- Arkeia Network Backup
- Lotus Application Servers
- Red Hat Server
- AIX, Linux and Windows Servers
- StorageTek L20 LTO Library
- Unlimited Multiflow
- Disk to Disk to Tape
- Bronze Support Program
- Centralized management and increased security of multiple sites (12) and servers (60)
- Simplified backups across heterogeneous platforms (AIX, Linux, Windows)
- Standardized backup solution for remote locations saving administration time and money
Complex French government network with 200 sites relies on Arkeia for data protection and restore
Company
The Ardèche General Council includes 750 people and has an annual budget of € 250 million. This regional organization is scattered across about one hundred sites, of which some twenty are major.
Challenge
Ardeche had an extensive network of government facilities in southern France and in the second half of 2002, the local government decided to change its backup infrastructure, to centralize everything. Prior to installing Arkeia backup solutions in November 2002, each main site in Ardèche was equipped with a server and its own DAT tape drive. Backups were made locally by non-IT specialists.
This solution posed an obvious problem for IT-Telecom management for monitoring and security on an everyday basis. Data security for the various offices of the Department necessarily went through a centralized backup system at the IT processing center at the Department headquarters.
A second key element, the Ardèche General Council has an extremely heterogeneous IT environment, made up of multiple platforms using different operating systems, namely Novell, Linux and Windows, which the selected product must be capable of managing.
Solution
“In the budget allotted to us, only Arkeia was able to meet our requirements. Arkeia was better placed both financially and in terms of operating under Linux”, Alain Valéry states. “Specifically, it was Linagora, the open systems integrator, who proposed Arkeia systems to us. So in 2002 we equipped ourselves with Arkeia Network Backup to protect 5 machines, which was expanded at the beginning of 2004 to cover 17 Novell and Windows servers and 15 Linux, as well as 8 hot backup plug-ins for Lotus. Our installation has 14 flows, which allow parallel backup of that number of servers,” explains the IT Director.
Today, Arkeia protects 12 sites with 60 servers in total (running on Linux, AIX and Windows). The Ardèche General Council counts 1700 backup agents, 1200 workstations for a total budget of 500 Million Euros.
“Arkeia solutions let us backup applications servers and Lotus messaging that operates under Linux (thanks to the excellent Lotus plug-in). That represents a total of 25 servers, with a volume of 80 gigabytes for office applications and 15 gigabytes for Lotus.” Incremental backup, which is much smaller, usually lasts part of one night. To restore an important message from Lotus takes us only half an hour.