Case Studies Barracuda Backup Service Increases Reliability and Saves Time for Mechanicsburg Area School District

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	Barracuda Backup Service Increases Reliability and Saves Time for Mechanicsburg Area School District

Barracuda Backup Service Increases Reliability and Saves Time for Mechanicsburg Area School District

Technology Category	Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - Backup & Recovery Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - Cloud Storage Services
Applicable Industries	Education
Applicable Functions	Business Operation
Services	Cloud Planning, Design & Implementation Services System Integration
Challenge	Mechanicsburg Area School District was using Symantec Backup Exec, a tape backup solution, and had become frustrated with its unreliability and the length of time to restore files. Often retrieving the tape library and waiting for the machine to acquire the right tape was excruciatingly slow. Additionally, the District was supporting 30 Windows servers, six Linux servers, one Mac server, a Microsoft Exchange agent, and multiple Microsoft SQL databases, which required an extensive amount of time to adequately backup to tape, and required the District to purchase additional, costly agents for the solution. Fed up with tape solutions and their high maintenance costs, Todd Ritter, IT systems administrator, evaluated solutions meeting certain criteria: hardware backup with a subscription-based model. Ritter found that a subscription-based solution worked better with the budget planning that the District implements each year. Read More
About Customer	Mechanicsburg Area School District (The District) in Pennsylvania strives to promote the acquisition and application of knowledge, skills, and attitudes for children to be lifelong learners. The District is comprised of nine locations including six elementary schools, one middle school, and a high school, supporting 3,700 students and 600 staff members for a total of 4,300 users. The District’s backup operations are supported and maintained by IT systems administrator Todd Ritter. Read More
Solution	Ritter, impressed with the functionality and price point of the Barracuda Backup Service, bought the Barracuda Backup Service 690 and deployed it in 2006. The Barracuda Backup Service provided seamless restores, allowing the District to restore much more frequently than when they were using tape. Ritter was pleased with his ability to schedule backups and the accompanying detailed reporting. The efficiency of the backup process with the Barracuda Backup Service eased the management burden on Ritter. He noted that he could quickly add a source to be backed up, configure the parameters, and then rarely need to check or modify the settings. This eliminated the tedious maintenance required to cycle tapes, ensure offsite tape storage compliance, and replace deteriorated tapes. The Barracuda Backup Service saved Ritter time and worry. Using the service, he no longer had to wait for tapes to complete or worry about a restored file being corrupted because the tapes had worn down. Ritter was even able to successfully restore an entire database server. The District currently backs up to the Barracuda Networks cloud service, finding it to be a simple, quick, and straightforward process. Read More Log in to view content
Contents

Technology Category

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - Backup & Recovery

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - Cloud Storage Services

Applicable Industries

Education

Applicable Functions

Business Operation

Services

Cloud Planning, Design & Implementation Services

System Integration

Challenge

Mechanicsburg Area School District was using Symantec Backup Exec, a tape backup solution, and had become frustrated with its unreliability and the length of time to restore files. Often retrieving the tape library and waiting for the machine to acquire the right tape was excruciatingly slow. Additionally, the District was supporting 30 Windows servers, six Linux servers, one Mac server, a Microsoft Exchange agent, and multiple Microsoft SQL databases, which required an extensive amount of time to adequately backup to tape, and required the District to purchase additional, costly agents for the solution. Fed up with tape solutions and their high maintenance costs, Todd Ritter, IT systems administrator, evaluated solutions meeting certain criteria: hardware backup with a subscription-based model. Ritter found that a subscription-based solution worked better with the budget planning that the District implements each year.

About Customer

Mechanicsburg Area School District (The District) in Pennsylvania strives to promote the acquisition and application of knowledge, skills, and attitudes for children to be lifelong learners. The District is comprised of nine locations including six elementary schools, one middle school, and a high school, supporting 3,700 students and 600 staff members for a total of 4,300 users. The District’s backup operations are supported and maintained by IT systems administrator Todd Ritter.

Solution

Ritter, impressed with the functionality and price point of the Barracuda Backup Service, bought the Barracuda Backup Service 690 and deployed it in 2006. The Barracuda Backup Service provided seamless restores, allowing the District to restore much more frequently than when they were using tape. Ritter was pleased with his ability to schedule backups and the accompanying detailed reporting. The efficiency of the backup process with the Barracuda Backup Service eased the management burden on Ritter. He noted that he could quickly add a source to be backed up, configure the parameters, and then rarely need to check or modify the settings. This eliminated the tedious maintenance required to cycle tapes, ensure offsite tape storage compliance, and replace deteriorated tapes. The Barracuda Backup Service saved Ritter time and worry. Using the service, he no longer had to wait for tapes to complete or worry about a restored file being corrupted because the tapes had worn down. Ritter was even able to successfully restore an entire database server. The District currently backs up to the Barracuda Networks cloud service, finding it to be a simple, quick, and straightforward process.

Impact #1	The Barracuda Backup Service provided seamless restores, allowing the District to restore much more frequently than when they were using tape.
Impact #2	The efficiency of the backup process with the Barracuda Backup Service eased the management burden on Ritter.
Impact #3	Ritter could quickly add a source to be backed up, configure the parameters, and then rarely need to check or modify the settings.

Impact #1

The Barracuda Backup Service provided seamless restores, allowing the District to restore much more frequently than when they were using tape.

Impact #2

The efficiency of the backup process with the Barracuda Backup Service eased the management burden on Ritter.

Impact #3

Ritter could quickly add a source to be backed up, configure the parameters, and then rarely need to check or modify the settings.

Benefit #1	The District supports 3,700 students and 600 staff members for a total of 4,300 users.
Benefit #2	The District was supporting 30 Windows servers, six Linux servers, one Mac server, a Microsoft Exchange agent, and multiple Microsoft SQL databases.

Benefit #1

The District supports 3,700 students and 600 staff members for a total of 4,300 users.

Benefit #2

The District was supporting 30 Windows servers, six Linux servers, one Mac server, a Microsoft Exchange agent, and multiple Microsoft SQL databases.

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Overview

Barracuda Backup Service Increases Reliability and Saves Time for Mechanicsburg Area School District

Operational Impact

Quantitative Benefit