RFI Communications & Security Systems Selects ExaGrid

ExaGrid Systems, Inc. announced that
RFI Communications & Security Systems
(RFI), a security multi-system integrator, selected ExaGrid to provide scalable
multi-site backup and deduplication across the company’s four West Coast
regional offices.

Prior to ExaGrid, RFI backed up its data using a Data Domain system,
which had reached its processing and storage capacity. In a fixed controller
architecture, such as EMC Data Domain, the system scales by adding only disk
shelves to the front-end controller. In order to handle RFI’s expanding backup
requirements, the company faced a choice of either purchasing a whole new Data
Domain system in a costly ‘forklift upgrade,’ or considering other solutions
that offered seamless, cost-effective scalability.

With new security monitoring data accumulating 24 hours a day, RFI
needed a solution that increased its data retention. In addition, the company
wanted the ability to add a second system offsite for data replication.

After a review, RFI selected ExaGrid for the scalability of
the grid-based technology. Since implementing the system, backups of
RFI’s main file server have been reduced by 2/3-from 24 hours with the previous
system down to just 8 hours. Restore times are faster because the
last full backup is stored in a high-speed landing zone. In addition, the
ExaGrid system delivers an average deduplication ratio of 63:1 at RFI, which
enables RFI to maximize retention. They can now store six months of data on the
ExaGrid system instead of the 30 days they were limited to with the Data Domain
system.

Frank Jennings, network administrator for RFI, said: "Unlike the Data Domain system, ExaGrid’s
solution gives us the ability to easily scale out the system up as our data
grows. We liked the fact that the ExaGrid holds our most current data in a
complete form for faster recovery. With the Data Domain system, the data was
deduplicated immediately and our backups and restores took longer. The ExaGrid
system is extremely scalable and flexible, and it’s a solution that should
serve us well into the future, including the addition of a second system
offsite for data replication."

Marc Crespi, VP of product management for ExaGrid, said: "RFI is a prime example of how organizations
experiencing rapid data growth can use ExaGrid’s GRID architecture to their
advantage. With the only true scalable architecture, RFI is able to add
increased capacity to handle more data at the both the primary site and
secondary replication site. Despite being previously faced with a forklift
upgrade, the RFI team can rest easy knowing that our system allows them to grow
seamlessly and avoid having to deal with the Grow-Break-Replace cycle of the
fixed controller architecture."