Zander Press
Zander Press turns to StoreVault for easy to manage, expandable network storage
Customer Overview
Zander Press Inc. (ZP) is a fourth generation, family owned commercial printer using both offset and digital systems to produce high quality printed pieces. Though ZP’s primary focus is commercial work, the newspaper division has been printing the local newspaper for over 150 years.
Customer Challenges
ZP currently has 25 employees and has deployed 25 computers and 2 Dell PowerEdge servers, managing 1TB of data. Backups were performed on a Quantum Ultrium 11 tape drive, using Symantec Backup Exec 11. Incremental backups were performed daily with full backups every week.
The majority of ZP’s storage was consolidated on an EMC CLARiiON unit, which was rapidly running out of space, at times running over 90% storage utilization. New data was growing at over 100% per annum. The scarcity of storage space made managing large digital files, a fundamental part of ZP’s primary business, next to impossible. Data was often purged to create new capacity. The problem had grown so acute that customer files, which had in the past been saved for repeat work, were deleted to regain space.
Additionally, any new storage solution would have to be compatible with the already deployed backup scheme, since it was not at the heart of the issue.
Solution: StoreVault
Tammy Koehler, from the The IT Dept (an I.T consultant, responsible for Zander Press’ I.T infrastructure), was on the look-out for a storage solution that would both fit within a limited IT budget and address issues of limited storage and integration with the existing tape-based backup solution. Tammy considered solutions from both HP and Adaptec as she made her decision.
After extensive research, Tammy discovered that the Adaptec Snap Server product line was too expensive and had limited expandability, a crucial long term requirement for Zander Press.The H.P solution was found to be difficult to configure and install. A StoreVault was the obvious choice for Tammy.
Zander Press’ storage infrastructure now has one StoreVault S500 with 1TB of storage connected through CIFS to completely handle Windows file sharing duties. The older EMC solution has been replaced and all user data and directories now reside in the StoreVault. The existing Quantum Ultrium II tape drive is connected directly to the StoreVault ‘s SCSI port and managed remotely via the NDMP Option in Symantec Backup Exec 11.
With StoreVault as a part of Zander Press’ IT infrastructure, both Dell PowerEdge servers are connected to the StoreVault via CIFS for shared storage. This has lead to both a marked reduction in cost of ownership and an easy upgrade path of adding storage, as well as future expansion options with iSCSI.
Customer Experience
Tammy adds,“I never questioned the S500 or it’s ease of installation and reliability. StoreVault is a great, rock solid product that will meet our needs today and for years to come. The backup solution we have is the latest and greatest options from StoreVault and Symantec. We were unfamiliar with this combination at the beginning, but the StoreVault support team was outstanding to work with. The technical support we received was outstanding, simply outstanding!”
The StoreVault was up and running in 8 hours, including migrating files from the decommissioned EMC unit. The IT Dept. LLC, an IT solutions provider, working with CDW, the VAR, were pivotal in deploying the StoreVault and integrating it into the existing IT infrastructure at Zander Press.
Tammy effuses, “No one has complained that response times are slow - not once since the unit has been put in! That was something that happened often with the other unit. When you are manipulating files that are 250mb to 500mb you need a responsive storage solution. We have been pleased with the results.”
Customer Benefits
StoreVault has allowed Zander Press to upgrade its storage infrastructure and reduced cost of ownership by over 50%. With StoreVault’s easy integration with Symantec’s Backup Exec product line, using StoreVault with the existing tape backup solution was simple and trouble free.
For Zander Press, the ink on the next chapter of their IT story is just beginning to dry.
