Engineering consultant Arup Group has rolled out back-up
technology to ensure that 800 engineering specialists can continue
to receive e-mails in the event of a server failure.
The company said the technology ensures it does not miss
contract deadlines through e-mail failure.
“It has given us the peace of mind that in the event a primary
server went down, we could get 800-plus users around the globe up
and running within quarter of an hour, with no loss of data,” said
Nizam Ali, IT consultant.
Arup decided to install the back-up software after a system
failure last year meant it missed bidding for a major contract.
After evaluating alternatives, it decided to install Neverfail
across its London and New York offices.
The software takes a mirror copy of the company’s Blackberry
e-mail servers, and is designed to automatically take over if there
is a problem with the server.
The Neverfail system has already paid for itself by freeing up
weeks of IT staff time that would be needed to recover from a
serious failure, Arup said.
“We had an issue in the UK where we were upgrading our Exchange
server and somehow the database got out of synchronisation. We had
to find everyone in the UK with Blackberries to get them to
resynchronise their devices,” said Ali.
Because Arup’s consultants are frequently travelling, it was
over two months before all UK staff had their Blackberries
resychronised.
The system has also simplified maintenance of the firm’s
Blackberry servers. IT staff would have to carry out maintenance
out of hours, when e-mail traffic was at a minimum. Now they can
use the Neverfail back-up to perform maintenance at any time, said
Ali.
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