The Perfect Fit For Customer Backup

PerifiTech of Ohio, Inc. (Cleveland) was in need of a backup solution for one of its best customers. NetSource (Cleveland), an application service provider (ASP), was having the same backup problems every business seems to be having: the company had a large amount of data it wanted to back up in a small amount of time, and its data set was growing exponentially. Because NetSource is an ASP, its applications must also be running live 24 hours a day. As its data storage needs continued to grow, the company was becoming increasingly concerned about the effect backups would have on the delivery of data to its customers.

NetSource has ASP customers in many vertical markets, including financial and medical. A conglomerate of 10 doctors might use NetSource to host their data and applications for them, rather than having a server in each office and having to share data among them. Customers would then get their data from the NetSource operations center via dial-up or dedicated connections. "The benefit to the customer is they do not have to bear the cost of the hardware, software, and support," said Bob Kuchta, CEO of PerifiTech. Of course, that also leaves NetSource with a lot of hosted data that still needs to be backed up.

More Data, Longer Backup Times
Approximately six months ago, NetSource predicted the amount of storage it manages would soon hit 160 gigabytes (it currently exceeds that amount). The company was using digital audio tape (DAT) to perform its backups. However, the process was very time consuming, as the DAT drives allowed them to back up only 1.2 gigabytes of data per hour. Therefore, one DAT drive would require 133 hours to back up 160 gigabytes of data.

One solution Kuchta considered was staying with the DAT technology and simply installing more tape drives on the network. However, that solution presented a couple of problems. With multiple backups taking place simultaneously, network traffic would be increased. There would also be multiple tapes that would have to be changed every day. Furthermore, Kuchta was not even convinced DAT was the right technology for NetSource, especially if the company met its projected growth rate and continued to grow at that rate. Even with 10 DAT drives, the process would take 15 to 16 hours to perform.

"The DAT drives NetSource was using store 40 gigabytes per tape cartridge," said Kuchta. "At the time, the highest capacity DLT [digital linear tape] drive [the DLT 8000] stored 80 gigabytes per cartridge. The speed of the DLT 8000 is also a little more than twice the speed of the DAT drive." Despite the speed of the DLT drive, NetSource would still have faced a pretty significant backup time. A DLT 8000 autoloader would have reduced that time frame, but the customer also did not want its backup spanning multiple tapes. That was when Kuchta heard about Quantum's new drive, the SuperDLT 220 (SDLT 220).

SuperDLT Delivers
The SDLT 220 would not be released for another month, but as part of his relationship with Quantum, Kuchta receives engineering evaluation units for certification. Kuchta has been selling DLT products since Quantum first put them on the street in the mid-1990s. "I have a lot of confidence in the DLT technology," he said. "When we received this unit and I started running tests on it, I called my customer and told him he needed to wait for this unit. I felt the SDLT 220 drive would give NetSource everything it needed in a backup solution." Although the engineering units cannot be resold, Kuchta lent his to the customer to use until the product was released.

With the new drive, NetSource went from backing up 1.2 gigabytes an hour to 48 gigabytes an hour. Its 160 gigabytes of data, which were taking 15 to 16 hours to back up, was now taking just a couple of hours. But best of all, integration was a breeze. "The customer did not have to change its tape software [ARCServe by Computer Associates (Islandia, NY)]," said Kuchta. "NetSource was also able to keep its same tape operating system. The only update we needed to do was install a faster tape controller and the corresponding driver. The total installation took under 20 minutes."

Fill A Hole In Your Product Line
According to Kuchta, the SDLT 220 drive filled a hole in PerifiTech's product line, and he believes it will do the same for other VARs as well. "The SDLT 220 can store 220 gigabytes per cartridge," he said. "At the time we evaluated this unit, the next best drive on the market could store only 100 gigabytes. If a customer needed additional capacity, they were forced to go with an autoloader, which was often overkill."

The DLT 8000 autoloader gave customers half a terabyte of storage. Most customers migrating up from 100 gigabytes simply did not require that much capacity. "The SDLT 220 drive is more cost-effective than the autoloader and gives the customer the capacity and performance they need without the added expense," he said.

Kuchta also likes what he sees in future generations of the SDLT drive. "NetSource will soon have the same backup problem all over again," said Kuchta. "Its data requirements continue to grow, and the company will look to us to help it stay ahead of the problem."

Kuchta is prepared to do so. PerifiTech already has an engineering evaluation unit of Quantum's next generation drive, the SDLT 320. "NetSource is already banging on my door to grab this one," he said. "The new drive will bring NetSource's backup time down to one hour. We plan to be installing this unit for them very soon."