FD Mediagroep
FD Mediagroep implements a new back-up solution with DMP.
As the company ran into the limitations of its backup infrastructure, FD Mediagroep decided to upgrade to the latest version of Commvault. With the help of DMP the publisher managed to shorten the process of both full backups and incremental backups, but also to use the available storage space more efficiently, so that the company can now secure more data for a longer period. Project manager Richard Rameau is satisfied with the results. “DMP is an expert, but above all a flexible partner who thought along with us during every implementation stepand gave useful advice.”
In the old situation, we mainly backed up user data, content and databases”, says Rameau. “Think of e-mails and files from users, but also the content from the editorial systems, advertisements, jingles and more. Making full backups at the weekend took more than 24 hours, while the work here continues seven days a week. In addition, Windows Server 2012 was not fully supported and the server park upgrade stopped.”
Proactive support
FD Mediagroep therefore approached DMP to assist in upgrading to a newer backup solution. One of the requirements for the new backup solution was that backups can be stored offsite. Rameau: “We wanted a partner who could respond well to our needs. One in which we can answer all our questions and which has the expertise to proactively support us during all steps. DMP was chosen because we were already familiar with their work and were satisfied with previous collaborations.”
Now that FD Mediagroep is using the latest Commvault version, the backup process has become a lot easier, says Rameau. “For this we had to make a choice about what data to backup and what not. But because Commvault now uses the available backup space much more efficiently, making choices is unnecessary. We can now simply backup the entire virtual environment and save it to disk for several months. That gives us more certainty, also because we know that if a new virtual machine is created, it will also be automatically included in the backup process.”
Significant progress
According to Rameau, another advantage is the shortened backup time. “The full backups only cost a fraction of the time that was initially needed to run them. Certainly if you consider that more data is included in it than in the old situation, that is a considerable improvement.”
The implementation of the new backup solution, including backing up the old situation, took about four weeks, Rameau says. “Together with DMP, we made a carefully worked out design in advance, taking into account various best practices. The implementation went smoothly and that is largely due to the flexibility of DMP. When you actually apply the design, you always run into things that are slightly different than expected. DMP not only recognized those situations, but also proactively came up with advice and proposals for improvements.”