The Situs Companies Chooses Evault

i365 Inc., a Seagate
company, announced that The Situs Companies, a global real
estate advisory firm, has implemented EVault storage services for a hybrid coud-connected approach to data backup and recovery.

The Houston-based company
chose EVault to replace its legacy tape-based data protection processes for its
nearly 100 physical and virtual servers.

By combining the EVault Plug-n-Protect
disk-based backup appliance with EVault Cloud-based replication and disaster
recovery services, Situs is now able to restore critical systems, including
loan processing, in under 24 hours following a disaster. EVault has also
shaved days off the company’s weekly tape-based backups, reducing the process
from 2.5 days down to just six to eight hours, and trimming nightly backups
from hours to minutes.

Prior to using EVault, Situs experienced a data protection
challenge when Hurricane Ike, in 2008, wiped out all power in the Houston area and nearly
shut down the company’s local data center. The data center remained intact, but
the close call made Director of Global Information Technology Bill McCown
reconsider Situs’ approach to data protection and recovery.

"If we had to recover that whole data center based on
our existing backup tapes, we couldn’t have done it because the hurricane left
us with no way to recall tapes offsite or provision hardware," says
McCown. "I knew we needed a better solution that would give us fast,
disk-based backup replacement to tape while also providing more streamlined
remote disaster recovery. With EVault we’re set to perform nightly and weekly
backups in a fraction of the time it used to take our tape devices, giving our
IT team peace of mind in the event of disaster. If needed, I know the EVault
team can bring up the entire core of our important systems in less than a
day."

EVault has given Situs a data protection
plan with EVault Plug-n-Protect appliance, hosted EVault Offsite Replication
Service, EVault Remote Disaster Recovery Service and EVault System Restore.
Now, the eight-person IT department spends less time managing backup processes
and is able to ensure the real estate consultancy firm meets compliance
requirements in its customer SLAs. EVault also supports the servicer ratings
Situs receives from agencies like Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s and Fitch
Ratings, which are impacted by the organization’s system protection and
recovery levels.

"Businesses often overestimate the efficiency of their
existing tape-based backup and recovery process, and it isn’t until too late
they realize the shortcomings during a disaster," said Terry Cunningham,
president and general manager at i365. "For Situs, a near-disaster
revealed the company’s recovery inefficiencies, compelling the organization to
adopt EVault for more seamless data recovery. Like the majority of our
customers switching from tape to disk, Situs also experienced dramatic time
savings in its new disk-based backup. We’re proud that we’re able to help
companies like Situs reinvigorate their operations so they can rest assured
that their data is protected, and spend their valuable time on other issues
critical to the business."