Landscape Architecture Firm TBG Partners Using Nasuni Service

Nasuni, Corp. announced that TBG Partners, Inc., a landscape architecture firm in the Southwest US, is using Nasuni Service to give all of its office locations fast access to a 20TB storage volume, much of which consists of AutoCAD, SketchUp and 3D Studio Max files that are several gigabytes in size.

Nasuni also protects the storage infrastructure with instant recovery of files.

Over the past few years, TBG Partners has grown rapidly: the firm has expanded into new offices, undertaken projects in new markets throughout the US and internationally, and increased the amount of data it stores. The firm currently has 20TB of data, but CTO Greg Nichols expects that figure to more than double over the next two years.

Prior to deploying the Nasuni Service, each TBG Partners office had its own unique storage infrastructure, with an Internet-based VPN connecting one branch to the next. The traffic between offices was slow, and collaboration was inefficient, especially when design team members were working with large, multi-megabyte files. Backup and recovery was another serious pain point. Whenever files were mistakenly deleted or overwritten, IT typically had to go to tapes to recover this lost data, and the tapes were often stored off-site. As a result, the restoration process could take days.

TBG Partners turned to the Nasuni Service to solve its storage and data access challenges, but also to automate backup and provide instant recovery. After consulting with Nasuni’s engineers, TBG Partners designated five of its offices for Nasuni’s SSD filers, which are designed for the heavy workloads common to design-intensive firms. Smaller offices with less intense performance demands received virtual servers installed on local hardware.

“It’s remarkable. The only comments I’ve had from employees since we switched to Nasuni is that the network seems a lot faster and that they appreciate my ability to recover a file in minutes instead of days,” Nichols said. “Otherwise, I don’t think anyone noticed any change at all, which, frankly, is exactly what I like to see. And for my part, not having to worry at all about backup lets me focus on other strategic IT projects that can help move the business forward.“

With the Nasuni Service, TBG Partners has benefited from:

• Automatic data protection without separate backup: Encrypted snapshots every few minutes to the cloud deliver enterprise-grade protection.
• Fast recovery: Nasuni’s Filer offers fast file restore and superior RPO.
• Unlimited scalability: TBG Partners can affordably expand its cloud-backed storage volume indefinitely, eliminating the traditional three-year storage buying cycle.
• No capital investment: All hardware is leased, with a refresh every three years or earlier, as needed. Capacity is charged on a TB/year basis for usable storage only. An unlimited number of snapshots may be stored at no additional charge.
• Global file lock: Nasuni ensures that files are not simultaneously edited with the global file lock. Its intelligence is in the cloud, not in a specific device, avoiding bottlenecks and eliminating a single point of failure.
• Enterpris performance: The Nasuni filer maintains fast file access speeds by keeping frequently used data cached on local appliances.
• Improved collaboration: Nasuni’s cloud-integrated storage service means that TBG Partners’ files exist as one data set, accessible from anywhere, including mobile devices.
• Proactive support: On the rare occasions when an issue comes up, Nasuni has alerted Nichols to the item and suggested a fix, before it caused any problems.
  

“TBG Partners faces the same storage challenges that many architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) firms are facing,” said Andres Rodriguez, CEO, Nasuni. “Traditional storage technologies cannot meet the needs of modern organizations: data is growing too fast, across too many locations that are spread too far apart, and data protection is far too cumbersome to manage. At Nasuni, we believe global organizations need modern storage solutions. With the Nasuni Service, modern enterprises can have global access to an infinitely large file share, automatic data protection and centralized management for less money than they currently pay for backup alone, with a service-based pricing model that reflects current realities, not an artificial three-year hardware refresh cycle. The future of storage is here, and Nasuni is leading the way.“

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