Backup And Archive: BridgeHead Software Provides Lowa Glass With Backup & Archive

BridgeHead Software recently announced the installation of HT FileStore data archiving software at Iowa Glass, an auto glass replacement provider operating in seventy plus stores across the USA. With operational data growing at an exponential rate, Iowa Glass was running out of data storage space and had to decide whether to buy more disk or manage their data more effectively with software.

Not unlike most commercial and government entities, operational data at Iowa Glass was growing faster than they could effectively manage it. New data retention policies, growth through acquisition, and eMail were all contributing factors. Although the raw cost of disk storage hardware has declined in recent years, the cost of managing it, insuring availability to users, compliance for auditors, and recoverability from a disaster, was becoming more difficult and potentially expensive. Iowa Glass utilizes SAN based disk storage and was looking for a more cost effective solution for the secure retention of unchanging and historical data. Cost effectiveness was not the only driver, however, transparency and accessibility to the end-user was key and a disaster recovery capability had to be provided.

Iowa Glass went through a brief vendor assessment and selected BridgeHead Software's HT FileStore as the optimal solution. HT FileStore solved Iowa Glass' space problem by migrating data off primary disk and utilizing already existing secondary storage assets to protect their investment. In addition to space and cost considerations, Iowa Glass is now in a position where their data is stored in an archive, totally transparent to the end-user and the administrator, and disaster recovery is provided through multiple copies, ensuring good data housekeeping long term.

"We operate in a very complex environment, which is why it is essential that our IT works smarter, not harder," said Brian Anderson, network administrator at Iowa Glass. "We knew that throwing hardware at the problem was not going to solve it in the long term and our necessity to retain historical data onsite required a more sophisticated approach. With BridgeHead's HT FileStore we found a really smart solution. Their policy-based rules engine allows us to manage our data in a highly granular fashion, by date, by type, by size, or any combination, where to store it and what to do with it. I was unable to find any other application that was so customizable and able to handle all of our configuration needs."

"To achieve its dual goals of effectively managing their costs and their data, Iowa Glass needed a more sophisticated solution that went beyond hierarchical storage management, where data is moved to secondary storage when the disk fills up," said Patrick Dowling, senior vice president of marketing at BridgeHead Software. "Our Rules Engine looks at 22 data attributes, allowing Iowa Glass to specify and maintain their most critical operational data on primary storage, and their searchable historical data in an accessible archive, which backs itself up to other locations for disaster recovery."

HT FileStore is a policy based automated storage management system that analyzes, monitors, and reports on primary disk utilization. The system automatically copies and repositions data based on IT policies to a full range of secondary storage targets. HT FileStore lets IT define and enforce unlimited rules for any logical data set to ensure that: 1) primary disk is optimally utilized, 2) secondary copies of data exist on any combination of media and at multiple locations in compliance with internal and external data availability standards, and 3) archived data is accessible either transparently or "actively" depending on end-user and application needs. HT FileStore is storage agnostic, providing unlimited flexibility for selecting and deploying different types of storage media.

About BridgeHead Software
BridgeHead Software is a storage management software company focused on protecting and managing data throughout its lifecycle. The company's platform automates data lifecycle management and fully integrates data migration, backup, archiving and replication for files, email, images and structured data. Through our best of breed technology partnerships we facilitate cost effective and fully protected Data Lifecycle Management (pDLM), enabling effective disaster recovery, business continuance and corporate governance strategies. BridgeHead has an established worldwide customer base and a growing international distribution network that provides sales, support, training and consulting services.

SOURCE: BridgeHead Software