Overview

MannageIT Limited was formed in February 2004 and is currently run by three IT professionals with over 50 years combined IT experience. It offers a range of IT Services to clients on the Isle of Man. These include PC and Apple upgrades, repairs and maintenance, network installation and maintenance, web design and hosting, software development (Visual Basic, Access and Microsoft SQL Server) and Microsoft Technical Training.

The issue

The majority of MannageIT clients have no IT support staff so supporting a backup system is often time consuming and difficult. MannageIT wanted to implement a backup and storage solution for its clients that minimised their involvement, therefore shortening the time that needed to be set aside daily for backup tasks.
The solution also needed to simplify the restore progress, which ultimately is the most important part of backup, as if you can’t get to your data quickly when files are lost, then you also lose valuable time and money by not being able to function as a business.

The solution

After reviewing all the leading backup solutions in the market, MannageIT came across the Miglia MediaBank HS-R. “We chose one to try at one of our early client sites and it worked exactly as we had hoped, in fact it worked so well we can now use each successful site as a reference. We also looked at Network Attached Storage, but this lost out on non portability and cost”, commented Shipton.

Shipton continued: “The client’s data is held and updated on one disc and mirrored on the other. The mirror disk is removed to a safe location at the end of the day and the previous backup inserted to be re-mirrored. This is used when the client wishes to eliminate the use of tape altogether. Also, the client’s data is backed up to one disc throughout the day and then copied to tape for extra security at night. The mirrored disc is removed to a safe location at the end of the day. The client’s data is backed up to file on the HSR for a period of up to a month using incremental backups, the bottom drive is then replaced at the end of the month and a new schedule is started. This allows for a flexible data recovery solution. We also combine this with a daily exchange of the lower drive for off site storage.”

Further business benefits of the solution include:

Time saving:
– only requires the administrator to remove one disc and insert another
-the solution is faster than most tape based systems allowing for less down time or disruption in a production environment
-Allows processing to continue at the end of the day whereas with tape, backup users were often asked to close applications or were automatically logged off just before the tape backup started.

The Future

MannageIT have found the Miglia MediaBank HS-R extremely reliable, cost effective and simple to install for their clients. Shipton concludes: “We intend to include the Miglia MediaBank HS-R’s as a backup solution for any of our clients that do not have the use of in-house IT support and a have a backup requirement of more than 50Gb, or where a client has no faith in tape based solutions. It can easily be sold as a second line of defence to existing tape options”.

Essentials

Featuring Hot Swap Raid, the Miglia MediaBank HS-R is Miglia’s low cost, high security FireWire storage solution. Featuring two easily removable hard drive trays and hardware support for Raid 1 (mirroring), HS-R is the most secure FireWire storage solution available today. Data is written to two hard drives simultaneously, preventing total data loss if a drive were to fail. Hardware support for mirroring removes potential software conflicts and guarantees a faultless and automatic backup of your vital data. MediaBank HS-R ships with a spare hard drive tray, allowing you to keep a drive containing all your data in a secure location (automatic backup facility)! Available with FireWire 400 or FireWire 800 connectivity, HS-R is an ideal solution for server or direct attached storage.