Strengthen Disaster Recovery capabilities in multiple locations to ensure high availability, business continuity, and data protection.
Design and deploy a new Disaster Recovery solution using a mix of VMware Site Recovery Manager (SRM) software, IBM servers, SAN switches and storage systems.
A robust, scalable and secure Disaster Recovery infrastructure that will recover critical business operations and systems within minutes of an incident.
A reduction in organisational risk through improved business continuity planning, data availability and visibility to create efficiencies that allow internal IT staff to focus on core technology projects.
“A reduction in organisational risk through improved business continuity planning, data availability and visibility to create efficiencies that allow internal IT staff to focus on core technology projects.”
Tom Grskovic, Account Executive, Data#3 Limited
The Challenge
As a growing 24×7 business, the company relies heavily on its systems and technology to deliver efficient services to customers across the country.
While the core production hub and Disaster Recovery environment are based in different locations, the existing set-up was struggling to meet the demanding timeframes, availability and performance required by the business. As such, there was considerable business risk if there was a system failure at the production hub.
What’s more, the existing solution was labour-intensive, often pulling IT resources away from their normal day-to-day responsibilities and impacting productivity across the business.
The company also needed to ensure they were meeting their Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliance obligations, which included achieving Disaster Recovery testing benchmarks each year.
As a result, the company identified the need for a Disaster Recovery solution that could achieve a low Recovery Point Objective (RPO) and low Recovery Time Objective (RTO).
“Essentially, they needed a new real-time Disaster Recovery solution to ensure business continuity in the event of server failure, as well as to meet the demands of our 24×7 operations,” says Tom Grskovic, Account Executive, Data#3.
IT Outcomes
As the company’s long-term technology partner, Data#3 was engaged to design and deploy a new Disaster Recovery solution.
With an in-depth understanding of both their business and technology position, Data#3 designed a robust solution that incorporated components from both VMware and IBM. Specifically, the solution consisted of the following hardware and software:
From the outset, the company sought a solution that enabled straightforward and cost-effective business continuity and data protection. This was achieved through the deployment of VMware Site Recovery Manager (SRM) across their offices, as well as the utilisation of IBM storage capability.
The new solution delivers fast and reliable IT Disaster Recovery, plus it helps lower the total cost of ownership by decreasing operational expenses through automation and reducing capital investments using Software Defined Data Centre (SDDC) technology.
VMware SRM enables the company to perform frequent non-disruptive testing to ensure IT Disaster Recovery software predictability and compliance, plus it’s capable of protecting thousands of virtual machines with ease using centralised recovery plans.
Most importantly, they now have the ability to recover critical business operations and systems within minutes of a fault occurring.
Business Outcomes
The new Disaster Recovery solution adopted has addressed the critical issues of business risk and compliance. Where previously exposed to server failure and operational downtime, the business now enjoys peace of mind knowing that systems and data are protected around the clock.
What’s more, low Recovery Point Objective (RPO) and low Recovery Time Objective (RTO) means any downtime is limited, plus potential loss of revenue and loss of reputation is minimised.
Reduced business risk and the ability to meet ongoing compliance obligations not only strengthens the company’s ability to deliver 24×7 services to its customers, it also gives the business confidence to grow and expand its operations.
Key business benefits include:
Conclusion
The new solution has delivered highly available and resilient IT infrastructure to strengthen their Disaster Recovery capabilities.
“The customers Disaster Recovery environment and data protection capabilities are now where they should be, helping reduce business risk and providing us with ultimate peace of mind 24/7,” says Grskovic.
“More importantly, the new solution is future-proofed, allowing for further expansion as their operations continue to grow.”
Grskovic adds:
“Our deep understanding of their technology environment helped our customer to build a solid business case to design and deploy a solution that met their objectives, both now and in the future.”
