NAS Guards The Desktop

Jack Tateel, VP of sales for systems integrator Aberdeen LLC (Santa Fe Springs, CA), received a call from a large financial payment company that was looking for a storage solution. The company was a clearinghouse that processed payments for merchants and financial institutions. While an institution of that type will certainly have data storage needs, in this instance it was calling on Aberdeen to solve a different type of storage problem.

"They were looking for a new way to perform backup and to protect their data from a catastrophic failure," says Tateel. "They wanted to use NAS [network attached storage] to back up workstations [desktop computers] that were on the network. They told me their problem, proposed NAS as a possible solution, and asked for my opinion." Tateel liked the idea.

Companies Must Perform PC Backup
Like many companies, this customer had users that were storing data on shared network storage devices. But each user was also storing data on the hard drive of their individual desktop computer. "Even though users have network storage space allocated to them, everybody still has unique information stored on their own PCs," says Tateel. "Although the company would back up its shared storage devices, nothing was being done to back up the individual PCs. The data on those desktops was not being protected. If there had been a disaster at that location, all of the data on those PCs would have been lost."

The customer felt that if its entire site went down for some reason, recovering the data contained on the PCs would be a necessary step in the disaster recovery process. "Companies might have backup data located at an off-site facility," says Tateel. "That data can be used to get their computer room up and running. But the desktop users are still vulnerable. The customer felt installing NAS to back up the desktops would complete the disaster recovery picture. If the facility was completely destroyed, the company could put brand new PCs on every desktop and recover every user's data."

NAS Solves The Backup Problem
The NAS solution Tateel recommended was the POPnetserver 4500 from FIA Storage Systems Group (San Clemente, CA). "The POPnetserver provided the functionality the customer needed at the best price," he says. "The customer needed a NAS appliance that had the required storage capacity to handle their daily backup. That is all they planned to use it for, which made it a classic NAS installation." FIA also provides the software needed to perform backup.

This customer initially purchased three or four POPnetservers, but it plans to install more units across its entire network and in its subsidiaries. Tateel believes NAS devices will be readily accepted by companies in almost all vertical markets. "Companies love this solution," he says. "It is fast, efficient, and inexpensive."

One of the biggest benefits of backing up data to NAS is recovery time. The process of restoring data, should it ever have to be done, is quick and easy. "The classic alternative to NAS is performing backup to tape," says Tateel. He notes that many companies continue to periodically back up data to tape and then manage a large library full of tapes. "Recovery from tape is a slow process, even with the best drives," he adds. "Disk also uses random access, as opposed to sequential access that is used by tape. If only 10 users need to recover data, they don't have to search the tape for data from 10 of the 20 PCs that were backed up."

Tateel has sold a lot of NAS appliances and believes it will continue to be a profitable technology for VARs. "This is a completely horizontal solution," he says. "Any network of any size is a great opportunity for a NAS appliance. The appliances are easy to install and are an inexpensive storage solution." For companies with a small network and several users, a NAS solution can start at under $1,000. The 4500 series of solutions from FIA can scale from 80 GB (in a unit with one 80 GB drive) to just under one-half a terabyte.