Two-Site ExaGrid System Delivers Fast Backups, Data Replication
After considering various backup approaches, LCHC decided to purchase a two-site ExaGrid disk based backup system with data deduplication. The center installed both appliances in its data center and plans to move one of them to its disaster recovery site in the future. Data is automatically replicated each night from the primary ExaGrid system to the second system in case it is needed for disaster recovery.
The ExaGrid system works along with LCHC’s existing backup application, Veritas Backup Exec. We’ve been using Backup Exec for a long time, so we needed a solution that would work seamlessly with it. The ExaGrid works extremely well with Backup Exec and the two products together make for a very powerful solution,” said Wang.
Since installing the ExaGrid system, LCHC has been able to significantly reduce backup times, and the IT staff can now complete full backups each week without fail. “With the ExaGrid, we’re able to run multiple backup jobs at once, so our backups are more efficient and less time consuming. Our backup job for the file server alone used to take more than 12 hours. Now we’re able to get all backup jobs done in less than eight hours. It’s quite a relief,” said Wang. “The other area where we’ve seen a big improvement is in restores. Restores are incredibly fast and painless, especially compared to tape.”