By implementing a comprehensive disk-to-disk-to-tape (D2D2T) backup and restore infrastructure based on the Quantum DXi-Series, Internet for Business (IFB) - one of Scotland's leading Internet Service Providers (ISPs) - is winning the trust and confidence of its expanding client base. This resilient and flexible infrastructure is helping IFB provide performance comparable to conventional disk but more cost-effective in terms of medium-term retention. Using deduplication, the company has been able to increase the amount of backup data clients can retain on fast-recovery disk by 12 times. The system has been such a successful component of IFB's managed services strategy that it has received a complete return on its investment in only four weeks.
Data growth necessitates infrastructure upgrade
Established in 1996, IFB's core business is providing Internet access, server hosting, and web application development for business customers through its national, multi-gigabit per second network which links points of presence (POP) in Aberdeen, Edinburgh, and London. IFB's client portfolio includes large public sector organisations, public companies and blue chip organisations as well as SMEs and individuals.
For many customers, IFB has become an extension of - or replacement for - their own in-house IT department. One area in particular where the company is seeing rapid growth is in data management services, including server hosting and backup and recovery in support of clients' business continuity or disaster recovery strategies. However, to succeed here, the team at IFB recognises the need to deliver a reliable and resilient service within the competitive pricing framework clients need. Faced with this challenge - and the parallel problem of effectively protecting the Web and email servers used for its own internal purposes - IFB turned to Quantum.
Graeme Gordon, Operations Director for IFB, explains the background to the problem and why Quantum proved to be the ideal partner. "The volume of data we were backing up was growing exponentially and the existing backup infrastructure, which was based on a conventional disk system, was coming to an end of its useful function. When we made the decision to upgrade the infrastructure, we examined sensible options, and what we liked about the Quantum best-of-breed solution was its deduplication functionality, reliability, scalability, and flexibility. What particularly impressed us though was the quality of Quantum's support. Its pre-sales team made a major effort to meet with us, understand our business needs, and find the appropriate technical solution. To be honest, no other vendor we looked at came close to the service that Quantum provided."
Turning to Quantum
Quantum data deduplication solutions support IFB's D2D2T strategy across two data centers. The firm has deployed two Quantum DXi-Series disk-based backup systems: a Quantum DXi7500 in the primary data center to support the burgeoning demand for IFB's managed services and other solutions and a Quantum DXi3500 in a second data center to support internal backup/restore and ISP customers' needs. For intelligent and reliable tape-based data protection, a Quantum Scalar i500 tape library is connected to the DXi7500, and a smaller Quantum Scalar 50 tape library is attached to the DXi3500. CommVault Galaxy® Data Protection 7.0 completes the architecture, offering quick and easy enterprise-class backup and recovery management for the entire solution.
As part of IFB's managed backup and restore service, staging boxes have been deployed into the client sites to ensure the data is as close as possible to the clients' own environments. Each customer is given a log-in ID to the backup infrastructure via CommVault Galaxy. This backup and recovery network represents a secure, shared enterprise-level disk and tape-based service which offers all the features clients need to back up, archive, and recover their critical data, without the need to own, maintain, and support any hardware or software.
Enabling flexible, cost-effective storage
The heart of this end-to-end disk and tape backup solution is Quantum's data deduplication technology, providing IFB clients with performance comparable to conventional disk but more cost-effective in terms of medium-term retention.
Deduplication eliminates redundant data at a sub-file level and stores only unique data. As a result, IFB customers benefit from the ability to store backup data on disk for months instead of days, providing fast, reliable restores, increased data recovery granularity, and reduced media management.
Gordon has been exceptionally pleased with the outcome. "Since the introduction of the Quantum DXi-Series with deduplication technology, IFB has been able to expand the amount of backup data clients can retain on fast-recovery disk by 12 times. And as the system matures through use, we're expecting to reduce disk requirements by a factor of twenty to one," he said. "Simultaneously, Quantum is also helping IFB to meet more time sensitive service level agreements and their related RPOs and RTOs by retaining more backups on disk instead of tape. Plus, IFB has reduced its operating costs - such as space, power, and cooling - by operating fewer devices with more capacity. When we deployed our first customer on the deduplicated infrastructure, we achieved a complete return on our initial investment in only four weeks."
But there's more to this best-of-breed data protection infrastructure than saving money and storing more data on disk. The quality of Quantum Professional Services and the functionality of the Quantum solution have also made a big impression. "The systems arrived, and Quantum was there the next day to configure and deploy them, as well as provide training," continued Gordon. From a functional perspective, the reporting capability is second to none, and the administration works like a dream. The result of all this is that our clients have the confidence that IFB can provide them with a truly resilient, flexible, and cost-effective backup and restore managed service."
That word "flexibility" is key here. One of the great advantages of the Quantum DXi-Series is its scalability. The DXi7500, for example, scales from 12TB to 240TB of raw capacity and allows the IFB team to choose between different deduplication approaches for different data sets, which Quantum calls "policy-based deduplication." Gordon explained, "It's of course very difficult to forecast the demand and growth in managed services, so both the Quantum DXi-Series and the i500 tape library allow IFB to upgrade at will. Whenever we reach a certain capacity threshold, we simply upgrade - it's quick, flexible, and cost-effective. Many vendors talk about offering the highest level of service; but few can match the level of service Quantum physically delivers. When our customers see the Quantum logo, they know they can trust us."
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