A major media company with nearly 150 offices worldwide was experiencing data management problems at its remote branch locations. The main culprit was the lack of standardized hardware and software at these offices, making data backup and recovery difficult to support. Responsibility for on-site data administration often fell to nontechnical employees. The company wanted to implement a single data-protection solution using the latest technology for all of its file server computers and to centralize file services backup operations at its eight major regional IT centers.
The consulting firm Nitor Global Solutions worked with the customer to create a reliable data management solution using Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager 2006. Since installing the new solution, the media company reports that its data protection is faster and more reliable. The company eventually expects to consolidate its file server backup systems by 95 percent.
Situation
Like many large organizations, the major media company had a computer environment that consisted of a variety of hardware and software brands, including Novell NetWare, UNIX, and Microsoft Windows NT version 4.0, Enterprise Edition. The company realized that this computing environment needed to be upgraded and standardized. The company envisioned a unified network based on Microsoft Windows Server System integrated software and the Active Directory service.
During the initial talks, the company told Nitor that it had difficulty managing data backups and recovery for its file server computers at its remote branch offices. These locations faced the following challenges:
- Tended to be far from IT support, so nontechnical office employees were often responsible for data management tasks.
- Used nonstandardized backup hardware and software, so there was no guarantee that data backed up to tape at one location could be successfully recovered at another.
- Employees sometimes had to wait hours to regain important files that had been deleted because the staff found data recovery to be a time-consuming and difficult process.
Benefits
Nitor reports that since the company began using DPM it has seen results that confirm its projected benefits once the solution is in place enterprise-wide. The company expects to reduce the number of backup servers for its file services from 148 to 8. This consolidation will save the company money over time by minimizing licensing costs, hardware maintenance fees, and the cost of replacing storage media. In addition, company executives believe they will experience faster data recovery, easier management of the new systems, and reliable protection of corporate data. Recovery time varies greatly, but on several occasions since deploying DPM, the company has seen much faster recovery times than they did using their previous system.
Todd Whaley, director of business affairs at Nitor, says, "The other day a branch office employee accidentally deleted 2 megabytes worth of data. It was fully restored using Data Protection Manager while he was still on the phone with the help desk." Whaley estimates that this recovery could have taken two hours to perform using the previous system, depending on tape availability. With DPM the technician restored the data in approximately 10 minutes.
Simplified Data Management and Protection
By standardizing its file server backups on a single, proven platform, the company simplifies the act of administering the system. It also removes the need to have non-IT employees at remote locations handle data management tasks. "The branch office employees love DPM," says Whaley. "The responsibility for backing up the data is off their shoulders, and they know that their data can be recovered when they need it."
By replacing local tape backups for file servers with centralized disk-to-disk-to-tape backup, the company ensures reliable protection for its file server data. Under this system, data is backed up to a disk storage system and then periodically archived onto tape. Important files can be easily recovered when needed, and older files are secured in an offsite location for disaster recovery purposes.
"DPM is still a new concept in this environment," Whaley says, "but I can see great successes with the product for many other companies. I believe their experience with DPM is going to be very, very good."
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