O’Reilly Media Opts for BakBone NetVault: Backup

BakBone Software, Inc. protects terabytes of data distributed across O’Reilly Media‘s three different geographical sites. BakBone’s NetVault(R): Backup provides centralized backup for the company’s Linux, Windows, Mac OS and Solaris data. O’Reilly selected NetVault: Backup for a cost-effective and simple-to-use solution that can handle large volumes of heterogeneous data while reducing administration time and protecting all data backup sites from one central location.

With approximately 100 servers, O’Reilly needed a new solution that not only fit their budget but also reduced the time it took to manage backups. "Compared to our prior solution, BakBone is much faster," said Chris Stone, O’Reilly’s senior systems administrator. "I used to ask employees to send in a request for what they needed to be restored. With NetVault: Backup, employees can just come up to my desk and I restore their data within seconds. This is a huge improvement over our previous solution, where searching for and restoring data was much slower."

O’Reilly Media publishes books and magazines and coordinates online services and conferences, connecting people with the information that they need. According to Stone, "As the business continues to grow, we are generating tremendous amounts of data. We create books in PDF and XML format, and we generate graphics, Oracle database files and MySQL data, Web content and data from client machines."

Faced with three geographically separate backup sites and an outdated backup solution that was slow and expensive to upgrade, O’Reilly explored new backup solutions. The ideal solution would handle offsite backups, work well in a heterogeneous IT environment and scale with the company’s data growth. "When there are issues with the tape library, NetVault: Backup simply re-adds the library and the problem is fixed. In the past this was difficult, but BakBone makes it very simple. NetVault: Backup picks up the model number in seconds and quickly updates the new device," explained Stone. "Before our company switched to BakBone, we had to individually manage backups at each site. Now I can centrally manage all three sites from one location, and I spend a minimal amount of time on each backup per day."

Key benefits of O’Reilly’s NetVault: Backup solution include:

• Centralized data protection for O’Reilly’s three backup sites
• A backup solution fit for large volumes of Linux data and able to handle varied hardware platforms, including older hardware
• Significantly reduced administration time
• An easy-to-install, cost-effective solution that is compatible with O’Reilly’s complex IT infrastructure, which includes Linux, Windows, Mac OS and Solaris data

"BakBone understands that minimizing complexities and reducing the cost of IT operations is a critical element in most IT environments," said Jeff Dresher, vice president of Marketing, BakBone. "By providing cost-effective solutions that simplify the process of restoring data in offsite backups and work well in diverse operating systems and hardware environments, we help end users retrieve their data quickly and effortlessly. With NetVault: Backup, IT administrators can spend less time worrying about protecting and managing their data."