St. John Prep School Deploys TwinStrata CloudArray

TwinStrata,
Inc. announced that St. John’s Prep
in Danvers, MA, has deployed its CloudArray
as the enabler for its cloud-based backup and recovery strategy.

Deployed in March 2012, it integrates cloud
storage into St. John’s
Prep’s environment. CloudArray presents as an iSCSI device to the school’s
backup software – currently Symantec Backup Exec – making the backup process pain-free.

Prior to the implementation, the school performed
disk-to-disk-to-tape backup with limited offsite protection. The cloud
represented the way to ensure offsite data protection while streamlining the
backup process itself. The organization’s ability to deploy an instance in cloud
compute environments made the solution attractive, providing a DR option.

"We
have a small team here at the school, and we needed a solution that wouldn’t
take too much work to either set up or to maintain," said Christopher
Butler, director of information services at St. John’s Prep. "We looked into offsite tape storage as an extension of our previous
backup strategy, but we were concerned about how long it would take to recover
our data in the event of a disaster. TwinStrata was the perfect solution – set,
forget and recover in the cloud if disaster strikes."

The solution provides simple access to Amazon
S3. Provisioning is simple and cost-effective – Butler
has configured an 8TB cloud-based volume, but only pays for the 4TB the school uses.
As the school’s data volumes continue to grow, the capacity will be there when
needed.

"St.
John’s Prep is a lot like many of our other customers – organizations with a
small, but effective team, looking to manage their storage needs smarter,
better and more efficiently," said Nicos Vekiarides, CEO of
TwinStrata. "For these companies,
cloud storage gives them back time, resources and peace of mind."