Skip the navigation

Children's Hospital trims backup with disk-to-disk

It finds virtual tape library technology too problematic

By Lucas Mearian
October 31, 2005 12:00 PM ET

Computerworld - Children's Hospital in Boston was dealing with a nightmare of a backup window earlier this year that at times lasted from 4 p.m. to 10 a.m. the next day and often entailed failed tape drives and shutdowns.
On top of at least two drive failures each month, the sheer speeds of data transfers were in the 30MB/sec. to 40MB/sec. range, which guaranteed that the backup window for some 300 servers would continue to grow.
"The backup windows just kept growing and growing, and there were so many problems at night that backups were being missed," said Paul Scheib, director of operations and chief information security officer at Children's Hospital. "You start seeing these slower speeds but you really don't know what it is. It becomes like an Easter egg hunt where you're trying to figure out what's limiting the rate to the drives. Is it the drives? Is it the servers? Is it the network?
The hospital launched a pilot program of a virtual tape library (VTL) technology as an intermediary between its Fibre Channel storage-area network (SAN) and its two tape libraries, but that had problems of its down, according to Scheib. "We had a lot of trouble getting it configured correctly," he said.
Instead of sticking with a VTL, which required integration with his Fibre Channel SAN, Scheib said that in June he chose another disk-to-disk backup technology that removed Fibre Channel from the equation and put server backups on the LAN.
By using DD460 disk arrays from Data Domain Inc. in Palo Alto, Calif., Schieb said, he was able to replace one of his tape libraries with three disk arrays that cost about the same amount: $75,000 each. The disk arrays doubled data transfer rates, removing three hours from the hospital's lengthy daily backup windows, reducing backup failures by half and speeding up restores from hours or days to minutes.
The disk-based backup technology also allows the hospital to keep about three months of backup data online, nearly eliminating off-site tape recalls for data restores. Time to respond to urgent restore requests has been reduced from four hours to a few minutes, Scheib said, adding that he was also able to eliminate one of his Hewlett-Packard Co. tape libraries.
Tony Asaro, an analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group Inc., said he was surprised that the VTL from FalconStor Software Inc. that Scheib had piloted gave him problems, because they're relatively easy to install and run well. But Asaro acknowledged that Fibre Channel networks in general can be harder



Additional Resources
Forrester Consulting - Optimizing Users and Applications in a Mobile World
WHITE PAPER
Solving application issues over the WAN requires careful consideration. Based on their independent research, Forrester Consulting offers recommendations on how to tackle application performance issues, insufficient bandwidth and the inability to quickly restore users in a disaster.

Read now.

Security KnowledgeVault
WHITE PAPER
Security is not an option. This KnowledgeVault Series offers professional advice how to be proactive in the fight against cybercrimes and multi-layered security threats; how to adopt a holistic approach to protecting and managing data; and how to hire a qualified security assessor. Make security your Number 1 priority.

Read now.

Cut Communications Costs Once and for All
WHITE PAPER
New IP-based communications systems are being deployed by small and midsized businesses at a rapid rate. Learn how these organizations are enabling faster responsiveness, creating better customer experiences, speeding office or mobile interactions, and dramatically reducing existing communications costs.

Read now.

Storage White Papers
Datacenter Consolidation Best Practices Whitepaper
The benefits of storage consolidation are being realized by companies and seen as a way to streamline many storage-driven applications. Learn why the...
Eliminating VMware / Storage Related Performance Challenges
How to proactively monitor the performance in a Fibre Channel SAN / vSphere environment is always a concern. Understand the importance of a...
Cloud Environments Have Familiar Storage Challenges
Cloud environments have many storage challenges that are familiar to data center managers, but due to their density and abstraction, the issues become...
Eight Considerations for Evaluating Disk-Based Backup Solutions
In the past, the movement from tape- to disk-based backup has been less compelling due to the expense of storing backup data on...
ExaGrid Helps U.S. Federal Government Agencies Reduce Backup Windows and Improve Data Protection
The U.S. Government has been the largest user of tape-based backup systems since the 1970s. Most agencies have begun to deploy disk storage...
All Storage White Papers
Storage Webcasts
Understand Your Data: The Future of Backup and Archiving
Archiving and Backup are the foundation of the next generation of information governance. However, commodity data protection tools and basic archives are only...
Optimizing Networks for the Cloud
Join guest speaker, Rohit Mehra, IDC Director of Enterprise Communications Infrastructure, to explore current trends, discuss best practices for optimizing Data Center and...
Apps QuickStart Series Part 2: Designing and Deploying SQL Server on VMware vSphere
Download this webcast to learn about the design considerations for virtualizing SQL workloads, performance and scalability information and high-availability options, as well as...
Apps QuickStart Series Part 1: Designing and Deploying Exchange 2010 on VMware vSphere
Download this webcast to learn the virtual hardware design considerations for Exchange 2010, deployment using the building block approach, options for high-availability and...
Customer Spotlight: How IPC The Hospitalist Company Implemented Oracle on VMware
Have you been looking to hear about customer's experiences with the new VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager product? View this webcast to learn...
All Storage Webcasts
Newsletter Sign-Up

Receive the latest news test, reviews and trends on your favorite technology topics

Choose a newsletter
  1. View all newsletters | Privacy Policy
IT Jobs