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INDUSTRY WATCH
In search of a robust and
scalable solution
Previously, Laing O’Rourke’s data centres
were being backed up using multiple
systems with varying degrees of success.
Management was a laborious task, as
individuals had to be present at each remote
site to manage tape backups on a constant
basis, which frequently took too long, often
dragging into the next morning and eating
into working hours.
To try and overcome these problems, the
company explored moving to a cloud-
hosted, scalable platform that would
encompass all of its data backup and archive
needs and provide:
• A scalable solution to accommodate
current and future data sets with required
retention periods
• A centralised view of data management
and protection
• Continued access to archived data for users
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INTELLIGENTCIO
• A partner who could enable Laing
O’Rourke’s vision to transform its data
management strategy
Laing O’Rourke had started using cloud
backup, but was concerned about the
management implications of expanding
those services.
Data management for
the future
Traditionally, Laing O’Rourke had to manage
the physical transportation and archiving of
data from more than 90 remote locations
back to its centralised data centres. The data
then had to be stored and be accessible for a
period of time before finally being archived.
The process was outdated, laborious, prone
to delays, inefficient and vulnerable to
human error and oversight.
“After searching for a backup platform
with a more robust management
environment, Commvault quickly set itself
apart as a provider that could deliver
our requirements,” said Paul Petty,
Infrastructure Development Lead at Laing
O’Rourke. By implementing Commvault,
Laing O’Rourke was able to move to a
tapeless backup system which seamlessly
replicated data and applications from
the onsite locations to a Microsoft Azure
public cloud infrastructure. This new
software removed the time needed for
the process and dramatically increased
the reliability of the backups.
“Introducing the tapeless backup system
was a huge time saver,” added Petty.
“Before it would have taken anything
between 10 to 11 hours to complete
a daily backup, with Commvault it
can be done in a fraction of the time.
This means that time otherwise taken
up doing backup has been used to
improve the business as a whole, such as
helping the development team, building
applications and helping the project
teams in general.”
www.intelligentcio.com