CUSTOMER PROFILE
COMPANY: Steve Madden, LTD
INDUSTRY: Manufacturing/Retail
ISSUES
- Physical tape backups too slow
- Need to replicate between 2 data centers
- Must work with IBM i, ExaGrid and BRMS
KEY SOLUTION
LaserVault ViTL Virtual Tape Library Emulation Solution
ViTL BENEFITS
- Reduced backup window by 30%
- Easy integration with IBM Power Systems, ExaGrid and BRMS
- Consistent backup performance for 19TB daily
- Helpful, friendly, courteous staff at LaserVault
CHALLENGES
Using a tape library to backup their two data centers was a time consuming process for Steve Madden. Their data protection improvement plan included bringing in an ExaGrid deduplication appliance plus adding BRMS. They needed a solution that would speed up their backups and work with IBM i, ExaGrid and BRMS. Plus they needed to be able to replicate their backups between data centers.
SOLUTION
“We found the solution we needed in ViTL,” says Michael Di Sunno, Senior iSeries Systems Administrator at Steve Madden.
ViTL is a virtual tape backup D2D solution that speeds-up the backup and restore process, works as a gateway between IBM Power Systems and ExaGrid deduplication appliances, is configured to work with BRMS, and helps provide better protection for your IBM i data.
“We use ViTL on our production system with BRMS job scheduler to process Save While Active backups.”
SUMMARY
“ViTL is working wonderfully for us. As compared to when we were using physical tape, ViTL has reduced our backup windows by 30%. It also provides us consistent performance for our backups.
“We needed an alternative to using tape for our backups. When our IT consultant recommended ViTL, we were concerned about the performance and the time it would take to configure it all,” says Michael.
“And it did take some time to get all the people together, but in the end the ViTL installation went relatively smoothly. We ended up placing a ViTL appliance at each of our data centers. The LaserVault solutions engineer was very helpful, friendly and courteous in helping us get things set up.
“Based on our experience, ViTL would be a good solution for others in the manufacturing and retail industries if they are looking for ways to speed up and add consistency to their backup operations.”
