Published on 11-Dec-2006
"We were up and running just seven days after the flood. And the IBM solution supports our ability to continue to serve our customers and focus on our business objectives, even in the event of an outage." - Dick Cosby, System Administrator, Estes Express Lines, Inc.
Customer:
Estes Express Lines, Inc.
Industry:
Travel & Transportation
Deployment country:
United States
IBM Business Partner:
DP Systems
Overview
Estes Express is a family-owned transportation services company with a network of 184 terminals in 46 states.
Business need:
After losing its data center in a flood, Estes Express needed to restore its data as soon as possible and then implement a more robust disaster-recovery solution for the future.
Solution:
Estes Express worked with IBM Business Partner DP Systems to reload data onto new hardware. It then implemented an IBM System Storage solution to provide a more robust disaster-recovery solution.
Benefits:
Operational 7 days after the outage caused by a flood; Ability to switch operations to a fully redundant alternate data center; Nightly backups that avoid impacting employees' 24x7 access to systems
Case Study
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Estes Express Lines, Inc. is a family-owned company that was founded in 1931. With more than 13,000 employees, Estes Express Lines transports commodities within a network of 184 terminals in 46 states, using a fleet of 33,000 tractors and trailers. |
Background
Estes Express Lines, Inc. is a family-owned company that was founded in 1931. With more than 13,000 employees, Estes Express Lines transports commodities within a network of 184 terminals in 46 states, using a fleet of 33,000 tractors and trailers.
Challenge
After Estes Express Lines lost its data center in a flood caused by Hurricane Gaston, the company needed to act quickly to put replacement systems and hardware in place. In addition, the company was determined to set up a more robust disaster-recovery program.
Solution
Working with IBM Business Partner DP Systems, Estes Express Lines reloaded the data to new hardware from a nondisruptive, nightly point-in-time save made available by IBM FlashCopy® software so that it could resume business. The company then bolstered its business continuity infrastructure by deploying two sets of IBM System i™ platforms backing up data onto IBM System Storage™ DS8100 disk systems and IBM TotalStorage® Enterprise Storage Servers® with IBM Backup Recovery and Media Services (BRMS) software. One set is located in Richmond, Virginia, and the other is located in a disaster-recovery center in Mesa, Arizona. The company also implemented continuous data mirroring using IBM Global Mirror and the IBM System i Copy Services Toolkit. This exclusively IBM solution requires no third-party software or journaling.
Estes Express Lines is archiving its data using an IBM TotalStorage 3584 Ultrium UltraScalable Tape Library at its Richmond site and an IBM TotalStorage 3582 Tape Library for its disaster-recovery site in Mesa.
Benefits
• Resumed operations within just seven days of outage caused by the flood
• Improved disaster-recovery environment so that in the event of an emergency at the main data center, the company can continue operations by switching to the Mesa environment
• Enables full backup of production data nightly while still providing the client’s thousands of employees uninterrupted access to systems 24x7
Products and services used
IBM products and services that were used in this case study.
Hardware:
Storage: DS8100, Storage: Enterprise Storage Server, Storage: Tape & Optical Storage, System i
Legal Information
© Copyright IBM Corporation 2006 IBM Corporation Systems Group Route 100 Somers, NY 10589 U.S.A. Produced in the United States of America 12-06 All Rights Reserved IBM, the IBM logo, Enterprise Storage Server, FlashCopy, System i, System Storage and TotalStorage are trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation in the United States, other countries or both. Other company, product and service names may be trademarks or service marks of others. The information contained in this documentation is provided for informational purposes only. While efforts were made to verify the completeness and accuracy of the information contained in this documentation, it is provided “as is” without warranty of any kind, express or implied. In addition, this information is based on IBM’s current product plans and strategy, which are subject to change by IBM without notice. IBM shall not be responsible for any damages arising out of the use of, or otherwise related to, this documentation or any other documentation. IBM and DP Systems are separate companies and each is responsible for its own products. Neither IBM nor DP Systems makes any warranties, express or implied, concerning the others’ products.