CUSTOMER PROFILE
COMPANY: Sure Fit, Inc.
INDUSTRY: Manufacturing, Home Furnishings
ISSUES
- Low physical tape management
- Daily and weekly backups
- Tape storage delivery to offsite location
IBM i SYSTEM: IBM i V5R4
KEY SOLUTION
LaserVault ViTL Virtual Tape Library Emulation Solution
ViTL BENEFITS
- Time savings
- Hands-off management
- Reliable backups
- No longer have to ensure transport of physical tapes
CHALLENGES
As a home furnishings industry leader for over 100 years, Sure Fit, Inc. has many computer software needs. Sure Fit backed up to tape and sent them out to Iron Mountain for offsite storage weekly.
“We were looking for a system that would allow for automated backups to the cloud,” says Mike Pokrifscak, IBM i Administrator at Sure Fit.
SOLUTION
“Our common business partner, ServIT, recommended ViTL.”
With that recommendation, Sure Fit was on its way to successful data management.
ServIT is a technology and managed services company with a presence in 14 states, and has partnered with LaserVault in providing quality service to their ServIT customers since 2018.
LaserVault ViTL is a virtual tape solution for use with IBM Power Systems. Using ViTL to streamline backup operations saves time and increases IT efficiencies.
SUMMARY
“ViTL is working very reliably, being driven by automated jobs running on our iSeries, and then ServIT pulls our saved data nightly to a site in Atlanta. Overall, not having to physically manage tapes and insuring their transport to an offsite facility is a big help. When LaserVault is used in partnership with an entity like ServIT, who can arrange to pull the saved data to offsite storage, it is the perfect solution.”
Mike says that the experience has been positive working with LaserVault. LaserVault worked with Sure Fit for the initial configuration of the software’s backup rotation. They only needed customer support a couple of times in the two and a half years of using ViTL.
“Considering that in the time period of use, we have done about 700 backups with only two “glitches,” That seems to be a good percentage. I’d rate LaserVault a 10 out of 10!”
