CDC Tech Group

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Based in Stockholm, Sweden, CDC Tech Group forms part of CDC Software, an international provider of enterprise software for both on-premise and cloud deployments. CDC Tech Group comprises 20 employees and provides a ‘private cloud’ infrastructure to its European clients, who pay a fixed monthly fee for the required server and storage capacity and service level agreements. The Group frequently works with large blue-chip companies, hosting mission-critical ERP systems in addition to back-office systems.

The backup challenge
With separate backup solutions for each separate client, CDC Tech Group was required to spend considerable sums on backup software and tape storage.

Moreover, each client had individual requirements regarding backup schedules, restore points and the delivery of tape copies, which entailed a large amount of administrative input from CDC staff to satisfy each client’s specific needs.

“Some of our clients had to perform backups with a certain frequency in order to comply with regulatory requirements,” said Ulf Sandström, Director of Operations, Nordic. “Others had short backup windows of just a few hours a night in which data needed to be moved. Administering our clients’ backup requirements was a considerable challenge, and our team would routinely spend between six and ten hours a day performing and verifying backups.”

In addition, the company’s large number of tape libraries made it a time-consuming process to locate the right tapes when clients needed to restore data.

CDC Tech Group was looking for a single, cost-effective solution capable of backing up data from all clients, while also providing the flexibility to meet individual clients’ specific backup requirements. Equally, it was important that the solution should have a strong reputation as an enterprise-level solution and be well-known within the Group’s main client base.

Selecting the right solution
After evaluating a number of storage solutions from different vendors, including both HP and IBM, CDC Tech Group decided to implement IBM Tivoli Storage Manager.

“IBM Tivoli Storage Manager was always the front-runner for us,” said Sandström. “We have been closely associated with IBM for more than 25 years, and have a lot of faith in the reliability of IBM products.”

With the help of IBM Business Partner Load System, CDC Tech Group has now installed a unified backup solution based on IBM Tivoli Storage Manager software. The solution is supported by an IBM Storwize V7000 disk system and IBM System Storage TS1120 tape drives. The Tivoli Storage Manager server backs up data from a wide range of environments, ranging from Linux and IBM AIX through to Microsoft^® Windows^®. The V7000 disk system utilizes three different tiers (Solid State Drives (SSDs), Fibre Channel disk and SATA disk) to provide the appropriate price-performance for each environment.

“We developed a strong partnership with Load System,” said Sandström. “They provided us with continuous support and their help was particularly valuable during the preliminary design stages. In fact, Load System not only provided us with software, but also introduced us to and implemented our SAN hardware platform.”

Data backups for all of CDC Tech Group’s clients are now performed using IBM Tivoli Storage Manager. A 10 Gb fibre connection transfers clients’ data from CDC Tech Group’s production data centre to its backup site, which is located a few kilometres away. The Group performs backups from production systems directly onto the V7000 disk system at the backup site, and data is subsequently copied from disk to tape.

Faster and more compact
CDC Tech Group has benefited in particular from the incremental backup capabilities of IBM Tivoli Storage Manager. “Rather than performing a full backup each time, now only new or changed data is backed up,” said Sandström. “Since incremental backup takes less time to complete, we are more confident that all necessary data will be backed up within the very short backup windows of some of our clients. The reduced amount of backed up data has also enabled us to slow the rate at which our storage tape library is expanding. This in turn has given us a clearer overview of our tape storage system, allowing us to locate specific backups for clients more quickly.”

CDC Tech Group has also capitalised on Tivoli Storage Manager functionalities that enable the configuration of different backup policies for different clients.

“Tivoli Storage Manager has the flexibility to tailor our clients’ backup policies to specifically fit their needs,” said Sandström. “For example, if a client is required to comply with legislation such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, we can simply adjust their backup policies to provide the required level of protection.”

A streamlined one-solution storage environment
“With IBM Tivoli Manager, our team is no longer obliged to coordinate multiple backup solutions,” said Sandström. “We now have a storage system capable of backing up data for all our clients collectively. As a result our storage environment has been greatly simplified and is proving much more manageable.”

Since the implementation of Tivoli Storage Manager, CDC Tech Group’s backup team has experienced a substantial reduction in its administrative workload. “We now spend an average of just one or two hours each day on backup-related tasks, which is an improvement of approximately 75 percent.”

“So far, we have been very impressed with the solution’s reliability,” said Sandström. “Our Tivoli Storage Manager administrator has been on paternity leave for the past two months and we have yet to experience a single problem in his absence. In the event of a technical fault, IBM Tivoli Storage Manager automatically sends reports to the appropriate technicians who then investigate and resolve the problem.”

Future plans with IBM Tivoli Storage Manager
The successful implementation of IBM Tivoli Storage Manager as a backup solution for CDC Tech Group’s clients has led to plans to extend the solution to support CDC Software’s own storage environments.

Moreover, CDC Tech Group predicts that the familiarity of its client base with the IBM Tivoli Storage Manager solution will have a positive impact on future business.

“Large enterprises and governmental organisations choose their hosting suppliers very carefully, and IBM Tivoli Storage Manager’s strong reputation will make it a big selling point for us. By using IBM Tivoli Storage Manager, we instil confidence in potential clients that we will be able to meet their storage and backup requirements.”

About Load System
Load System AB focuses on IT infrastructure related to servers and storage. It delivers high-quality services throughout the product lifecycle: assessment studies, design, implementation services and support. It also offers unique expertise in key solution areas such as Business Continuity, Information Lifecycle Management and Infrastructure Simplification.

Today the company is one of IBM’s largest Business Partners in data storage, and has extensive experience of large, challenging projects in several of the largest organisations. Its goal is to always maintain the highest possible expertise in its specialist areas, which means that its sales teams and consultants are continuously trained to the highest possible certifications.