Arup sorts storage problem with de-duplication
- 12 December, 2012 13:11
- Comments
Arup Australia and Singapore regional IT leader Clive Bortz.
The Australian arm of global architecture and engineering firm, Arup, has been able to better manage its estimated 1 petabyte of total data following the implementation of de-duplication technology.
According to the company’s Australia and Singapore regional IT leader Clive Bortz, it has been able to achieve a 92 per cent space saving on general data storage and a 77 per cent space saving on application servers since the CommVault implementation in November 2011. Arup has also reduced the frequency of off-site tape storage collection from daily to weekly.
STW Communications Group tackles 120 terabyte problem with Simpana
In-depth: Data de-duplication guide
In-depth: Storage virtualization buying guide
“Because we have a relatively small [IT] team that looks after a lot of things, everyone has to be skilled across a number of technologies,” he told CIO Australia.
According to Bortz, the data growth at Arup Australia since he joined the firm in 2001 has been “huge”.
For example, when the IT department migrated the Sydney office in 2005 to a new system, this office only had 65 gigabytes of email and 500 gigabytes of data.
“Now we have approximately 20 terabytes of email just for the Sydney office. A lot of that [data growth] has been due to the applications available to our engineering staff,” he said.
Arup Australia project delivery team leader Stephen White added that it keeps approximately 20 terabytes of data at its offices in Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney.
“All data is sitting on file servers but we keep a second copy of the data held at each office on a second file server which is sitting on a separate storage area network [SAN],” White said.
This means Arup has complete redundancy of systems within each office. If disaster strikes and there is a system failure, the company can transfer users across to the backup system.
“With CommVault we can now restore our de-duplicated data in less than an hour rather than the days it may have taken with our legacy processes,” White added.
Return on investment
In addition to improving data management, Bortz said the company has reduced its overheads as prior to the implementation; it had a system manager at each of the major Australian offices who was responsible for backup.
“We used to run five backup tape systems and each of those personnel were effectively managing, patching and maintaining independent backup systems,” he said.
Arup Australia now has just two dedicated backup specialists in its IT department.
Mobile workforce
As Bortz’s IT department is responsible for managing 1700 staff across both Australia and Singapore, his greatest challenge is making data available for people who are working remotely.
“We have virtual private network [VPN] and we use caching services as well based on the applications,” he said.
“Depending on if it is an engineer or designer, they might need to have access to a powerful machine or need to access the application from a tablet when they are working remotely.”
In order to better manage this, Bortz is currently reviewing a couple of mobile device management (MDM) offerings with the view to rolling out a global MDM system sometime in 2013.
Follow Hamish Barwick on Twitter: @HamishBarwick
Follow CIO Australia on Twitter and Like us on Facebook… Twitter: @CIO_Australia, Facebook: CIO Australia, or take part in the CIO conversation on LinkedIn: CIO Australia
Recommended
Join the CIO Australia group on LinkedIn. The group is open to CIOs, IT Directors, COOs, CTOs and senior IT managers.
- Bookmark this page
- Share this article
- Got more on this story? Email CIO
- Follow CIO on twitter
-
Larry Page wants to see your medical records
-
Dual-Persona Smartphones Not a BYOD Panacea
-
After two-year hiatus, EFF accepts bitcoin donations again
-
CIOs struggle to deliver timely mobile business apps: survey
-
Spiceworks' free management software gets integrated MDM
-
Clearing the Clouds for Midmarket Businesses
Cloud computing promises to help midmarket companies reduce cost and complexity in the IT equation – and gain the flexibility and agility they need to thrive. Yet charting a clear course to the cloud isn’t always easy. In this paper, we aim to clear the clouds. We examine different cloud computing models, discuss the types of requirements that each can best address, and consider what midmarket businesses should look for in a cloud solutions provider. -
Choice and Control – Considerations for Developing Enterprise Cloud Strategies
Enterprise-wide cloud implementation can be a challenging process, requiring a thoughtful, strategic approach. In this whitepaper, IBM® shares considerations for developing enterprise cloud strategies. It looks into how the rapid-scale enterprise-class environment can help enable the type of agile infrastructure that aids organisations in quickly meeting the demands of an ever-evolving marketplace, thereby providing true business value. Read now. -
Benefits of Deploying Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 on Dell Compellent with Data Progression
Messaging and collaboration platforms have emerged as mission critical applications, consuming a large portion of IT spending for organisations. The rich features in these applications have significantly changed the messaging requirements and needs of today’s information from anywhere with any device, the result is an ever increasing demand on storage systems both in terms of capacity and bandwidth. Many organisations are rethinking their storage strategies to meet the demanding criteria and to handle the future requirements. Read more.
Get exclusive access to Invitation only events CIO, reports & analysis. 
