Community Unit School District 300 Trades Tape for Revinetix D2D2D Backup

To maximize operational efficiency, automate network backup tasks and centralize its storage archive, Community Unit School District 300 has selected five Sentio HD 4-1000 data protection appliances from Revinetix, Inc.

For the sixth largest school district in Illinois, the process of manually backing up data at each of its 26 schools and its central office with its legacy tape backup system was a time-consuming task. Data was backed up from servers, desktop computers and an AS/400 that housed its finance system at the district offices.

Compounding the situation, there was no standardized backup schedule or storage policy for the backup tapes. Some tapes were kept in drawers, others were taken off site. It was a prime environment for a significant data loss crisis to happen.

Seeking a centralized, efficient and convenient solution, an evaluation of backup solutions was conducted. The selection criteria consisted of a system that included the capability to backup automatically according to a specified schedule, was more convenient and reliable than tape backup, and was affordable. Following a side-by-side assessment of multiple technologies, five Revinetix Sentio HD 4-10000 backup appliances were selected.

With Sentio Disk2Disk2Disk technology, backups are fully automated, restores are quick and reliable, and disk-based archive drives are hot swappable, enabling removal and offsite storage. The Sentio HD also comes pre-bundled with Revinetix’ RevOS administration software. Supporting all major operating systems in use today, including Windows, MacOS, and Linux, RevOS schedules automated backups down to the desktop level for every client connected to the network — even those connected through a VPN (Virtual Private Network).

The affordability of the system was another determining factor in the school district’s selection of Sentio. Revinetix sells the Sento D2D2D backup appliance with a capacity use license, which means there are no site or seat fees. An unlimited number of servers and clients can be backed up without additional fees.

"We could have spent significantly more for a system, but because we are a school district, watching our budget is of vital concern," said Eric Willard, Chief Technology Officer, Community Unit School District 300. "Every $1,000 we spend on administrative tools means one less computer for a student. With Revinetix, its affordable pricing structure was the answer. The systems have all the high-performance functionality, but they are attainable for significantly less cost."

Installation is currently in process and once complete, Willard anticipates many benefits from the disk backup system that were not available with the tape backup system including:

• Standardizing a schedule and the automated backup process, freeing IT staff to focus on other tasks
• Faster backups
• Convenient and reliable access to data
• Simplified data restore process
• Eased scalability

"With Sentio, I have the confidence that all of our systems are being backed up regularly and that we’ll be able to complete data restores quickly and easily," said Willard. "While this type of peace of mind is priceless, with Revinetix it is now also affordable."

"Community Unit School District 300’s IT leaders had ambitious goals for improving the efficiency and performance of its backup process," said Thomas Hogan, Revinetix president and CEO. "We deliver disk backup solutions that meet the unique needs of education and we are pleased that the District found our backup appliance solution to be the right fit to help them achieve their goals of a faster, more reliable, convenient, scalable and affordable data backup process."