Skistar Selected Proact in Sweden

Proact IT Group have helped Skistar
to install a new storage platform with integrated backup and disaster
protection, in combination with improvement of the group’s IT
environment, consolidating its data halls in Sälen and Åre to make a
new hall in Åre.

In the autumn, Skistar began its journey towards a
consolidated IT environment in order to help bring about greater cost and
energy efficiency. The two data centres in Sälen and Åre have been merged to
form a centralised data centre in Åre, and its components have been replaced.
The primary objective was not to increase performance, but to create a
scalable, flexible environment that can grow as Skistar grows.

"Another clear objective was to enhance the level on the
supplier side and locate a partner that can act not only as a product supplier,
but also as an advisor. Our cooperation with Proact has been absolutely
outstanding, right the way through from tender to implementation," says Peter
Larsson, Head of IT at Skistar.

The deal with Proact was entered into in January, and the
new data hall was commissioned in mid-May. The new storage platform from NetApp
combines storage and backup. With deduplication of its primary storage, Skistar
is able to utilise its storage considerably more efficiently as the system
ensures that the same information is not saved to a number of different
locations.

Skistar has opted to build a primary hall for operation and
a secondary hall for backup in a completely separate location in Åre, thereby
guaranteeing that the information will remain safe in the event of an accident.
Snapshot technology, which takes automatic snapshots of the systems and saves
them as virtual copies, has allowed Skistar to get rid of its traditional
backup solution.

"This snapshot backup is a good solution in financial terms
as we do not have to pay routine licence costs for backups. Moreover, our
backup times have fallen drastically, from ten hours to ten minutes, which
means that we can run backups more frequently and are in a better position to
restore all our information if we need to," says Peter Larsson.

Skistar’s agreement with Proact involves installation,
training and round-the-clock support for five years. In addition, once a
quarter, Proact will also be carrying out thorough system health checks and
making suggestions as to how Skistar can improve its IT environment
further.