Storage upgrade, data migration & DR plan

Phoenix Contact is a global manufacturer and innovator in industrial automation, connectivity, and electrical engineering technologies. With operations in over 100 countries, Phoenix Contact supports a wide range of industries — including automotive, energy, infrastructure, and factory automation. Its operations in India are critical to both regional delivery and global innovation initiatives, requiring robust IT infrastructure to ensure uptime, data integrity, and business continuity.

As Phoenix Contact expanded its operations and analytics capabilities in India, the company experienced rapid data growth, which began to strain its existing storage infrastructure. Storage systems were frequently reaching maximum capacity, impacting system performance, backups, and application uptime. Additionally, there was no dedicated Disaster Recovery (DR) site in place — putting business continuity at risk in the event of data loss, system failure, or natural disaster.

Primary challenges included:

• Frequent storage saturation, leading to operational slowdowns

• Risk of data loss due to the absence of a secondary DR environment

• Lack of automated failover and recovery mechanisms

• Need for a scalable, secure, and compliant data protection strategy

To address the issue, a two-part solution was designed and implemented:

1. Storage Expansion & Optimization

2. DR Site Planning and Deployment

Key aspects of the solution:

• Deployment of a hybrid storage architecture, combining on-premise high-performance storage with cloud-based scalability

• Data archiving strategy using tiered storage, separating hot and cold data to free up primary storage

• Setup of a Disaster Recovery site in a geographically separate location, ensuring redundancy and business continuity

• Implementation of automated data replication between primary and DR sites

• Integration with disaster recovery orchestration tools to enable near real-time failover and restore operations

• Compliance with industry standards for data protection and uptime (e.g., ISO 27001, DR readiness standards)

Phoenix Contact now benefits from a highly available, resilient, and scalable IT infrastructure in India. With the new DR site operational and data storage capacity optimized, the company is better positioned to handle future growth, unexpected disruptions, and regulatory requirements.

Key outcomes:

• Storage utilization efficiency improved by 40%, reducing pressure on production systems

• DR site enabled 99.99% system availability, with recovery time objectives (RTOs) and recovery point objectives (RPOs) well within acceptable limits

• Automated data replication improved backup consistency and disaster readiness

• Future-proofed infrastructure supporting business continuity and digital expansion

• Increased confidence from internal stakeholders and clients due to robust disaster resilience planning