YouGov Uses Veeam Backup and Replication

Professional research and consulting organisation YouGov Plc has used Veeam Software‘s Backup &
Replication v5 to
perform a migration of its core IT infrastructure from a managed service data
centre in Berlin to a new location in London.

By virtualising its IT infrastructure in Berlin and then simply replicating
the data to the London data centre, YouGov has been able to perform the
migration in record time; reduce the cost of transporting equipment and data;
and eliminate concerns about having compatible storage and other hardware
on-site at both Berlin and London.

"Our decision to migrate
from Berlin to London was down to two very simple reasons: cost and control," said Nicholas Carter, Director of Global Systems Operations
at YouGov. "We had initially been
very happy with the Berlin-based managed service, yet additional services and
capability had to be taken on the providers’ terms: reducing our flexibility
and locking us into their costs. We therefore decided to purchase colocation
space in London, allowing us to control the infrastructure that was in place
and ensure we were always getting the best price. However, the migration itself
could have been hugely complex: reproducing the underlying physical
architecture would have been near-impossible because the London centre used a
different storage system. By virtualising both environments, we found a simple
way to make the migration work."

By using Backup 5’s replication capabilities, YouGov could replicate
the virtual infrastructure in the Berlin managed data centre directly to the
London colocation centre. The migration of this data, which was measured in TB,
was performed over a number of days; using Backup 5’s speed to minimise the
size of replication windows.

As a result YouGov could move its essential
applications, such as Sharepoint and Symantec Enterprise Vault, onto the new
infrastructure and have them ready to work with the minimum of disruption or
overtime. Using Backup 5 meant YouGov could streamline its
backup process: this had previously relied on two separate tools, one for
Windows and the other for Linux, both designed for physical machines. Daily
incremental backups that used to take hours due to the complexity involved are
now completed in 20 minutes.

"The whole project has
been a huge success," added Carter. "YouGov is an expanding business so using the lessons and processes we
have learned in this migration will help us consolidate data centres as we grow
and acquire new businesses."