ExaGrid

ExaGrid Systems Inc., provider of cost-effective and scalable disk-based backup solutions with data deduplication, has announced that RFI Communications & Security Systems (RFI), a security multi-system integrator, selected ExaGrid to provide scalable multi-site backup and deduplication across the company’s four West Coast regional offices.

Prior to ExaGrid, RFI backed up its data using a Data Domain system, which had reached its processing and storage capacity. In a fixed controller architecture, such as EMC Data Domain, the system scales by adding only disk shelves to the front-end controller. In order to handle RFI’s expanding backup requirements, the company faced a choice of either purchasing a whole new Data Domain system in a costly “forklift upgrade,” or considering other solutions that offered seamless, cost-effective scalability.

With new security monitoring data accumulating 24 hours a day, RFI needed a solution that increased its data retention. In addition, the company wanted the ability to add a second system offsite for data replication.

After a thorough review, RFI selected ExaGrid for the scalability of the GRID-based technology. Since implementing the ExaGrid system, backups of RFI’s main file server have been reduced by 2/3—from 24 hours with the previous system down to just 8 hours. Restore times are faster with ExaGrid because the last full backup is stored in a high-speed landing zone. In addition, the ExaGrid system delivers an average deduplication ratio of 63:1 at RFI, which enables RFI to maximize retention. They can now store six months of data on the ExaGrid system instead of the 30 days they were limited to with the Data Domain system.

“Unlike the Data Domain system, ExaGrid’s solution gives us the ability to easily scale out the system up as our data grows,” said Frank Jennings, Network Administrator for RFI. “We liked the fact that the ExaGrid holds our most current data in a complete form for faster recovery. With the Data Domain system, the data was deduplicated immediately and our backups and restores took longer. The ExaGrid system is extremely scalable and flexible, and it’s a solution that should serve us well into the future, including the addition of a second system offsite for data replication.”

“RFI is a prime example of how organizations experiencing rapid data growth can use ExaGrid’s GRID architecture to their advantage,” said Marc Crespi, VP of Product Management for ExaGrid. “With the only true scalable architecture, RFI is able to add increased capacity to handle more data at the both the primary site and secondary replication site. Despite being previously faced with a forklift upgrade, the RFI team can rest easy knowing that our system allows them to grow seamlessly and avoid having to deal with the Grow-Break-Replace cycle of the fixed controller architecture.”