Quantum Cures Backup Troubles for Hawaii Department of Health

Quantum Corp. announced that Hawaii’s Department of Health has improved its data protection process and eased the demands on IT staff by deploying Quantum’s DXi7500 disk-based backup and deduplication solution along with a Quantum Scalar tape library.

Since installing the DXi7500, the Department’s BT Emergency Preparedness and Response branch has reduced backup volumes by more than 95 percent, cut backup times from days to hours, dramatically increased the speed of restores, and decreased overall costs. The Scalar library has also enhanced the branch’s long-term data retention and disaster recovery capabilities.

The Problem: Weekend Backups
Created Monday Morning Headaches
Hawaii’s Department of Health employs over 3,000 people throughout the islands to serve the state’s 1.3 million residents. An older tape library created a technology bottleneck and interfered with the ability of employees to get work done. Full backups ran from Friday evening through Monday morning, making it difficult for users to access data efficiently at the beginning of each week. In addition, IT staff spent a great deal of time working to resolve issues created by the legacy infrastructure.

Steve Sakamoto, a senior data processing systems analyst for the Hawaii Department of Health with responsibility for maintaining the branch’s technology infrastructure, decided that a more scalable, efficient and high-performance backup system was needed. He wanted a solution that would not only shorten the backup window but also easily integrate with the branch’s diverse IT infrastructure, which included Windows-based servers from several vendors protected by Symantec Backup Exec software.

The Selection: DXi7500 Versatility Stands Out
After comparing products and speaking to other suppliers, Sakamoto selected a DXi7500.

"The Quantum solution had a lot of options that other vendors did not, such as different types of connections, encryption of data [before replicating] and the full graphical user interface," says Sakamoto. "We also knew from previous customer references that the performance would be very good."

Implementation went smoothly, according to Sakamoto. Quantum’s installation team conducted a site inspection and helped with the system planning. Within two weeks of ordering the DXi7500, it was up and running.

With the DXi7500 in place, the BT Emergency Preparedness and Response branch established a new data protection routine. Differential backups are now made each day Monday through Thursday and a full backup is conducted Friday night. Three months of backups are retained on the DXi7500, and each month the data is transferred to the Scalar library for long-term offsite retention.

The Results: Reduced Backup Times,
Faster Restores and Cost Savings
Since deploying the new Quantum solution, Sakamoto and his team have seen a significant improvement in system operations. In addition to achieving deduplication ratios of 23:1 and much better backup performance, file restores that used to take 30 minutes now typically take only 30 seconds. All of this has saved IT staff time, allowing the team to focus on project development. In addition, because storage capacity has been optimized, the branch has been able to purchase less tape media, equipment and rack space.

Sakamoto points to the DXi7500 management interface as another advantage. He reports that it is straightforward and intuitive and that he particularly values the integrated feature that alerts both IT staff and Quantum whenever something in the system begins to act outside normal parameters.

According to Sakamoto, the DXi7500 has also positioned his team to implement remote replication in the future, which will improve disaster recovery protection and further reduce costs.

Summing up the experience with the DXi7500, Sakamoto says the branch has been very pleased. "The DXi7500 has greatly improved our data protection process," he reports. "In addition, our experience with Quantum’s sales and tech teams has been terrific, and the service and support has been outstanding."