Data Backup Digest

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, also known as the NRC, plays a crucial role when it comes to the ongoing safety and efficiency of radioactive systems meant for civilian use. In operation for 40 years now, the commission oversees nuclear power plants, applied nuclear medicine and more. With this in mind, it's easy to see how the NRC generates massive amounts of data on a daily basis. In order to accommodate their ever-growing data usage, the NRC has recently teamed with the professionals from Dell in order to establish a privatized, on-premises cloud architecture.

Designed specifically with NRC operations and directives in mind, the new cloud infrastructure is expected to accomplish several key goals. Not only will it streamline daily operations on behalf of the NRC, but it will also provide improved access to community resources, technology and functionality. In the end, the recent partnership is also expected to drastically reduce the NRC's internal IT costs.

George Newstrom, vice president of Dell Services Federal Group, explained their goal in a recent interview. He was quoted as saying: “We’re focused on helping customers select the right cloud for their unique business needs, including security and compliance. The NRC is a perfect example as it has strict standards and requirements that its systems must support in order to carry out its vital regulatory oversight mission. The Dell cloud solution is built to meet and exceed those requirements. We are, of course, humbled by the continued trust and confidence that NRC places in our end-to-end solutions and services and our team.”

The NRC's cloud architecture is not your average cloud-based service, and this is something that Dell had to keep in mind while designing and implementing the framework. For starters, the NRC works with highly sensitive and confidential information on a regular basis, making security one of the foremost concerns. Privatization of the entire cloud architecture will provide a basic level of security, as it keeps the information separate from public information, but other security threats still exist.

In order to safeguard the NRC's private cloud even further, the organization has opted to have their entire cloud framework installed and hosted onsite. Furthermore, the design team with Dell maintained a strict compliance with all laws, regulations and standards established by the U.S. government.

The recent partnership isn't the first time Dell has worked with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. In fact, they've been working together since 2011, when Dell began spearheading users within the NRC Office of Information Services, which includes all data centers and miscellaneous IT sectors across the United States. Considering their latest project, it's safe to say that the NRC has been happy with the partnership to date.

Mike Williams, the NRC's system engineering chief, expects to benefit from a greater amount of available resources, data redundancy and the increased security offered through the privatized cloud structure. Williams also expressed interest in exploring the distributed processing power of their new cloud, although he made it clear that the NRC is not currently pursuing this functionality.