NAKIVO Helps a Broadcast Media Product Company Cut Costs and Time in Half
Business Challenge
LAWO is a German manufacturer of digital mixing consoles and other professional audio equipment. Founded Initially as an engineering office focusing on audio and broadcast, the privately-owned corporation is now an internationally renowned innovator and continues to actively shape the future of broadcast and media production.
The company operates out of 20 sites with 390 virtual machines. Since LAWO develops equipment in-house, data protection is crucial for the company. A server failure can bring the entire production process to a standstill, resulting in higher costs and delayed deliveries. Moreover, with support 24/7 provided, LAWO needs to ensure fail-safety and resilience. As there are multiple locations, all data must be accessible from each site. The company’s data, such as that of the purchasing or the billing department, is critical to daily operations. This is why backup and recovery times are of utmost importance.
LAWO was looking for a new VM backup solution, as the licenses of the old solution expired and could no longer fulfill the company’s requirements for speed and security. The previous solution was slow, with backups sometimes taking a whole night to complete, and backup administration involved a steep learning curve for new users. To make things worse, the old solution would sometimes crash without notice.
Solution
“NAKIVO Backup & Replication was one of the nine solutions that we looked at, and from our point of view, NAKIVO Backup & Replication offered the best functionality for the best price, so we decided to move our backups to NAKIVO Backup & Replication. We decided to switch to a more modern and secure VM backup solution with easier usability,” says Henrik Gerstner, Technical Project Manager at LAWO.
“The whole installation and configuration process probably took a couple of days so that a seamless transition of our entire infrastructure could take place. The modern web user interface is quick and user-friendly. The product is installed as a pre-configured virtual appliance as of now,” says Henrik.
“We back up every night, and the entire backup process probably takes around six hours in total. VMware changed block tracking technology is of course, extremely useful, as it minimizes the backup time dramatically. Quick search, job overview with all the information, as well as job calendar help us to schedule jobs however we want,” says Henrik.
“With backup copy functionality, we can store various backup copies in our different locations. Thus, backups are protected from accidental deletions and even malware. Instant VM recovery is also a useful feature because we can recover entire VMs in no time,” says Henrik.
“NAKIVO’s technical support and response times are very fast. Help is always available within a very short time compared to our previous provider,” says Henrik.
Results
NAKIVO Backup & Replication is fast, reliable, and user-friendly. “We were able to integrate the product within a short time and completely shift our backup strategy. The product functions well and offers competitive pricing and better follow-up costs. Our backups are faster, plus backup management is way easier for all the users involved. NAKIVO Backup & Replication saves as much as 50% of the time we spent on managing our old VM backup system. Overall, NAKIVO Backup & Replication sliced our costs and time in half,” says Henrik.
About LAWO
LAWO designs and manufactures pioneering video, audio, control, and monitoring technology for broadcast, performing arts, and corporate applications. All LAWO products are developed in Germany and manufactured to the highest quality standards at the company’s headquarters in the Rhine-Valley town of Rastatt, Germany. In 2020 LAWO celebrated 50 years of engineering the future. For more information, visit LAWO.com