Architectural Firm PCA Reduces NetApp Filer Offsite Backup Cost by Half

Zetta, Inc. announced that Prellwitz Chilinski Associates Inc.
(PCA) has selected Zetta.net‘s cloud server backup and DR to replace PCA’s
NetApp, Inc.‘s filer offsite backup solution, resulting in lower costs and less
management time.

Since deploying Zetta.net, the 45-person architecture firm – with a 30-year
track record of designs – has seen a 50% cost reduction and a 90% improvement in
time spent on backup management compared to its previous backup solution.

PCA’s IT environment is centered around a NetApp FAS2240 storage appliance,
using about half of its 13TB capacity to manage the large graphics files they
generate and manipulate using resource intensive applications like Autodesk’s
Revit building information modeling (BIM) program, rendering programs including
Sketch-Up and 3ds Max Design, and the Adobe CS6 suite of products.

"Architecture, by its nature today,
is data-intensive," said Dan Carp, systems administrator, PCA. "Each project can include a myriad of
photographs, sketches, plans, renderings, 3D models, schedules, materials
lists, transmittals and more. A given project could have upwards of 150GB of
data."

Carp pointed out that in addition to the volume of data that the firm produces,
they have a large flow of data exchanged internally and with clients, general
contractors, sub-consultants and others.

This critical data needs to be reliably
protected for easy access and recovery in the event of downtime or a natural
disaster. Therefore backup is an important piece of PCA’s IT management,
requiring adjustment and adaptation as technology evolves.

On-premise, PCA is using NetApp’s versioning feature to provide easy access to
previous file versions. However, PCA recognizes that offsite backup is
essential to ensure BC and DR if anything happens to the primary on-premise
copy.

"HDDs can fail, and software
glitches can impact data," Carp said. "Rain, snow or other natural disasters could damage the hardware, or
power failure could render our systems inaccessible."

Carp said that the results of moving to Zetta for backup are visible where it
counts: "Using Zetta has definitely
reduced our backup costs – we have more storage capacity for about half the
price of what we’d been paying. Because we no longer have a physical backup
appliance in our server room, we’re saving on physical space. When we have a
support concern or question, Zetta’s team is easy to reach and very helpful."

In addition to saving on costs and time, migrating to Zetta.net saves PCA
effort. "I never have to touch it or
think about it, except when I want to change what’s tagged for backup, or when
we want to increase our backup capacity with Zetta, which we’ve done once
already and expect to keep doing as our business continues to grow,"
Carp said.

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