my expectations as far as video compression rates are concerned,” says Gilliam. “We are saving 144 terabytes of the 500 terabytes of total video space we have because of the compression and deduplication in the Compellent FS8600. That’s amazing for us, because it gives us more room to grow, and it also represents $150,000 we don’t have to invest anymore. That cost savings is critical for us as a nonprofit.”

Delivering high-quality video to tens of thousands of worshippers daily The church can consistently provide a high-quality video experience to congregants every day, whether they are experiencing the service at a physical church site or on the web, with the new Dell video storage solution. The church also can offer reliable video to other churches that are downloading it from the Open.Church site. “Our video team can edit video faster and quickly get it

A volunteer checking in worshippers

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View all Dell case studies at Dell.com/CustomerStories

Dell, the Dell logo, Dell Compellent, Dell ProSupport, EqualLogic, OptiPlex and PowerEdge are trademarks of Dell Inc. Ultrabook, Celeron, Celeron Inside, Core Inside, Intel, Intel Logo, Intel Atom, Intel Atom Inside, Intel Core, Intel Inside, Intel Inside Logo, Intel vPro, Itanium, Itanium Inside, Pentium, Pentium Inside, vPro Inside, Xeon, Xeon Phi, and Xeon Inside are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries. Other trademarks and trade names may be used in this document to refer to either the entities claiming the marks and names or their products. Dell disclaims any proprietary interest in the marks and names of others. Availability and terms of Dell Software, Solutions and Services vary by region. This case study is for informational purposes only. Dell makes no warranties — expressed or implied — in this case study. Reference Number: 10022275 © August 2015, Dell Inc. All Rights Reserved.

out to the people who want to engage with it, all because of the auto-tiering capabilities in the Dell Compellent,” says Gilliam. “The video data they use the most is available in the higher tiers, which means it is always very fast for them. Also, we have sermons from 10 years ago that we still want our team to be able to access, so that data can sit in the slower Tier 3 storage, and the editors can access it if they need to. We love the performance and flexibility this gives us.”

Simplifying management and increasing flexibilityFor Gilliam, managing the church’s video storage infrastructure has been greatly simplified with the management capabilities of the Compellent solution. “We have a single pane of glass to manage the entire storage environment, and that saves me a lot of time,” Gilliam says. It also helps Gilliam and the rest of the church’s IT team monitor storage usage more easily. “When we first deployed the solution, we dedicated a bunch of solid-state drives to our video editors because we felt like they would need that for performance,” says Gilliam. “But by using the Compellent to watch usage patterns, we were able to see that they weren’t using it all, so we re-allocated some of it to our commercial servers. As a result, we have more flexibility, and we can also provision additional storage on demand with the Compellent.”

Keeping critical applications online while migrating to a new data center When LifeChurch.tv migrated to a new primary data center, it was able to do it without substantially affecting end users because of Dell Compellent Live Volume, a feature that provides business continuity by migrating all volumes from one storage center to another. “Using Live Volume, we are able to keep the

two Compellent arrays in the virtual environment synching in real time, and we then moved virtual machines from one data center to another, with no downtime,” says Gilliam. “We moved an entire data center without affecting staff members who often need access to their data around the clock.”

Additionally, people who need to access critical applications, such as the church’s online background check form, will have uninterrupted access any time Gilliam and his team migrate virtual machines. “Volunteers are the lifeblood of our organization, and we need to make sure they’re able to access the applications they need at any time,” says Gilliam. “We can do that with the Dell Compellent Live Volume feature.”

Providing better guest services and taking advantage of strong technical supportLifeChurch.tv can now provide a faster, better overall guest experience to people attending services at its newest location because staff members can use the Dell OptiPlex 3010 desktop to check in attendees. “It’s important to have the right technology to support a smooth interaction. The Dell OptiPlex 3010 is a great fit,” says Gilliam. “It offers such a great guest experience compared with what we used before. It’s exactly what we needed.”

The organization will also continue relying on Dell ProSupport as it grows its Dell infrastructure. “We use ProSupport on most of our solutions in addition to Compellent Copilot support, and that gives us confidence that Dell is with us every step of the way,” Gilliam says. “We’re passionate about what we do, and it’s great to know we can count on the technology to help support our mission now and in the years ahead.”

“When we first deployed the solution, we dedicated a bunch of solid-state drives to our video editors because we felt like they would need that for performance. But by using the Compellent to watch usage patterns, we were able to see that they weren’t using it all, so we re-allocated some of it to our commercial servers.” Zach Gilliam, Interactive Director, LifeChurch.tv

Intel Inside®. Power Solution Outside.