Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1415897
88 SMT007 MAGAZINE I OCTOBER 2021 Frank was excited. "Comparing the details of the models of each case supports what Patty explained," he said. "e labor cost alone went down almost $3 per PCB." Patty mentioned that Frank's calculations were just a model and they should proceed with caution, but the team was already excited. Epilogue: Maggie and John plan to work with the BE team to implement having the lines run over the lunch break. Stay tuned to see how it works out. Oh, and Tanya said yes! SMT007 References 1. The Professor is a mythical figure at Ivy Univer- sity. Few know his name. He is an expert in process optimization. He is a polyglot, speaking more than 10 languages. He was and is Professor Patty Cole- man's main mentor. 2. ACME is the company that Patty worked at be- fore becoming a professor at Ivy University. There is a book written about her adventures called The Adventures of Patty and the Professor. Contact Dr. Lasky at rlasky@indium.com for a free soft copy. Ronald C. Lasky is an instructional professor of engineering for the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth College, and senior technologist at Indium Corpora- tion. Image of Maggie Benson by Sophie Morvan. To read past columns, or contact Lasky, click here. SoftIron Ltd., a world leader in task-specific appli- ances for data center solutions, and a global leader in Ceph expertise and implementation, announced that it has successfully engaged with Michigan- based IT solutions company, US Signal, to seam- lessly upgrade and expand its Storage as a Service (STaaS) infrastructure. The initial implementation, which immediately increases US Signal's storage capacity by over a petabyte, leverages SoftIron's storage appliances and is being facilitated with a no-downtime migration across multiple distributed data center sites in four Midwest states, including Il- linois, Indiana, Michigan, and Wisconsin. The US Signal expansion is being driven by the company's need to scale its critical infrastructure due to increasing customer demand. "The strategic focus for this project was to ensure a truly future- proofed and seamless growth plan for US Signal, providing the best outcomes for both our business and our customers," said Derrin Rummelt, Executive Vice President of Engineering at US Signal. "We chose open source Ceph as a foundational building block for our needs early on because of its innate power and capability. Ceph's virtually infinite scalable nature com- bined with an uncompromising feature set made it a natural fit for our compa- ny, which provides world-class services in a highly competitive, mission-critical environment. SoftIron quickly demon- strated its deep understanding of com- plex storage environments, and how to maximize Ceph to provide the best of its wide-ranging feature set. They've delivered value over and above the hardware and software, providing ex- pert guidance and support as we exe- cute on this project together." US Signal Scales Its Storage as a Service (STaaS) Offering to Help Meet Growing Demand