Client story Financial Services Provider with 30+ Locations Implements High Performance, Cost-Effective DR/Backup Solution
By Insight Editor / 2 Apr 2019 / Topics: Networking Converged & hyperconverged Disaster Recovery (DR) Data center
Facts at a glance
Client industry
Financial services
Insight provided:
- Infrastructure Strategy Workshop
- Design of disaster recovery/backup solution
- Cisco® ACI® and Catalyst® c9500
- HPE SimpliVity® with RapidDR®
- Veeam® software
- VMware® 6.7
Insight services:
- Assessment
- Consulting
- System architecture/design
- Solution deployment
Outcomes:
Download the client story
- Advanced DR/backup solution
- Cost reductions through DR/backup consolidation
- Reduction in 75% DR-to-production transition time
- More cost-effective equipment
The client
The client is a financial services provider with more than 30 community bank locations. In business for more than 25 years, the company employs over 600 staff.
The challenge: Replace outdated backup/recovery/ replication devices and end-of-support software with an advanced and highly scalable solution without interrupting online banking access
The bank’s outdated backup and disaster recovery systems were performing poorly and had components that were approaching end of support. The client wanted an advanced and highly scalable solution that would allow their disaster recovery (DR) backup and recovery process to move applications and streamline their DR functions. They also wanted to utilize software-defined networking to minimize the time required to promote their DR to a production environment. They do this twice each year for three months to comply with an internal mandate that they run off their DR site to ensure they have solid, usable backups.
Design and implementation of this complex solution was made more challenging by the fact that there could be no interruption to the client’s 24/7 online banking services. Consequently, creative phasing of project steps was essential.
The solution: Advanced DR/backup using HPE SimpliVity hyperconverged infrastructure, Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI) and Catalyst c9500, Veeam software and VMware 6.7
With our team functioning as a trusted advisor and extension of the client’s IT resources, we first conducted an Infrastructure Strategy Workshop to gather information needed to design the optimal system for meeting the client’s needs. It was decided that the solution would leverage HPE SimpliVity hyperconverged infrastructure, Cisco ACI and Catalyst c9500, Veeam software and VMware 6.7.
Next, we implemented the necessary hardware:
- 7 HPE SimpliVity nodes each in two locations
- Location 1: 3 Application Policy Infrastructure Controllers (APICs), 2 Spine and 2 Leaf switches
- Location 2: 3 Application Policy Infrastructure Controllers (APICs), 2 Spine and 4 Leaf switches
- 4 Cisco Catalyst c9500 used as ISNs
With the hardware in place, we migrated all the client’s VMs into the production ACI environment to prepare for HPE SimpliVity.
The benefits: Significant cost savings and 75% reduction in DR-to-production transition time
This engagement produced both financial and operational benefits for the client. From a cost perspective, we consolidated their DR and backup support to Cisco and HPE, all with five years of support included at startup. Consequently, we were able to reduce the overall cost of the project. In addition, HPE SimpliVity is more cost-effective than the EMC replacement equipment that would be needed.
In terms of performance, with ACI’s VXLAN and Multi-Site technology, the client was able to overcome IP subnetting limitations, allowing our system administrators to move VMs to any data center, regardless of the data center’s subnetting scheme. This greatly reduced the DR exercise time from 24 hours to 6 hours.
Finally, the engagement positioned our team as a reliable resource for the client. In many cases, our engineers have stayed on-site in times of critical need to ensure that the organization had immediate access to our expertise and reassuring support.
