Texas Tech Enrolls CommVault Simpana

The Department of Technology Operations and Systems Management (TOSM) of the Texas Tech University System, has deployed Simpana software from Commvault Systems, Inc. to support the data management needs of nearly 30,000 students and 9,500 faculty and staff.

Given the university’s heavy emphasis on server and storage centralization, the use of Simpana software helps centralize backups, reduce data and more efficiently manage storage costs to accommodate rapid annual increases in campus-wide data growth.

By replacing its various legacy backup solutions with the CommVault Simpana Backup and Recovery module, TOSM has been able to consolidate backups of more than 50 TBs of data. Additionally, CommVault’s unique singular product architecture has enabled the team to streamline administration and reduce operational costs by replacing two disparate solutions with one common platform employing modules all based on the same unifying code.

Using Simpana software’s Deduplication feature, Texas Tech has claimed a reduction in its overall tape and disk storage costs by up to 40 percent and has stated that it needs approximately 80 percent less disk for backup data. TOSM also projects that deduplicating backup and archive data to affordable disk will enable them to eliminate tape storage from their environment altogether in the near future.

Texas Tech also has added the Simpana Archive module to reclaim valuable primary storage and plans to deploy the Simpana Replication module to elevate disaster recovery and ensure access to mission-critical data once the team reduces its overall reliance on tape.

A team of 28 provides 24×7 support for almost 600 servers as well as a mainframe. The server environment consists of more than 450 Microsoft Windows servers and 120 Linux servers; Hosted applications include hundreds of Oracle and SQL databases, Microsoft SharePoint, and SunGard’s Banner ERP application. The team also supports web site hosting, file sharing for the campus community and dozens of other applications.

Simpana Software’s Embedded Deduplication Gets
Top Marks for Affordability & Scalability

• Texas Tech evaluated hardware-deduplication appliances from industry-leading vendors but was concerned about upfront capital expenditures and ongoing operational costs. Scalability was another major consideration as the university was experiencing escalating data growth.
• According to TOSM, CommVault’s software-based deduplication cost up to 70 percent less than a comparable deduplication appliance solution while also being easier to manage. Simpana software with its embedded deduplication feature seamlessly integrates with the university’s existing data management infrastructure and allows Texas Tech to leverage inexpensive storage and commodity hardware to dramatically lower backup infrastructure costs. With Simpana deduplication software, Texas Tech is able to extend its disk-based data retention to more than 60 days, all while providing faster restores for its customers.
• TOSM also prefers how Simpana software preserves the compressed state of the deduped data, replicating deduplicated data directly to tape without ‘re-hydration.’
• To date, Texas Tech has claimed a reduction of about 230 TBs of data to approximately 40 TBs of storage using CommVault’s deduplication capabilities and expects to achieve 8:1 dedupe ratios once policies are fine-tuned across its Windows and Linux environments.

Adding Simpana Archiving & Replication Software
to the Roster

• Faced with data growth of nearly 1 TB per month on average, Texas Tech is also deploying the Simpana Archive module to move stale or rarely used imaging data to low-cost storage while further reducing storage costs and improving overall operational efficiencies.
• The Simpana Replication module is also being implemented to bolster disaster recovery (DR) by creating secondary copies of production data at its DR site.
• According to Texas Tech, Simpana software will ensure the highest levels of disaster preparedness and business continuity going forward.

Dustin Jordan, Assistant Managing Director of Technology Operations & Systems Management, Texas Tech University System, said: “CommVault got the highest marks for innovation when we sized up all the players in the market. In particular, we liked its singular approach to data management, which employs different modules all built upon the same unifying code base and common platform. CommVault Simpana deduplication software was a much more cost-effective solution for us when compared to other hardware deduplication competitors as you simply add inexpensive storage and license additional storage as growth needs dictate. Simpana software also provides a lot more flexibility in deploying across multiple systems in distributed places across the network using various storage technologies from multiple vendors. When you consider the cost and overhead of managing tapes, we can easily justify moving completely to disk-based data protection leveraging our investments in Simpana dedupe software and Dell hardware and storage. We don’t believe we’ll ever reach the point where we might outgrow Simpana software and we’re confident that CommVault technology will play an important role in ensuring the highest levels of disaster preparedness and business continuity going forward.”

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