June 15, 2009, 3:09 PM — This Best Practice is part of a collection of advice provided by information technology professionals on how they have solved various challenges, and addressed IT priorities within their organizations.
Who provided this information:
Gary Larson, CIO, Gardner Trucking
Company:
Gardner Trucking operates a growing fleet of trucks throughout 11 western states, with more than 1,100 trucks and 1,900 trailers on the road at any given time. Based in Chino, CA, the company offers a full range of services from line haul to full-service logistical solutions, and operates 42 dedicated trucking fleets on-site at various customer locations.
The problem:
Gardner Trucking relies heavily on its IT infrastructure to manage its business data and the data associated with its mobile workforce. The company’s backup requirements had grown quickly, and backing up to tape was seriously impacting productivity, not to mention the problems the company faced with unreliable, incomplete tape backups. Additionally, the IT staff at Gardner struggled with data restores from tape, which was a time and labor intensive process for each file needed.
Gardner Trucking quickly realized it needed to explore installing a new, cost-effective data backup and recovery solution to better support its continuous business growth and mobile workforce.
The solution:
After enduring months of problems with tape backups, the IT staff at Gardner Trucking, led by CIO Gary Larson, researched and considered several different backup approaches. Ultimately, the team chose ExaGrid’s disk-based backup system with data deduplication to work in conjunction with its existing backup application, Symantec’s Backup Exec. They chose the ExaGrid system based on its unique approach to data deduplication, and its scalability which provided much needed flexibility to accommodate the company’s growth.
Price was a major factor influencing the Gardner’s IT team decision making, and the ExaGrid system offered a competitive price with significantly better performance than other disk-based backup solutions. As with any purchase, research played a crucial role in the company’s decision and after careful consideration the team found that ExaGrid’s data deduplication technology allowed for the purchase and use of less disk space, which saved Gardner approximately 25 percent versus the cost of competitive solutions.
Coincidentally, Gardner Trucking made the switch from tape-based backup to disk-based backup with data deduplication just two days before a database crash. With the new backup system in place, which was up and running in 25 minutes, Gardner avoided a major data disaster and an estimated $200,000 loss in productivity.
How it worked:
ExaGrid’s highly scalable disk-based backup system with a virtualized GRID architecture allowed Gardner to only purchase the initial capacity up-front, with the ability to add additional capacity in 1TB to 5TB increments as needed. Gardner Trucking reduces required disk space and keeps the cost of backup systems in check by using ExaGrid’s byte-level data deduplication technology which stores changes from backup to backup instead of storing full file copies.
ExaGrid delivers fast backup performance because data is written directly to disk, and data deduplication is performed post-process after the data is stored to reduce data, rather than in-line which stores volumes as they are written. Now Gardner Trucking’s backups are completed in less than two hours instead of the more than 13 hours it took with the legacy tape system in place.
Rules for success:
With staff and budget limitations, I needed to be sure the backup solution I was recommending and implementing would be easier to manage and more reliable than our legacy tape backup. The ExaGrid implementation worked seamlessly with our existing IT infrastructure, including Symantec Backup Exec which provides continuous data protection for Microsoft Exchange, SQL, file servers, and workstations. Additionally, as many companies are today, we were looking for a cost-effective alternative for nightly tape backups that would work with Symantec Backup Exec as it sits behind existing backup applications and offers faster, more reliable data backup and recovery.
I found that ExaGrid’s ease-of-use and reliable, knowledgeable customer support made it possible for my team to ramp up quickly and start backing up more efficiently, virtually immediately upon implementation.
Classic mistakes:
- Sticking with incumbent technology because it is easy – Many companies are reluctant to make the switch from tape to disk – but in reality disk is more reliable and in some cases can cost the same as tape.
- Waiting until a data disaster strikes to make a change – Businesses need to be thinking and planning for continuity in the event of a data disaster – manmade or natural. Many times we see organizations reacting to, instead of avoiding, these situations.
- Not considering the OPEX payoff in the long run – While it may be an investment up front, the OPEX savings many of the disk-bases backup systems offer in time spent managing the tape backup process and recovery outweigh the cost of change.
- Choosing a solution for right now – always think of future needs – The data backup systems an organization chooses need to accommodate growth. Studies show data is going to continue to grow at a rapid rate and we all need to be prepared with effective backup.
- Not doing enough research – As with any IT decision, make sure the solutions your company is considering are backed with superior customer support. That support will make all the difference in the long run.
Best practice checklist:
- Byte-level Data Deduplication – By selecting a deduplication solution that operates at the byte-level, we now store changes from backup to backup instead of storing full file copies, making us more efficient.
- Simple Data Restores with Disk – Because the company’s data now goes through a byte-level deduplication process and is then stored to disk, my team can be sure that a full restore is always available, if needed. Having that dependable restore on an on-demand basis gives my staff additional peace of mind.
- Easy to Manage – ExaGrid is a “set it and forget it” solution. After an easy installation and quick ramp up, the system works on its own with very little management from my staff.
- Future planning – It is important to know exactly how much data you need to back up today and just as importantly, how much data you plan to back up in the future. That said, projecting a company’s growth especially in today’s economy is difficult. Organizations need to explore solutions that will meet their needs now and that give them the ability to grow over time. Using ExaGrid’s stackable solution means that if and when our storage needs grow, my IT staff can easily install additional space for the new data.
Three must-ask questions:
- Is our current data backup solution right for our organization and is it something I want to be managing five years from now?
- Is this the most efficient backup solution and will it help me better manage my backup and recovery?
- How can I be assured new backup technologies will grow with our company and not become obsolete?
Hindsight is 20/20:
I wish I had looked into a disk-based backup solution earlier. When I reflect back to the time wasted using and worrying about tape, it’s hard not to think of all the more strategic work we could have done.
Final takeaway:
With ExaGrid, the speed of our backups has been amazing. We are now able to complete full backups in less than two hours instead of the more than 13 hours it took with tape, which frees up our IT staff for other, more strategic projects.
And we have put the ExaGrid system to the test. Just days after implementing it, we experienced a major database loss. With ExaGrid’s speed and fast restores in that critical situation, we now have confidence that we can recover quickly from any data disaster. We know our files are backed up completely every night. This provides invaluable business continuity for Gardner Trucking.
This Best Practice was provided by ExaGrid. For more information on the ExaGrid system, call or email ExaGrid at:
1.800.868.6985, salesrequest@exagrid.com or please visit www.exagrid.com.
The ideas expressed in this article are solely those of the vendor and its client, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of ITworld.
