Prepared by J. Hardsouk, Sales Manager, Apex
Arnold Consulting came to Apex Tool Works Inc. as a result of our company’s initiative to find a solution to inconsistent, and unwieldy data backup procedures we had been using.
“I invited Rick to visit as a result of a cold-call,” noted James Hardsouk, Sales Manager for Apex Tool Works Inc. “Rick presented his experience in IT consulting and data backup, and explained that he had in his portfolio, a disaster recovery solution.”
We asked Arnold Consulting to audit Apex’s network and data backup systems, which had been outsourced. This was a relatively complex undertaking. Apex’s architecture was using 10 dedicated servers, a number of access servers, and four auxiliary servers.
Arnold Consulting’s audit uncovered some surprises about how data backup was being performed: The procedure engaged all 14 servers! Apparently, the previous provider’s scheme copied only a portion of our data onto each server – sequentially moving from one to the next in the process of copying it all. This slowed down the process considerably and increased the incidence of failed or incomplete backups.
There were two problems with this architecture:
- First overall performance was not robust;
- Second, problems with any of the servers could actually ‘break the chain,’ resulting in incomplete backups.
Apex Tool Works adopted Arnold Consulting’s recommendation of implementing a new backup strategy. Apex’s new architecture now backs-up data in a small fraction of the time previously required. We are very satisfied with the streamlined process and 24/7 monitoring service we now receive.
