MIB School of Management Achieves 6X Faster VM Backup and Reduces Backup Administration Time by 85% with NAKIVO
Business Challenge
MIB School of Management was founded as a non-profit organization in Trieste, Italy, in 1988, and was one of the first schools in Italy to develop a fully international approach to training. The school offers full-time and part-time Masters, MBA's, Executive Programs for managers and entrepreneurs, and customized courses for businesses and public administration bodies. Thousands of students and researchers choose Trieste every year not only to attend some of the most important research centers, but because Trieste is a cultural hub for the exchange of knowledge.
The IT infrastructure of MIB School of Management consists of two physical servers. "Overall, we have approximately 20 VMware VMs. Our environment is based on Microsoft Active Directory. We have an Active Directory server, file server, print server, administration office server, CCM server, Exchange server, Sharepoint server, and others. Not all servers are fully utilized, but rather kept as a historical archive," says Lodovico Bonini, ICT Manager at MIB School of Management.
The main objective of the MIB School of Management is to be able to perform fast backup of the entire environment, and in case of any disruptions or failures, be able to recover that environment promptly and easily. "We aim to always have full backup of a file server that contains critical information about our students, staff, and different teaching materials. Since our school is more than 30 years old, we have accumulated a significant amount of historical data that needs to be constantly protected," says Lodovico.
"I started to virtualize my environment more or less 10 years ago, so I have experienced quite a few legacy backup solutions," says Lodovico. Experience with one legacy backup solution was not satisfying and did not offer any advantages because VM backups took a long time to complete and excessive time was spent on backup administration.
"I was not satisfied because there were many problems and regular failures. I had to add data manually to the backup of our file, Exchange, and Sharepoint servers, so it was cumbersome to manage each time. The speed of backups was slow. The time spent on backup administration was ridiculous. I had to backup my file server manually every week and connect from home to my work environment. Overall, I have spent at least a couple of hours on checking backups every weekend. Moreover, recovery process was problematic to start, in case of a massive failure," says Lodovico. Other legacy backup solutions were also not up to par and there was constant search for an appropriate backup solution that would meet school’s requirements and did not break the bank.
Solution
"I read on the VMware website that NAKIVO Backup & Replication is a certified product and then I just googled the software. After many months of testing, I was satisfied with the product and the price, so I decided to make a purchase," says Lodovico. NAKIVO Backup & Replication was purchased four years ago and MIB School of Management has never experienced any issues with the product. Installation and configuration of NAKIVO Backup & Replication proved to be smooth and straightforward. "Before choosing NAKIVO, I have tried five different solutions, but NAKIVO is certainly the simplest solution to install and configure. Now, I can configure the software in less than 5 minutes," says Lodovico.
VM backup is the most imperative feature for MIB School of Management. "My goal was quite simple - I wanted a backup solution that could work. Other legacy backup solutions did not work properly and did little for the success of the school. I do not need a plethora of features, with NAKIVO Backup & Replication, I have fast and reliable VM backup and that is all I need," says Lodovico. Previously, it was necessary to spend significant hours on maintenance and verification of VM backups, however, with NAKIVO Backup & Replication, backup administration time has been significantly decreased. "Before NAKIVO Backup & Replication, VM backups were a nightmare. I spent numerous hours during the week checking and verifying backups. Now, I just check my email in the morning, I see a report, and usually everything is ok," says Lodovico.
With deduplication and compression features, backup size was dramatically reduced for MIB School of Management. "I use deduplication and compression to save space and once a week, I detach my backup repository and compress it. Space savings usually come to about 90%. Moreover, I like that I can schedule and reclaim unused space. It is a useful option because it saves a significant amount of time," says Lodovico. NAKIVO’s data deduplication automatically deduplicates backed up data at the block level across an entire backup repository and after that, the product automatically compresses each block of data, so it occupies even less storage space.
Finally, Instant File Recovery is used by MIB School of Management to recover files from the file server. "In comparison to a previous backup solution, Instant File Recovery of NAKIVO Backup & Replication is super fast. If I need to recover a file, in a couple of minutes, the entire process is completed. It is quite efficient to be able to recover just one file, without recovering an entire VM first," says Lodovico. NAKIVO Backup & Replication enables the ability to browse, search, and recover files directly from compressed and deduplicated VMware VM backups, without the need to restore the entire VM first. The Instant File Recovery feature works both over LAN and WAN; even if a Backup Repository is located offsite, countless miles away, the recovery can be completed within seconds.
Results
MIB School of Management implemented NAKIVO Backup & Replication about four years ago and did not regret the decision. With past legacy backup solutions, the speed of VM backups and time spent on backup administration were major disadvantages. With NAKIVO Backup & Replication, the situation is completely different. "Formerly, I needed between 12 hours to backup my file server. The file server is about 700GB of data. With NAKIVO Backup & Replication, if I start all backups at the same time, in about 2 hours, I can backup the entire environment. It is approximately a 6X improvement in the backup speed," says Lodovico.
"Previously, I had to spend about 2 hours during the week on maintenance and verification of backups. Now, I spend more or less 15 minutes a week. Overall, it is about an 85% reduction in backup administration time," says Lodovico. "In the past, I can say that I did not have a properly functional backup solution. With NAKIVO Backup & Replication, I have fast and reliable VM backups and I spend barely any time on backup administration. You just need to install, configure, and forget about the product because it does everything it promises to do. I check my email in the morning and everything works fine, so I am content and satisfied," says Lodovico.
Company Profile
MIB Trieste School of Management was founded as a non-profit organization in Trieste, in 1988 through the joint efforts of high-profile companies (including Generali, Allianz, illycaffè and Fincantieri) and the world of academia. The school and its Masters, MBAs, and advanced programs have been recognized by several top rated agencies, accreditation bodies, and recruiting companies in Italy and Europe. For many years, the school has welcomed highly talented, selected students from over 80 different countries and teachers from 15 nations and numerous professional backgrounds. Thorough, practical, and engaging teaching style, strong international outlook and ongoing relationships with companies are the pillars upon which MIB School of Management has built its success. For the past 20 years, the international faculty has been passionately committed to the philosophy of empowering talents, increasing skills, and strengthening leadership in order to stimulate growth in both people and companies. For more information, visit mib.edu.