A DR Test in the Midwest
Since 2007, Opti-vise IT has been serving clients in Ohio and other midwestern states with innovative business continuity solutions. Staffed by seasoned IT professionals, Opti-vise assesses small to mid-sized businesses’ needs and caters to the various budgets they’re presented.
Out with the Old...
Their client, ITW Evercoat, serves as a leading manufacturer in the autobody repair space. While all manufacturing takes place in Ohio, ITW Evercoat has a global sales presence. Before Datto was introduced, they were utilizing a tape backup solution. With a global team depending on the manufacturing base, they needed a solution that provided backup as well as business continuity in order to keep production going.
In with the New!
According to Kyle Hamilton, VP at Opti-vise, ITW Evercoat’s previous backup solution didn’t offer the speed or reliability they needed to fully protect their critical business data. Bare metal restores of some of the servers were becoming more complex and complicated. Hamilton addressed the issue by introducing the Datto’s SIRIS Enterprise, a device-based backup that could be virtualized and replicated off-site.
A DR Test for Success
To better assess the Datto solution with ITW Evercoat’s IT infrastructure, a Disaster Recovery (DR) test was performed. Shawn Sparks, a systems analyst at the company, described their ERP and email systems as top priorities for their day-to-day functions.
ITW Evercoat rented a conference room at a local hotel where their administrative staff could work during the weeklong DR test. Twenty servers were virtualized in Datto’s data center and the simulated business ran smoothly for the week. Unlike previous tests, Shawn attested that email and ERP systems were still well intact and functioning in their normal state.
The DR test was a success.
A Forecast into the future
As the midwest can often fall victim to natural disasters - tornadoes for one - Shawn expressed that disaster recovery is always top of mind.
“Back in the late 90s, a tornado touched down less than a quarter of a mile from the plant. People were calling and asking if they still had jobs,” said Shawn.
Luckily, Shawn didn’t have to tell anyone to start searching for new work that day, but that tornado serves as a constant reminder that business continuity is real need at ITW Evercoat. In the wake of a natural disaster, a hybrid cloud model is absolutely necessary to maintain business uptime.
Total Data Protection + Manufacturing
For clients like ITW Evercoat, Datto proved to be the best solution for business continuity. Hamilton expressed a few features that make the Datto product so compelling for a manufacturing company:
Daily Screenshot Verification: “It gives peace of mind to know that backups are running.”
Inverse Chain Technology: “You can get your backup windows pretty tight and you have full recoverability of every single one of your restore points.” Instant Virtualization: “The ability to virtualize instantly on an appliance in the event of failure and off-site it is fantastic.”
Opti-vise has done a terrific job of providing their clients with the best business continuity solutions, particularly those in the midwest who understand the harsh realities of the sometimes unpredictable weather. According to Hamilton,“The Datto solution is a good fit for anybody, but especially in that situation where uptime matters and quick recovery times count.”