Lloyds TSB Corporate Markets has ditched 120 locally
attached tape
drives and replaced them with a Data Domain disc-based system,
which
has allowed it to reduce data volumes to 5% of their former levels
and
cut replication times by hours.
The firm – which is the corporate banking and financial markets
division
of Lloyds TSB – decided to replace its legacy tape backup system
because
it was consuming ever-increasing amounts of administration
resources.
Data Domain restorers and DD Replicator software have been
implemented
at the firm’s headquarters at Gresham Street, London, and at its
remote
contingency site outside the city. In addition to protecting data
for
the division’s financial operations, the solution provides
mission-critical
business continuity capabilities for a 200-position trading
floor.
The system uses high speed in-line data de-duplication
technology to
reduce data volumes and provide faster, more reliable backups that
are
instantly verifiable. Completed backups at the London facility are
replicated
to the contingency site within minutes and the entire backup and
remote
replication process is now centrally controlled and fully
automated.
Colin Everett, head of IT strategy and architecture at Lloyds
TSB Corporate
Markets, said, “Our ability to scale our backup capacity and test
for
compliance has been streamlined, and we can now retain 30 days of
backup
data on-site. Most important of all, we know that our data is
replicated
to our contingency site within minutes, minimising the risk of any
disruption
in IT functionality at our headquarters in London.”