Case Study: D2D2D Backup at Unified Fire Authority

More than 500 of Utah’s bravest make up the Salt lake County Unified Fire Authority (UFA), providing fire protection, medical, emergency and rescue services to nearly one million citizens living in Utah’s Salt Lake County.  

The volume of data that Unified Fire Authority is required to archive is tremendous. UFA responds to multiple emergency calls each day and every call must be logged and stored for seven years. UFA’s financial data, including payroll and accounts payable and receivable, also requires long-term archiving. With Salt Lake County’s rapid population growth and the associated increase for UFA’s fire and emergency services, UFA requires greater capacity, improved reliability, and easier access to archived data.

BACKUP CHALLENGES                                       
For years, UFA used tape backups for its data archiving processes. The critical data was backed up on a nightly basis, and was stored in a secure location. In addition to an exchange server, file servers and scheduling systems also needed to be backed up. While functionally, the tapes had the capability to store data, UFA had concerns about feasibility of data recovery in the event the tapes were damaged or a problem occurred with the file system. An additional difficulty posed by the storage tape system was that network administrators had difficulty determining where and what data was stored, as it was impossible to physically see the data that was stored on the tape.

“I have just never been completely confident that a tape storage system would truly provide a reliable and accessible archive of our data,” said Tom Ream, network administrator at the Unified Fire Authority. An additional challenge with the legacy tape system was the backup software that supported the tape system, which Ream found to be very difficult to use.

In search of a reliable, easy-to-use solution, UFA resorted to implementing various devices including HP servers with built-in tape systems and expensive exterior-type tape systems. After years of “getting by” with tape backups, the Unified Fire Authority was ready for a technology with more capacity, more reliability and less hassle.

THE SOLUTION
After assessing the data archiving needs of UFA, Revinetix’ Value-Added Reseller Valcom recommended the Revinetix Sentio data protection appliances, which uniquely meet the needs of organizations like UFA through innovative software (RevOS) – fully integrated with hardware and Disk2Disk2Disk technology. The result is a turnkey appliance that comes installed, configured and ready for easy and seamless deployment within an existing IT infrastructure. Backups are fully automated, restores are quick and reliable, and archive drives are hot-swappable, enabling removal and secure storage.
After a demo of the Sentio appliance, Ream determined that it offered all of the capabilities and ease of use required by UFA, and most importantly, provided Ream with the confidence that it had found the solution that would help protect UFA’s critical data.
Unified Fire Authority originally installed a Sentio Pro 1 – 1000 Series data protection appliance with one terabyte (TB) of capacity (RAID 5 configured).  Ten months after the first Sentio purchase, UFA determined it had additional storage requirements and subsequently purchased two additional appliances that seamlessly integrated into their existing systems. The appliances included: a Sentio Pro 2 – 3000 (3TB) for the server back-ups; and a Sentio Pro 1- 500 (500GB) to back up Microsoft Exchange Server 2003.

“The transition from tapes to disks was really smooth,” said Ream. “Revinetix and Valcom came and installed the product, conducted a brief training and we were up and running.”  

The initial benefits Ream has experienced are backups run automatically and the time consuming task of replacing tapes has been eliminated. In addition, UFA has seen their backup window greatly reduced. There is great convenience in accessing data, as UFA’s data can be managed via any browser on the LAN/WAN. All data is archived automatically at the end of each month and the archive disk is removed and stored in a secure location to ensure complete recovery in the event of a disaster.

DATA PROTECTION SOFTWARE
Each Revinetix appliance is powered by Revinetix’ own operating system, RevOS. Through a simple to use browser-based interface, Ream can manage and automate backup and recovery functions and maintain a running catalog of all files that have been saved on the appliance. When the time comes to retrieve vital information, all that’s needed is a simple point and click to find the needed file or directory.
“With any software there is a learning curve. But the RevOS software was significantly easier to learn and use than the software we were using with the legacy tape systems,” said Ream. “If I ever do have a question about the software or any part of the system, I can count on the Company’s technical support team. My calls are not routed to a service center outside of the U.S. where sound product knowledge and language barriers are often an issue when companies like mine are trying to get support for their systems. The Revinetix team is part of my team. They’re easy to communicate with and their knowledge and professionalism help me get my job done, and done well.”
Ream continued, “Revinetix has have been very responsive to our needs and have even customized software where needed.”

PUTTING REVINETIX TO THE TEST
Seven months after UFA’s first Sentio data protection appliance was installed, Ream received a call while on vacation notifying him that a main data server had crashed and destroyed the RAID archive. Ream was more than 1,400 miles away from his office at the time of the call.  Given the accessibility and user-friendly interface of the Revinetix system, he was able to walk through the recovery process with personnel in the UFA Information Services department and they were able to successfully recover the lost data.  

As UFA is funded by public monies, fiscal responsibility is of the utmost importance. Side-by-side comparisons of other products in the market proved that Revinetix delivered more capabilities at a more competitive and affordable price point.

After one year of using its new data protection solution, Ream has found only a single drawback – eliminating the multiple trips down the stairs from his office to the basement to change tapes now requires him to find other ways to obtain physical exercise

Revinetix

Unified Fire Authority