Polfa Warszawa
The Challenge
Polfa Warszawa’s previous backup and restore solution consisted of a complicated manual and script-based process. This involved many different kinds of tape devices that were connected to multiple servers, further increasing complexity of the overall system. Each of the servers had its own tape device and there was no realistic way of network sharing and effectively deploying improvements. Only the standard applications originally included in the operating systems had been used as backup tools, and there was now clearly a need to modernize the backup and restore technology with a more scalable solution.
Because of the nature of Polfa Warszawa’s business – manufacturing pharmaceuticals – and because of data security regulations and procedures, cyclic data archiving to tape off-site of the main data-center is required. Furthermore, the ability to readily retrieve this data from tape in the case of total loss of the Enterprise Backup system was crucial. Some of the enterprise backup solutions that were considered in the evaluation phase were IBM Tivoli, Symantec Net Backup, Bacula Enterprise, EMC Networker, and Avamar.
Polfa Warszawa worked closely with Backup and Restore experts from Inteos Sp. z o.o to find the best possible solution for its rigorous needs.
The Solution
Deployment of Bacula System’s state-of-the-art network Backup Software Solution utilizing automated backup tasks was decided on as the solution to Polfa’s backup and restore requirements. The software was included as part of the Bacula Systems Subscription. Bacula Systems’ VSS plug-in was also chosen, to cover Polfa’s need for backing up applications within Windows Operating Systems. Usage of tape devices would be continued, especially in light of the regulatory requirements in Poland, and from the basic security procedures required for a pharmaceutical company. Retentive archives would also be kept off-site.
Bacula Enterprise was deployed to backup an environment of servers running Windows, a variety of Linux and Solaris. These servers had a wide range of software application, including MSSQL, MS Exchange, and VMware ESX, on approximately 20 physical and virtual servers.
The Results
Bacula Systems’ trusted partner Inteos demonstrated a high level of competency to Polfa from the pre-sales stage all the way through to final deployment. The deployment process was fast, and as a result, deployment costs were very low. In addition to this, the second Bacula Enterprise implementation at the mirrored data-center came at no additional cost, providing Polfa with a dependable and robust backup and restore solution at a fraction of the cost of similar high-end solutions. Crucially, the TCO (total cost of ownership) of Bacula Enterprise has proved to be relatively low compared to other solutions.
Of the available on-site servers, it was only necessary to select a server with only average system resources as the platform for Polfa’s main Enterprise Backup server. This server was connected to Polfa’s tape library managing LTO-5 tape drives. Through proper configuration and tuning of this backup environment, and despite limited hardware resources, Polfa has achieved very good LTO-5 performance – for both backing-up and for data retrieval.
Paweł Moszumański
CIO at Polfa Warszawa
«We appreciate the scalability of Bacula Enterprise, and not having to plan for additional cost in the future, when new servers and more data will be connected to Polfa’s Enterprise Backup network. This helps us to more easily budget for future growth. At present the Bacula Enterprise environment takes care of around eight hundred gigabytes to two Terabytes of backup data daily, managing more than twenty million files in the Bacula Catalog database. Assuming the projected growth of Polfa’s backup systems, we will reach one hundred-million files in the next two years.»
About Polfa Warszawa
Polfa Warszawa S.A. is one of the biggest pharmaceutical companies in Poland. The company is one of the leaders in the Polish pharmaceutical industry, both as regards the number of employees and the number of sold products. The main seat of the company, including production plants, is located almost in the center of Warsaw, which, in connection with almost two hundred years of tradition, gives Polfa a permanent place in the city’s history.
In the portfolio of the Polfa Warszawa S.A. there are almost 150 different medicines, which are distributed within the territory of Poland and exported to several dozens of countries all over the world. The company is known for placing emphasis on the latest production technologies, which guarantee high quality and safety of produced medicines, and meets all valid environmental standards.
About Inteos Sp. z o.o.
Inteos’ mission is to support its clients in achieving competitive advantage by providing the highest quality services and innovative IT solutions in the field of IT infrastructure, data security and data processing. Inteos has a proven track of Bacula Enterprise deployments in Poland. Through optimal IT solutions Inteos helps customers enhance efficiency and build a stable, successful environment.
Modules and Tools Adopted:
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