By Emily Allender / 29 Nov 2018 / Topics: Backup & recovery
Facts at a glance
Client industry:
Federal government
Size of company:
450,000 employees
Challenge:
The client’s existing backup storage system couldn’t properly support its needs. The outdated tape library environment proved slow and far from cost-effective.
Solution:
- Storage consolidation
- Tapeless backup environment
- Tailored solutions for every location
Results
- Project completed within one year
- Modern backup storage environment
- All locations properly supported by infrastructure
The federal government’s Data Center Optimization Initiative blocks federal agencies from budgeting any money toward new or expanding data centers without the approval of the federal chief information officer. It also requires agencies to increase the energy efficiency of existing data centers in order to improve cost-effectiveness.
This mandate provided the push one major federal agency needed to finally upgrade its data center storage technologies. The agency, consisting of more than 158 locations and several data centers across the U.S., used a tape library for backup storage.
The system handled more than 3,000 terabytes of data but exhibited poor performance and scalability. Over the years, individual pieces of the system had been upgraded, resulting in a mishmash of inefficient, costly to maintain technologies.
Insight won the request for proposal to help the client due to our competitive pricing and ability to provide financing options. Our successful track record and expertise in helping government institutions solve IT challenges also played a part.
Our team recommended consolidating the existing storage systems and moving to a tapeless backup environment across the infrastructure. The client agreed.
Within one year, Insight installed the necessary equipment in all locations, as well as co-locations and major data centers. Taking a highly tailored approach, we sized each of the more than 158 facilities for the agency and installed network switches, storage solutions and additional servers as needed.
The client is pleased with the results. The sophisticated backup storage system now supports standardized and encrypted data backup and retention across all of its locations.
Soon after completion of this contract, the client released two similar projects to further update several storage capabilities. Insight is working in conjunction with others to install the modern equipment.
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