NAKIVO VM Backup Appliance Based on QNAP NAS Reduces VM Recovery Time from Hours to Minutes
Business Challenge
Founded in 2002, Com-Trade s.r.o. is a Slovakian company that provides exceptional IT solutions and services to its customers. Combining their experience and knowledge of innovation and advanced technology, Com-Trade can prepare a turn-key IT solution for any area of business operations, often going beyond customer expectations.
The company’s virtual environment holds website servers, an accounting program, and Microsoft SQL data. In the event of hardware or software failure for any reason, normal business operations could be affected until the servers were recovered and/or reconstructed. As Com-Trade’s business-critical data must be available on a daily basis, a VM backup solution was required to protect data and ensure its timely recoverability.
The company’s previous approach to data protection consisted of a simple process of backing up and configuring files and SQL data, but the excessively long recovery times prompted Com-Trade to consider investing in a proper VM backup solution. “As recovery time was usually taking about two hours or more, we decided to start to search for good software that was specifically designed to protect VMware environments. We wanted to have a complete backup of our VMware VMs, and we needed recovery of entire VMs and selected files,” says Richard Rajniak, CEO of Com-Trade s.r.o.
Solution
NAKIVO Backup & Replication can be installed on a QNAP NAS to create a high-performance VM backup appliance. “NAKIVO Backup & Replication was clear and comfortable to configure. We installed it on QNAP TS-563-2G NAS successfully, and the main advantage for us is that we do not have to purchase any additional hardware for securing VM backups. Instead of purchasing separate backup or storage servers, we use a single QNAP NAS to process and store VM backups,” says Richard.
Bakotech, a value-added distributor, initially introduced NAKIVO Backup & Replication to Com-Trade. After testing and weighing several comparable VM backup solutions on the market, Com-Trade ultimately chose to go with NAKIVO Backup & Replication, since the software met the company’s initial requirements and provided great performance and functionality.
With NAKIVO Backup & Replication, Com-Trade now protects VMware VMs with VM backups, copies VM backups offsite with backup copy, and tests their backups instantly and automatically. “We back up our virtual environment on a daily basis. What we enjoy about the VM backup feature is its clear and user-friendly interface, its ability to back up VMs by blocks, and the storage space reductions because the software saves only unique data blocks,” says Richard. With the backup copy functionality, Com-Trade can keep more than one copy of business-critical backups to ensure recoverability, no matter what happens. “With backup copy, we can create and maintain a mirror copy of a primary backup and keep it offsite. For us, it is the most secure way of protecting our VM backups,” says Richard.
With their previous approach to data protection, VM recovery time was long and cumbersome. With NAKIVO Backup & Replication, Com-Trade can now recover entire VMs near-instantly with Flash VM Boot. “Flash VM Boot helps us restore entire VMs in literally a few minutes. Going from at least two hours to a couple of minutes is incredible, and provides great time savings,” says Richard. In addition, Com-Trade can recover not only entire VMs, but also individual files from VM backups with instant file recovery. In a couple of minutes, selected files and folders are recovered at a push of a button.
Results
NAKIVO Backup & Replication provides Com-Trade s.r.o with VM backup functionality and the ability to recover individual files as well as entire VMs. With Flash VM Boot, the company saves at least two hours on VM recovery and can now recover entire VMs in a couple of minutes. Moreover, backup copy provides an additional assurance of recoverability by allowing Com-Trade to keep several copies of VM backups in different locations. “With NAKIVO Backup & Replication, we achieved complete backup of VMware VMs with configuration files, web content, and SQL data, without needing a lot of disk space. In addition, with a Grandfather-Father-Son (GFS) retention scheme, we can keep a specified number of recovery points for 30 days. Finally, time savings of at least two hours for VM recovery is the main reason we are completely satisfied with the performance of NAKIVO Backup & Replication,” says Richard.
About Com-Trade s.r.o.
Located in Slovakia, Com-Trade s.r.o. is a dynamically developing company that has been dealing in IT services and solutions since 2002. The key activities of the company are design, implementation, and subsequent maintenance of the customer’s IT infrastructure. With more than 15 years of experience, Com-Trade has gained a broad know-how and extensive knowledge in IT. The company offers its customers a wide variety of services, including IT outsourcing, computer and server management, ERP systems, telecommunications services, and design, consulting, and advisory services. For more information, please visit www.com-trade.sk.