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Customer Success Story

Customer Success Story

OMNI’s ExaGrid System Optimizes Backups Throughout Evolution of IT Environment

Customer Overview

OMNI Orthopaedics, based in Ohio, treats a full range of orthopaedic problems, and its board-certified orthopaedic surgeons keep current on the newest advances in orthopaedic care, including computer assisted surgery and minimally invasive procedures.

Key Benefits:

  • ExaGrid’s scale-out architecture stands out over other solutions
  • Backup window reduced from 15 hours to 6 hours
  • Deduplication maximizes storage capacity, accommodates longer retention
  • OMNI virtualized its environment and switched to Veeam to optimize
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ExaGrid Chosen over Cloud Solution to Replace Tape

OMNI Orthopaedics had been backing its data up to tape, using Veritas Backup Exec. The practice was adding a PACS server to its network, which would greatly increase the amount of data storage needed. It was clear that not only would tape no longer meet the storage needs of the practice, but managing tape backups in general and taking them offsite had become too time-intensive a process.

Karen Haley, OMNI’s IT manager, looked into alternatives to tape, and IT contractor she worked with recommended ExaGrid. “We were in the process of making changes to our infrastructure and needed to come up with a better way of backing up our data moving forward. We did look at a cloud environment, but we weren’t entirely comfortable with that. We like having control of our data and knowing what protections are in place, and a cloud environment would limit that control.

“We evaluated ExaGrid and thought it was a great solution. What really struck me about ExaGrid was the flexibility it would give us; if we ever need to expand the system, we can just add another appliance without having to rip out the whole system and start over again. Data deduplication was another consideration during our search, and we found that ExaGrid was a viable solution that met our needs in that regard,” said Haley.

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.

"The support staff at ExaGrid are backup experts so that I don’t have to be. "

Karen Haley, IT Manager

Backup Windows 2.5X Shorter, Eliminating Spillover into Workday

OMNI installed ExaGrid systems at its primary and secondary sites that cross-replicate to further protect the practice’s data. Haley backs up in daily incrementals and weekly fulls and is relieved that backup windows no longer affect workday production, as they had done with tape.

“Our backup windows with tape were brutal, sometimes up to 15 hours for a full backup. There were times that I’d get to work in the morning and backup jobs were still going, which affected our ability to get the day started. Now with our ExaGrid system, backups are all done automatically and take just six hours; we set the schedule for our backup jobs and they’re always done before we walk in the building. ExaGrid does what it’s supposed to do and it’s a solid system,” said Haley.

Haley is impressed that ExaGrid’s data deduplication has maximized storage capacity, accommodating a long period of retention. “Even after adding the PACS server, which is a bit of a space hog, we still are able to store all of our data going back the last ten years without having to archive it. Most of what we back up is information on the active directory and the day-to-day data that we might generate through our business applications. We’re a medical practice, so the doctors haven’t wanted to archive because they want the data readily available, and thankfully our ExaGrid system has been able to manage all of that data.”

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).

IT Staff Appreciates Expertise of ExaGrid Support

Haley is impressed with the level of support that ExaGrid provides. “The support staff at ExaGrid are backup experts so that I don’t have to be. Our support engineer has been incredibly helpful and responsive. Any time we have had questions about our system, she has been a phone call or email away. While we were working to virtualize our network, I needed to access backup reports and found that somehow these had been turned off, and she helped adjust the settings to turn the reporting on.

“Our support engineer often knows if something is going before we do. She’ll give me a call and then logs in and takes care of anything that comes up. She knows exactly what to do and is very efficient and capable making modifications to our system. I have a great deal of respect for her and confidence in her abilities. She is a rock star!” said Haley.

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.

Virtualizing System Leads to Change in Backup Apps

When OMNI first installed ExaGrid, it used Veritas Backup Exec for its physical servers. Recently, the company virtualized its network and replaced Backup Exec with Veeam. “Veeam offers more functionality and flexibility than Backup Exec, and it was time to move in a different direction,” said Haley. “We are working to virtualize our PACS server as well, but now everything else in our environment is on virtual servers.”

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.

ExaGrid-Veeam Combined Dedupe

Veeam uses changed block tracking to perform a level of data deduplication. ExaGrid allows Veeam deduplication and Veeam dedupe-friendly compression to stay on. ExaGrid will increase Veeam’s deduplication by a factor of about 7:1 to a total combined deduplication ratio of 14:1, reducing the storage required and saving on storage costs up front and over time.

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 6PB full backup in a single system.

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