The transition to cloud-based backup and storage solutions, like winter in Game of Thrones, is beyond coming – it has already arrived. More and more organizations are moving their invaluable data back-ups from on-premise to the cloud.
However, not all organizations are moving at the same rate. Some are lagging behind and by doing so, are wasting time, effort, and money all unnecessarily. I recently helped a client upgrade their back-up solution and I feel like it could serve as a great example for why organizations that have not moved swiftly to modernize their backup should really do so.
The client had a solution in place which was put in place about six years ago and it was coming up for a refresh. They wanted us to sit down with them, understand the key requirements and then investigate what options were in the marketplace, do an evaluation and then recommend the best option.
Their current solution involved working with two different products, Commvault and a deduplication appliance. When this solution was first implemented, it was quite advanced at the time. Back then, most backup solutions involved writing the data to tape. The backup market was evolving and deduplication to disk was widely adopted in an effort to increase recovery times and eliminate tape.
Today, Commvault itself now has this capability to compress the information within the product itself, so you don't need the extra piece of technology to do this, you just need the one.
After exploring all the options, we recommended they upgrade to the latest version of Commvault. We did so because of the various benefits this option would provide to the client.
Firstly, it simplified their infrastructure and operations. Previously, they had a server which would need to send all the information to a deduplication appliance across the network. But with the new solution in place, it doesn't send it anywhere so from an infrastructure perspective there are fewer components and that means fewer components to manage.
Additionally, by simplifying the environment, we were able to bring real cost savings across the organization. They were paying for licenses for two deduplication products, one of which was nearing the end of life. By modernizing their backup solution, their total cost of ownership was significantly reduced as compared to their previous solution.
Perhaps most importantly, the modernized back-up solution paves the way for when they transition all their workload to the cloud in the very near future. One of the major challenges in going to the cloud is effectively managing and protecting the organization’s critical data. By standardizing on the Commvault platform across their IT footprint, they were able to control and manage the backup from the one central site. Instead of having disparate products in every environment, they were able to save operational costs and keep greater control over their data regardless of where it resides. And in doing so, they are now well-positioned to protect their various footprints and leverage the cloud.
I was able to assist the customer in the initial evaluation, give them a solution for the future and simplify their environment because that’s what I do every day as an Advanced Solution Specialist at Compugen. To find out how you can modernize at your organization, feel free to drop me a line anytime. I’d be more than happy to discuss it with you.
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