Oxfam has solved a thorny data storage problem by
implementing database backup optimisation software from Quest
Software after detecting a bottleneck in its IT
system.
Oxfam relies heavily on IT and uses PeopleSoft applications
based on several Microsoft SQL Server databases to carry out
logistics, finance and project management operations.
The production SQL Server database holds live data, but Oxfam
also uses a number of additional copies of the database for
development, quality assurance and training.
As the volume of live data increased over time, the size of
additional copies expanded. This meant that the storage requirement
increased, as did the length of nightly backup and restore
times.
Oxfam decided to implement Quest Software’s LiteSpeed which uses
encryption and compression to speed up the database backup
process.
“Using LiteSpeed, our production database now takes only 20
minutes to back up and 90 minutes to restore, which is twice as
fast as when the database was half its current size. These times
are far more acceptable and will ensure minimal disruption to our
critical PeopleSoft applications, so Oxfam’s emergency relief
efforts do not suffer,” said Jason Oldroyd technical support
manager at Oxfam.
In the past, Oxfam ran Windows file compression and PKZip to
reduce the size of the daily backups to disc, which it then copied
to LTO storage tapes. However, data archiving was taking a lot of
time and effort.
“As a charity, we expect to take on some levels of
administrative pain in the interests of lowering our operational
costs, but as data expanded, we were spending increasing amounts of
time finding space on the network for our backups,” said
Oldroyd.
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