Goodwill South Florida Protects Against Hurricane Induced Data Loss

Yotta280 Inc., in enterprise data protection, announced that Goodwill Industries of South Florida has replaced its tape backup system in favor its backup and recovery services powered by Asigra, Inc.

As a result of making the switch, Goodwill improved the ability to recover data across all locations after a hurricane while also increasing the security, simplicity and reliability of its backup infrastructure.

For years, it had been using a tape-based backup to ensure the recovery of its data. With hurricanes of paramount concern, it was critical that operations were able to resume in the aftermath of such an event. After a bad experience recovering lost data from backup tapes, another solution had to be implemented in order to guarantee the organization’s viability after a catastrophic storm. After consultation and recommendations from colleagues, it selected cloud backup which has proven to have advantages over tape, including local and remote data recovery capabilities, fast restores and more reliable operation.

The switch to cloud backup occurred after Goodwill’s backup administrator conducted a data restoration and the tape in the backup system malfunctioned causing exposed tape media to emerge from the cassettes and pour onto the floor. After seeing the mishap one member of the IT team commented that it looked like “a kid went through it.” As a result of this tape failure, Goodwill looked at Dell, Inc. for an online backup solution without success. Then one of the organization’s vendor partners recommended Yotta280 for cloud backup services. Goodwill reviewed and selected the solution for demonstrating technological superiority and customer service.

Goodwill is primarily a Microsoft shop with HP and some Dell equipment. The organization has 300 connected devices that include 18 business application servers and two exchange servers across 32 locations. These locations are connected via Metro Ethernet Service, T1, DSL and dial-up service in some cases. It began the initial use of Yotta280 backup and recovery services powered by Asigra to perform simple mailbox backup as a test environment. Since then, the solution has been deployed end-to-end and now protects more than 9TB of data generated from several mission critical applications.

“We depend on several financial programs to maintain regular business operations,” said Samuel Robinson, IS manager, Goodwill. “Because we get audited by the state for adherence to compliance mandates, the data encryption and security features of Asigra cloud Backup are critical. We particularly value its recognition by the National Institute of Standards and Technology where it has received FIPS 140-2 certification, placing it among the top in terms of protecting data privacy.”

Over the past 12 months, Goodwill has performed approximately 4-5 data recoveries using the Yotta280 solution. Three applications that have required these recoveries include SQL, Exchange and Microsoft Dynamics GP (Great Plains). Microsoft Dynamics GP is an important application as it is used to manage the accounting and finances, distribution and supply chain processes, streamlining of field service operations and other important activities.

Small recoveries typically require only minutes while large recoveries take approximately 10-12 hours compared to 30+ hours using tape. Overall, the performance of the solution is impressive and provides assurance that mission critical data is always available.

“The Yotta280 solution, powered by Asigra, allows us to depart from the troublesome aspects of tape based data recovery,” added Robinson. “We no longer have to deal with offsite tape storage and management, especially during hurricane season. One of our ongoing concerns with tape was that if a large hurricane were to hit, every building in the area would be affected, including the offsite storage vault holding our tapes. Because our data is now replicated over the WAN at data centers inside and outside of the state, we no longer have those concerns.”

“Local and remote recovery capabilities are very important to Goodwill as they provide greater recovery assurance that entire data repositories can be re-created quickly in the event of a hurricane,” said Terry Fields, president and CEO, Yotta280. “When complemented with our full-service management, the Yotta280 solution provides confidence in knowing that data is available regardless of human error, system failure, or natural disaster.“

“The fact that customers like Goodwill Industries respond positively to our cloud backup platform means that we are going in the right direction in helping these organizations with the challenges that concern them,” said Eran Farajun, EVP, Asigra. “Because of a hurricane’s ability to impact an entire region, it is critical that businesses in these areas consider a backup strategy that includes replicating data out of state for remote recovery. While this is a simple procedure for service providers like Yotta280, it provides IT users with the confidence that their data will be accessible when needed.“

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