Published on 31-Jan-2008
Validated on 19 Nov 2012
"Maintaining hundreds of versions of backed up data can create a management nightmare for companies. Tivoli software simplifies the process immensely to strengthen governance and improve risk management." - —Jeffrey Beallor, President, Global Data Vaulting
Customer:
Global Data Vaulting
Industry:
Computer Services
Deployment country:
Canada
Solution:
Business-to-Business, Business Resiliency, Cloud & Service Management
Overview
Through its Secure Managed Backup Service based on IBM Tivoli Storage Management software, GDV can offer companies a comprehensive disaster recovery solution for as little as 3 USD a day.
Business need:
Help clients decrease the time and cost of recovering from service outages and disasters
Solution:
A fully-managed secure backup service based on IBM Tivoli® Storage Manager family software
Benefits:
Enabled delivery of enterprise-level business continuity services to small and medium-sized businesses for as little as 3 USD a day; reduced client recovery times from days to under 30 minutes; improved governance
Case Study
Overview
Challenge
Help clients decrease the time and cost of recovering from service outages and disasters
Solution
A fully-managed secure backup service based on IBM Tivoli® Storage Manager family software
Benefits
- Enabled delivery of enterprise-level business continuity services to small and medium-sized businesses for as little as 3 USD a day
- reduced client recovery times from days to under 30 minutes
- improved governance
| “The Software as a Service model provides companies with the staffing and technology needed to help ensure business continuity in the event of an outage or data loss. And working with IBM, we can deliver an enterprise-class solution that was previously out of reach for most small and medium-sized businesses.” —Jeffrey Beallor, President, Global Data Vaulting |
| “Maintaining hundreds of versions of backed up data can create a management nightmare for companies. Tivoli software simplifies the process immensely to strengthen governance and improve risk management.” —Jeffrey Beallor |
With limited budgets and personnel spread thin, many small and medium-sized businesses struggle to backup and protect critical data in the event of a disaster. It’s a challenge that is helping drive the adoption of Software as a Service (SaaS) for disaster recovery.
With SaaS, companies no longer need to purchase and deploy an application and its supporting infrastructure. The SaaS provider simply delivers the application functionality via a subscription model over the Internet, with the customer renting the service for a monthly fee.
Consider the success that IBM Business Partner Global Data Vaulting (GDV) has experienced. GDV is a leading SaaS provider of fully managed, automated online data protection, archiving and recovery solutions. Through its Secure Managed Backup Service based on IBM Tivoli Storage Management software, GDV can offer companies a comprehensive disaster recovery solution for as little as 3 USD a day.
“The Software as a Service model provides companies with the staffing and technology needed to help ensure business continuity in the event of an outage or data loss,” says Jeffrey Beallor, president, Global Data Vaulting. “And working with IBM, we can deliver an enterprise-class solution that was previously out of reach for most small and medium-sized businesses.”
Near-miss drives change
For a Canadian property management firm with a 25-year history of service, the use of GDV services and IBM Tivoli software for a small monthly fee helped avoid a disastrous situation. With three employees managing more than a hundred properties in the greater Toronto, Canada area, one of the last things the firm’s staff had time to do was ensure that data was being backed up properly. However, when thieves stole the company’s servers, staff faced the daunting task of having to piece together client records. Luckily, police recovered the computers before the company’s revenue or reputation was impacted.
This near-miss drove the firm’s founder to leverage GDV’s Secure Managed Backup service. It was a decision that soon proved its value.
“Six months after we began working with Global Data Vaulting, our offices were robbed again and our servers were never found,” recalls the company’s founder. “However, this time, we were covered. GDV was able to restore our data to temporary systems within 30 minutes of the loss so we could resume operations.”
Easily responding to and recovering from any disruptive event
GDV’s use of IBM Business Continuity solutions, including IBM Tivoli Storage Manager software, IBM Tivoli Continuous Data Protection for Files and IBM System Storage Archive Manager software, helps ensure that data on hardware ranging from notebooks, workstations and servers is backed up and archived according to each client’s policies.
The progressive incremental methodology used by Tivoli Storage Manager, which only backs up new or changed versions of files, helps speed data backup and recovery processes so that operations can resume in less than an hour.
During the backup process, client data is encrypted by Tivoli Storage Manager and then transferred via a virtual private network to GDV’s tier 1 data center. To strengthen the responsiveness and resiliency of its service, GDV uses IBM System x technology as the platform for Tivoli Storage Management solutions.
IBM Tivoli software provides GDV with the flexibility to deliver a wide-range of business continuity solutions. For example, a large Canadian retailer uses GDV’s service to support its goal of high service availability. If one of the company’s servers goes down, the retailer can temporarily switch operations to GDV’s data center to minimize interruption to its operations. Additionally, the service enables the retailer to easily maintain 120 days of transactions for governance requirements.
“Maintaining hundreds of versions of backed-up data can create a management nightmare for companies,” says Beallor. “Tivoli software simplifies the process immensely to strengthen governance and improve risk management.”
Likewise, GDV’s Secure Managed Service has enabled a leading Canadian bankruptcy firm to reduce the time and cost of ensuring the integrity of financial transactions. “Using Tivoli Storage Management solutions, we’ve been able to take Software as a Service and adapt it to different industries for their particular needs,” says Beallor. “Companies don’t have to lay out money for the infrastructure. They can rent the technology from us on a temporary basis or on a long-term basis to suit what they need. In the case of the bankruptcy law firm, this has provided tremendous cost savings.”
According to Beallor, GDV’s SaaS offerings will continue to evolve thanks to IBM. “IBM offers leading-edge hardware, software and infrastructure technologies to help us launch and efficiently run SaaS solutions,” adds Beallor. “For example, IBM solutions will soon enable us to run and restore data in a virtualized environment so that in the event of a disaster, the data is available immediately.”
Key Components
Software
- IBM Tivoli Continuous Data Protection for Files
- IBM Tivoli Storage Manager or IBM Tivoli Storage Manager Express
- IBM System Storage™ Archive Manager
Servers
- IBM System x™
For more information
Contact your IBM sales representative or IBM Business Partner, or visit us at: ibm.com/tivoli
You can get even more out of Tivoli software by participating in independently run Tivoli User Groups around the world. Learn about opportunities near you at www.tivoli-ug.org
For more information about Global Data Vaulting, visit:
www.gdv.ca
Products and services used
IBM products and services that were used in this case study.
Hardware:
System x
Software:
Tivoli Storage Manager, IBM System Storage Archive Manager, Tivoli Continuous Data Protection for Files, Tivoli Storage Manager Express
Legal Information
© Copyright IBM Corporation 2008 IBM Corporation Software Group Route 100 Somers, NY 10589 U.S.A. Produced in the United States of America 01-08 All Rights Reserved IBM, the IBM logo, System Storage, System x and Tivoli are trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation in the United States, other countries or both. Other company, product or service names may be trademarks or service marks of others. This case study is an example of how one customer uses IBM products. There is no guarantee of comparable results. References in this publication to IBM products and services do not imply that IBM intends to make them available in all countries in which IBM operates.