NAKIVO VM Backup Appliance Based on Synology NAS Reduces RTO from 24 Hours to Minutes

Regional Council of Blekinge, Sweden has reduced VM Recovery Time Objective from 24 hours to minutes using NAKIVO VM backup appliance based on Synology NAS.

regionblekinge.se

Business Challenge

Blekinge is a province situated in the south of Sweden and has a population of over 150,000 citizens. The Regional Council of Blekinge (RCB) plays a major role in the development and sustainable growth of the region. The council’s main focus areas are transportation, infrastructure, culture, and tourism.

"At the moment, 90% of our IT infrastructure is virtualized,” says Oliver Sachse, IT Technician at Region Blekinge. “We have a wide range of standard applications and IT services operating on VMware, including Microsoft Active Directory, Microsoft Exchange, SQL-Server, and others."

It is crucial that the IT environment of RCB is always available, otherwise citizens, members, and investors will not have access to important information. The ideal solution for RCB would offer not only fast and reliable backups, but also near-instant VM and file recovery. However, the previous VM backup solution used by Region Blekinge failed to meet these requirements.

"Our previous solution was file-based and required an agent in each VM. On top of that, the solution could only back up data to the cloud. I wanted to have a more robust solution that could also back up onsite for quick recovery of files and entire VMs," says Oliver. The whole recovery process took a ridiculous amount of time and a single VM recovery could take up to 24 hours. “If I wanted to recover something, I would rebuild a VM, install OS, and only then get to the point of recovery. It was just too long and very old fashioned,” says Oliver. That is why Region Blekinge needed a more effective and reliable solution that would offer a fast recovery.

Solution

"Oliver has already been familiar with NAKIVO Backup & Replication from his past employment, so it was his first choice for replacement. “On my previous job, I came across NAKIVO Backup & Replication in my search for a robust backup solution and it became perfect for us ever since,” says Oliver. “The simplicity of NAKIVO Backup & Replication is quite impressive in terms of installation, configuration, and day-to-day use. The product is extremely user friendly and easy to implement. In the past, I have installed the product in a variety of ways, including Windows and Virtual Appliance. However, I have chosen to install it on Synology NAS at RCB.”

NAKIVO Backup & Replication can be installed directly on a Synology NAS, which extends its functionality into VM backup appliance. “I like Synology, it’s a good choice. I’ve used Synology for many years and recommend Synology NAS servers for files shares and backup storage,” says Oliver. “The reason I chose to install NAKIVO Backup & Replication on Synology NAS is because I wanted an off-host backup, so I can quickly restore even if one of ESXi hosts goes down. Otherwise it would imply having a separate server dedicated to VM backup, which would take up additional resources.” Oliver has referred to NAKIVO Help Center to select a NAS model and chose Synology RS815+, which was supported by NAKIVO Backup & Replication.

The greatest improvement for Region Blekinge was in the area of data recovery. “If I had to recover VMs previously, I would have spent an entire day, whereas now, with Flash VM Boot, the VM recovery can take a few minutes. VMs can be booted directly from compressed and deduplicated VM backups, without recovering the entire VMs first,” says Oliver. “Synology-based VM backup appliance has all required components for recovery already configured, and I can start recovery at any time. With Synology and NAKIVO Backup & Replication, files, applications, and entire VMs can be instantly recovered.”

In addition, NAKIVO has produced an economic advantage for Region Blekinge: “With NAKIVO Backup & Replication, we don’t have to send all of our backups to the cloud. NAKIVO Backup & Replication provides us with strong performance, diverse features, and gives us a lot more control,” says Oliver.

Results

NAKIVO Backup & Replication is now used to protect the VMware infrastructure at Region Blekinge. “We have now a very reliable VM backup solution. NAKIVO Backup & Replication provides incredible ease of use, rich functionality, and fulfills all our needs,” says Oliver.

“With NAKIVO Backup & Replication on Synology NAS, we were able to reduce our recovery time objective from a full day to a few minutes. Also, we were able to save not only costs, but IT administration time because our time costs as well,” says Oliver.

Company Profile

Regional Council of Blekinge, Sweden deals with the development of the whole region. Its overall mission is to strengthen cooperation at a regional level and play a major role in the development and sustainable growth of Blekinge. The Council’s main task is to develop strategic international relations that will create growth and prosperity for the region. The main focus areas within international cooperation are transportation, infrastructure, culture, and tourism. The goal is an attractive Blekinge with good infrastructure and good transport links, a vibrant culture and recreation, good conditions for work and establishment for companies and Blekinge which is well worth a visit. For more information, visit regionblekinge.se.