University Of San Diego Achieves VM Backup Breakthrough With Quantum

The University of San Diego has deployed Quantum’s DXi-Series deduplication with vmPRO software to protect the school’s virtual machine (VM) data, bringing data growth under control and dramatically reducing the school’s reliance on disk storage through a new backup workflow.

Based on the university’s growth projections, the new system is anticipated to save $1.6 million over the next three years.

“In speaking with CIOs or IT leaders about how they can improve their ability to back up, restore and protect data, I would recommend Quantum products,” says Christopher Wessells, Vice Provost and CIO, University of San Diego. “Quantum’s DXi-Series and vmPRO software have been an absolute step forward for us. Any organization that has a VMware virtual environment and is facing challenges with backup not done in a timely manner can see huge improvements by implementing Quantum solutions.”

Fixing a Broken VM Backup Workflow
A technology trailblazer, the University of San Diego was among the first universities to virtualize its IT infrastructure, and today has a 98 percent virtual environment. While virtualization yielded tremendous cost savings, the volume of data quickly began to overwhelm the university’s backup workflow, and it was eventually unable to meet backup windows.

Meeting Evolving Data Use Demands
Challenged to meet ever-increasing demands to use data in new and innovative ways – including the addition of new highly integrated systems and mobile applications that are so important to the students, faculty and staff at universities today – the university explored a variety of deduplication appliances and software solutions. The university ultimately chose the combination of a Quantum DXi appliance and vmPRO software for protecting VMware virtual environments, drawn to the system’s “future proof” scalability.

“Having offered Quantum for many years now, we’ve built the mutual trust to successfully provide reliable solutions that always meet and typically exceed our clients’ expectations, like we did forUniversity of San Diego,” says Robert Kelly, CEO and founder, Partners Data Systems. “Quantum’s sales and support teams are great to work with, and we very much value our partnership.”

As a purpose-built backup appliance, the DXi-Series is designed to be easy to implement and manage. The university immediately began seeing results after deploying it, achieving a 22:1 deduplication ratio and greatly improved restore times with the DXi appliance, which has proven highly reliable and cost-effective. The IT department also found the agentless vmPRO software easy to install, and, because it backs up data in native VMware format, the university is now protecting its virtual environment with greater availability and efficiency.

The IT department no longer struggles to meet the backup policies it sets and can confidently back up all of its data within established backup windows. Due to the cost savings resulting from the improved workflow and process delivered by Quantum technology, the university’s systems architects are also now free to work on more strategic projects to advance the school’s goals for the future. In addition, with DXi’s cloud-ready capabilities, the university is exploring how it can leverage the cloud for replication and archive purposes.

“The University of San Diego’s experience vividly illustrates what happens when traditional backup workflows break down under the weight of today’s virtualized environments,” says Robert Clark, senior vice president, Product Operations, Quantum. “Quantum’s next-gen data protection solutions offer the simple scalability, high performance, and economic value that uniquely align with USD’s strategic vision for the future.”