Zmanda Automates Backups at a Leading European Manufacturer
As the company grew and acquired a second foundry, the volume of data they were managing surged, and VDP realized that they needed a reliable backup and recovery solution to protect a wide array of different files, databases, emails, applications, and address books. However, the process proved to be more challenging than previously estimated. When dealing with different backup products, VDP painfully discovered that most use proprietary data formats, which require specific tools and operating systems for management and recovery purposes. VDP was concerned that, in an emergency situation, accessing and recovering stored data would not be possible unless all the required software and tools were installed in each system used. Additionally, while restoring files and databases, it was unacceptably common for them to find out that data was missing, even though no errors were identified during the process by the backup utility, resulting in a dangerously unreliable infrastructure.
VDP then turned to Zmanda, and they quickly realized its competitive advantage. Reliability, ease of use, centralized administration, affordability, and flexibility were essential requirements for a backup and recovery solution, and Amanda Enterprise represented an unparalleled fit. Leonardo Corato, the company's ICT manager, explained that "after years of using CA ARCserve, Veritas Backup, Acronis, and Tivoli, we wanted to use a more flexible tool. We evaluated Bacula and Zmanda. We chose Zmanda because of its reliability".
VDP's infrastructure comprises of a considerable number of servers and clients running different operating systems, and storing databases, file systems, emails, and applications of different nature. They needed a consolidated solution for enterprise-wide backup, with a simple to use management console that would control backup and recovery schedules, activities, and logs, and would allow remote access from any browser, including smartphones. They chose Amanda Enterprise. "It is open source and customizable", Corato added, "and it's very very stable. Its affordability and its low network and resources usage were also determining factors in our adoption".
Corato was also complimentary of Zmanda's technical support, noting that it was fast, helpful, and effective.
"We have a stable system always updated. We sleep well", he concluded.
