Afognak Enrolls CommVault

Afognak Native Corporation, formed under a
settlement between Congress and Alaska’s indigenous people, has deployed CommVault Systems, Inc. Simpana software
to reinforce its DR and business continuity efforts in providing its
shareholders and board of directors with the high levels of data mobility
and availability.

Afognak has grown rapidly, with 36 offices and project sites in all 50 states,
so the need to safeguard vital financial, enterprise resource planning (ERP),
and project management data had increased exponentially.

Due to high bandwidth costs in Alaska, Afognak sought the most
network-efficient methods for meeting its two-hour RTO regardless of where data resided. Additionally, the company required
complete system failover due to its proximity to active volcanoes and
earthquake threats.

With CommVault’s approach to data management and capacity licensing
model, Afognak has been able to beat its RTO, reduce bandwidth consumption and
increase data availability and access for the company’s legal department and
distributed workforce.

According to Afognak, Simpana software’s
functionality has yielded flexibility, reductions in data and storage capacity
along with WAN-efficient DR process.

According to Afognak, CommVault’s modern data management approach is helping to
transform how the company protects, retains and accesses data, making its
eDiscovery efforts more efficient and giving the company an overall competitive
edge.

The combination of CommVault’s embedded source-side deduplication and DASH copy
capability has enabled Afognak to expedite the creation of multiple copies of
crucial SQL data for DR purposes without impacting network performance.

Also, Afognak takes advantage of deduplication and compression
functionality to decrease bandwidth requirements while accommodating two-week
data retention demands.

Moreover, the company is leveraging CommVault’s cloud storage integration to
integrate with Microsoft’s Windows Azure cloud platform and move backup and archive data securely into, and
out of, Microsoft’s cloud.

According to Afognak, Simpana archive software with integrated content indexing
will enable proactive legal discovery while producing valuable savings in
storage consumption as older data can be moved onto lower-cost storage tiers to
reclaim primary space for other offices and application data.

Afognak also is reviewing CommVault’s Edge Data Protection solution to
safeguard data residing on remote desktops and laptops in delivering enhanced
support for its mobile workforce.

Karl McLaughlin, SVPnt of IT for Afognak Native Corporation,
said: "In my role, it’s critical
that all systems can speak together and are supported by a solid business
continuity and DR plan. With CommVault Simpana software, we have
the ability to protect our most critical data while also assuring rapid
recovery should something occur. Simpana
software is so much more than a backup and recovery product-it’s a true data
management solution with a lot of add-on functionality. Capacity licensing let
us open up and try out new features, like source-side deduplication and
eDiscovery, in an all-encompassing platform. CommVault’s modern data management solution empowers us to collaborate
and communicate in real time with all our offices. We can protect, find and
produce data much faster and easier than ever before while better utilizing our
storage to save budget dollars on hardware and administration. Best of all, we
have complete peace of mind at a DR level as we know our data is safe with Simpana
software."

Fred Berestoff, IT security manager for Afognak Native, said: "The tipping point was CommVault’s
capacity-based licensing. There were so many things we weren’t doing because we
didn’t have the capability, but Simpana software gave us the opportunity to do
so much more because of the platform’s evolution and the ease with which we
could access everything. Simpana software is incredibly WAN efficient. We’ve
been able to do more with less bandwidth. We’re replicating data with a regular
Internet connection, so we’re not breaking the bank with our network costs. CommVault’s
ability to safeguard data residing on remote desktops and laptops will enable
us to support our highly mobile workforce in the best way possible. Simpana
software’s edge protection will change how we protect them."