Research Institute Chooses NAKIVO Backup & Replication to Enhance Data Protection Strategy

Business Challenge

CIER conducts research on behalf of governments and businesses, collecting and sharing information and data for advocacy and to inform various stakeholders. Given that it handles such massive amounts of data, it was vital that CIER had a data protection solution it could count on to ensure both the safety and security of the institution’s data.

For years, the institution had resorted to tape backup to protect the collected data. CIER performed full data backups daily and the backup tapes were transported to a secondary site for storage to meet regulatory requirements on off-site data protection. This data protection approach was affordable, given CIER’s limited budget and ensured that the institution had copies of its data off-site.

However, with this backup frequency and the logistics involved, tape backup proved extremely time consuming and risky. Daily tape transportation from production environment to off-site storage was exposed to theft or loss of tapes, meaning that data security and safety alike were compromised. In addition, when using tape backup, there was no way of verifying backup data accuracy and recoverability, without data quality testing.

“Backing up data to tape is actually kind of complicated. There were incompatibility issues between new and old tape specifications, and recovery time was long. Moreover, we could not completely avoid the risk of confidential data being leaked, as we needed to commission tape disks for regular delivery to designated sites for storage,” says Lo Yu-Fan, IT Administrator at the data processing office at CIER.

In 2018, CIER decided to reevaluate its data protection strategy by considering a more flexible and reliable backup solution. Having installed NAKIVO Backup & Replication in its environment for testing and evaluation, CIER was able to establish that the solution met all requirements at a reasonable installation cost.

Solution

NAKIVO Backup & Replication offers data protection for physical, virtual, and cloud environments, and is compatible with numerous network-attached storage (NAS) devices. The software backs up and recovers VMware, Hyper-V and Nutanix AHV VMs, and Windows Server physical machines. In addition, NAKIVO Backup & Replication offers backup and recovery of Microsoft Office 365, Linux Server backup, and Windows Workstation backup. NAKIVO Backup & Replication is currently used to protect CIER’s 20 virtual hosts and for off-site backup between Taipei and Kaohsiung.

In addition, CIER already had a NAS device on premises and NAKIVO Backup & Replication’s compatibility with various NAS devices only bolstered the case for choosing NAKIVO.

“Overall, expenses for extra hardware and resources could be astonishing. Integration with NAS devices is a huge advantage, as we would not want a solution to occupy a ton of storage space and interfere with usable space for other critical applications. A high-performance backup appliance that combines hardware and software, dramatically increases backup speed and provides improved reliability for our backups,” explains Cai-Min Tseng, Director of the data processing office at CIER.

“When we were doing backup to tape, we could not check the accuracy of backed-up data, as well as recovery time was long. That is why every day we had no choice but to perform full backups, so as to reduce the chances of backup corruptions due to the issues with tape itself,” says Cai-Min Tseng. “Now, with NAKIVO Backup & Replication, we have amazing functionality, such as instant verification, to set up automated instant verifications for our backups that are completed in a matter of minutes. Thus, we can verify that our backups are in fact recoverable.”

In 2017, CIER set up another division in Kaohsiung. As a result, the data processing office was able to work out an off-site backup strategy. After the introduction of NAKIVO Backup & Replication, the Kaohsiung office can now store copies of backups to ensure recovery after any disaster. With NAKIVO Backup & Replication’s backup copy functionality, backups can be copied offsite, specifically to a secondary backup repository that has a connection to the internet.

“All we needed to do was to purchase the same NAS device for the Kaohsiung office and enjoy the advantages of off-site backup. Not only can we copy backups now, we can also copy the recovery points that we need. By having more than one copy of our backups, we can avoid the risk of data being stolen by someone during the transportation of tape cartridges,” says Cai-Min Tseng.

Results

NAKIVO Backup & Replication boosts CIER’s data protection by offering faster backup and instant verification of backups. CIER has also put in place an off-site backup strategy, using the backup copy functionality. This new approach also minimizes data leakage risks.

Currently, the data processing office is testing backup of physical servers, in order to use NAKIVO Backup & Replication to back up those as well. With Windows Server backup, CIER will have a more complete data protection strategy and strengthen the capability to protect its data, in the event of malicious attacks or natural disasters.

“NAKIVO Backup & Replication helped us to set up a comprehensive data protection strategy, so that we could protect our data against ever-evolving malicious attacks,” says Cai-Min Tseng. “The solution provides us with amazing functionality, speedy recovery, off-site backup and ease-of-use. The whole data protection strategy got enhanced and overall benefits are far more rewarding than the ones from other vendors.”

About Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research

Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research is an international policy think-tank for economic and industry-related research based in Taiwan. The institution was established in 1981 and conducts both public and fee-supported research. Since its establishment, the institution has been serving as a policy think-tank for the ROC government by making important recommendations. The institution also strives to serve as a platform for the exchange of local and international economy-related knowledge. Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research will continue to serve the need to promote the sustainable development of Taiwan’s economy. For more information, please visit www.cier.edu.tw.