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Customer Success Story

Customer Success Story

Credit Union Runs Out of Disk Space, Replaces Dell EMC Data Domain with ExaGrid

Customer Overview

As Maine’s first credit union, Infinity Federal Credit Union (FCU) has been serving its members since 1921, initially as the Telephone Workers Credit Union of Maine, then as Telco of New England FCU. Infinity FCU is now community-based, available to anyone who lives, works, worships, or attends school in Cumberland and York counties and the city of Bangor, Maine. Infinity FCU is a non-profit cooperative organization owned by its members.

Key Benefits:

  • Infinity FCU recovers data ‘extremely quickly’ using Veeam and ExaGrid
  • ExaGrid system is easier to manage, less of a strain on internal resources
  • Scalability of ExaGrid is a better fit for Infinity FCU’s future data growth
  • Proactive ExaGrid support helps with ‘quick turnaround’ of installation and is a resource for entire environment
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Aging System Leads to New Solution

Infinity FCU had been backing up its data to Dell EMC Data Domain systems with Quest vRanger software. As the Data Domain appliances reached their end of life, Sherry Dunkin, the organization’s IT manager, researched new options for the backup environment. Dunkin decided to replace vRanger with Veeam and looked for a new storage solution that Veeam would work well with. A reseller recommended ExaGrid for its integration with Veeam.

Dunkin decided to compare products to find the best option. “I revisited Data Domain, but the cost associated with it was high compared to ExaGrid. Data Domain is also not as easy to maintain, which puts strain on internal resources. In comparison, ExaGrid is far easier to work with.”

"One of the things I like about ExaGrid is that if I ever need to add more storage, I can just add another appliance to the system. My Data Domain systems were fully populated and starting to run out of disk space at their end of life. I was not able to expand them anymore, or add any storage. "

Sherry Dunkin, IT Manager

Proactive Support Provides Easy Installation

Infinity FCU installed an ExaGrid appliance at its primary site that replicates to another at its DR site. Dunkin was impressed with ExaGrid support’s proactive approach to setting up both sites. “Installation went quite well. Actually, ExaGrid support reached out to me immediately once we purchased the appliances, and my customer support engineer was instrumental in helping me get them configured, set up, and working. There was a very quick turnaround, and it was a painless process,” said Dunkin.

The ExaGrid system is easy to install and use and works seamlessly with the industry’s leading backup applications so that an organization can retain its investment in its existing backup applications and processes.

In addition, ExaGrid appliances can replicate to a second ExaGrid appliance at a second site or to the public cloud for DR (disaster recovery).

Quick Restores and Backups on Schedule

Infinity FCU backs up its data in daily incrementals and weekly fulls. Dunkin backs up 70 servers in chained backup jobs, which move quickly due to ExaGrid’s deduplication, but the job chaining process makes the overall backup window run a bit longer. “Backups on the ExaGrid absolutely meet the window, and work well in the production schedule.”

In comparison with using vRanger and Data Domain, Dunkin has found that restores using Veeam and ExaGrid are “extremely quick.” ExaGrid writes backups directly to a disk-cache Landing Zone, avoiding inline processing and ensuring the highest possible backup performance, which results in the shortest backup window. Adaptive Deduplication performs deduplication and replication in parallel with backups for a strong recovery point (RPO). As data is being deduplicated to the repository, it can also be replicated to a second ExaGrid site or the public cloud for disaster recovery (DR).

Single Scale-Out System Matches Data Growth

The scalability of the ExaGrid system is one of the features that Dunkin appreciates when planning for future data growth. “One of the things I like about ExaGrid is that if I ever need to add more storage, I can just add another appliance to the system. My Data Domain systems were fully populated and starting to run out of disk space at their end of life. I was not able to expand them anymore, or add any storage,” said Dunkin.

ExaGrid’s award-winning scale-out architecture provides customers with a fixed-length backup window regardless of data growth. Its unique disk-cache Landing Zone allows for the fastest backups and retains the most recent backup in its full undeduplicated form, enabling the fastest restores. ExaGrid’s appliance models can be mixed and matched into a single scale-out system allowing a full backup of up to 2.7PB with a combined ingest rate of 488TB/hr, in a single system. The appliances automatically join the scale-out system. Each appliance includes the appropriate amount of processor, memory, disk, and bandwidth for the data size. By adding compute with capacity, the backup window remains fixed in length as the data grows. Automatic load balancing across all repositories allows for full utilization of all appliances. Data is deduplicated into an offline repository, and additionally, data is globally deduplicated across all repositories. This combination of capabilities in a turnkey appliance makes the ExaGrid system easy to install, manage, and scale. ExaGrid’s architecture provides lifetime value and investment protection that no other architecture can match.

A Single Resource in ExaGrid Support

“I can’t say enough about ExaGrid support. I like the fact that I have one technical resource in my assigned support engineer who is familiar with my environment. I can contact him with anything that comes up. He is very responsive and extremely helpful. He was even able to help with getting Veeam configured even though it was not part of the installation process for the ExaGrid appliance,” said Dunkin.

The ExaGrid system was designed to be easy to set up and operate. ExaGrid’s industry-leading level 2 senior support engineers are assigned to individual customers, ensuring they always work with the same engineer. Customers never have to repeat themselves to various support staff, and issues get resolved quickly.

ExaGrid and Veeam

Veeam’s backup solutions and ExaGrid’s Tiered Backup Storage combine for the industry’s fastest backups, fastest restores, a scale-out storage system as data grows, and a strong ransomware recovery story – all at the lowest cost.

About ExaGrid

ExaGrid provides Tiered Backup Storage with a unique disk-cache Landing Zone that enables fastest backups and restores, a Repository Tier that offers the lowest cost for long-term retention and enables ransomware recovery, and scale-out architecture which includes full appliances with up to 2.7PB full backup in a single system.

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