Modernizing it service delivery at the university of la verne

Client:

University of La Verne

Challenge:

Moving from physical infrastructure to a completely virtualized environment requires new forms of data protection.

Solution:

Iron Mountain® Cloud Data Replication for EMC Data Domain® and Avamar®.

Value:

• Boost confidence by securely replicating data offsite
• Enhance program control with an automated, easy-touse system
• Lower storage costs with deduplication and compression

Modernizing It Service Delivery

Since 1891, the University of La Verne has been committed to providing a values based education that enriches the human condition. The university seeks to adjust and implement initiatives in and effort for continuous improvement. With this in mind, University of La Verne's IT department was looking for better ways to manage its data to stay agile in today's ever-changing IT landscape and when they decided to move from away from its physical servers to a completely virtualized environment.

"Today's shift from traditional classrooms to more modern teaching environments has caused the University to think about new ways to reach students and get them to class, no matter where they are located."

 Hany Seyam, Sr. Director Of Information Technology Infrastructure, University Of La Verne

Modernizing It To Stay Agile

The University selected EMC’s Avamar solution to backup its virtualized environment and Data Domain as the on-site storage target for the backup data. However, it still needed a way to send that data offsite for protection. After careful consideration, the University of La Verne chose Iron Mountain’s Cloud Data Replication service based on its trusted relationship with Iron Mountain.

The University had used Iron Mountain for tape backups for many years and as it modernized its environment by moving from tape to disk backup storage, Iron Mountain was there to help with a relevant and modernized off-site data protection solution. Protecting data offsite is complex and, according to Seyam, Iron Mountain made the entire process extremely easy.

“Implementation was very organized, the process, scheduling, timing and cost played out perfectly,” Seyam said. “And the project went very smoothly. Within a few weeks, we were able to have all data at the main campus copied, replicated and then sent over to the Iron Mountain facility.”

"Iron Mountain has been one of the best vendors to work with for Avamar and Data Domain replication. They respond quickly when an issue comes up and I would recommend their offsite replication to a lot of teams or organizations that utilize Avamar or Data Domain technology."

Hany Seyam, Sr. Director Of Information Technology Infrastructure, University Of La Verne

Results

By leveraging this solution, the University of La Verne was able to completely automate the backup process to enhance overall performance, which has improved restore times from 24 hours, or more, to fewer than 60 minutes. And because the University moved from tape to disk, it eliminated the need to manage tapes and tape infrastructure, which also improved efficiency and reliabilty.

Additionally, according to Seyam, the University of La Verne has been able to save on costs in multiple areas. First the University was able to leverage its existing investment in Avamar and Data Domain systems to integrate the off-site replication process to Iron Mountain. Secondly, eliminating tape management and physical transportation of tapes off-site reduced operating costs. Finally, the replication service using deduplication and capacity on demand at Iron Mountain provided them with a predictable cost model.

Most importantly, the University of La Verne was able to truly gain peace of mind, knowing a copy of its data was securely protected at an offsite location. This has improved the University’s disaster recovery posture and enhanced security across the infrastructure.

“Within a few weeks, we were able to have all data at the main campus copied, replicated and then sent over to the Iron Mountain facility.”