Sub-Zero Group, Inc’s Journey to Avamar
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times; a phrase synonymous with literature and one that accurately shows my relationship with a corporate tape backup system.
It was the best of times when I could save the day by miraculously recovering a lost file, folder or system but the rest of the time, it was pretty much the worst of times.
For years Sub-Zero Group, Inc dealt with an antiquated, under-sized backup system that gave us little-to-no flexibility and had so much administrative overhead that I found myself dreading the daily and weekly routines of adding and removing tapes from the system. Why was it that we had to deal with this? One word we are all familiar with: budgets.
Two years in a row I placed a project to investigate and replace our backup systems with a new backup to tape solution. Two years in a row I watched as that project was removed from the budget. Why? Because I struggled with demonstrating to the executive team how this was a necessary cost to mitigate a big risk.
For a third year, I went back to the drawing board.
Finally, in the budget cycle of 2012, the project was approved. The executive team saw the light with my one phrase, “I cannot guarantee if we lose data, I can get it back.” In an instant, I saw the lights go on with a mutual concern for our data recovery – from data accidentally deleted to data lost in an unthinkable disaster.
Finally, I saw the project I had been waiting for since 2010 get the funding it needed. But now I created a whole new issue: what system do we move to? Questions continuously came up:
- What are the benefits for backup to disk versus backup to tape?
- Should we go to all disk, stick with all tape or a combination of the two?
- How do we handle off site relocation of data?
- How do we deal with different system types we have in house?
- And biggest of all, do the returns on investment outweigh the cost of the project?
Join me at my PDS 2012 Tech Conference session to hear what our conclusion was and the process we took to achieve our final decision. Hear the story of how we decided on the EMC Avamar solution and why this system was the one for our luxury appliance brand of choice.
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Craig Wuerzberger, Sub-Zero Group, Inc, will be presenting at the PDS 2012 Technology Conference this Sept 19, 2012 at 2:45 PM. Learn more about Wuerzberger’s session and register today by visiting www.PDS2012.com.
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