Argea safeguards ongoing support for Sardinian farmers with Arcserve ...
Customer Case Study | February 2015
Argea safeguards ongoing support for Sardinian farmers with Arcserve UDP
Organisation: Argea Sardegna
CLIENT PROFILE
Industry: Public sector Revenue: Over €131 million (2014) Employees: 550
BUSINESS
CHALLENGE
SOLUTION
BENEFIT
Argea (Agenzia Regionale
To safeguard the
Argea adopted Arcserve
Arcserve UDP allows
per la Gestione e
continuity of its core
UDP for the automated
Argea to safeguard
l’Erogazione degli Aiuti in
activities, Argea needed
backup of 3.88 TB of
service continuity while
Agricoltura) administers
a solution for automating
data on 14 servers.
reducing costs and risks.
public resources (over
the backup of its data.
The number of failed
It also provides scalability
€329 million in 2014)
Its requirements included
backup routines has now
to accommodate future
that aim to assist
short recovery times and
been reduced to zero
needs.
approximately 60,000
a gradual implementation.
and recovery times are
Sardinian agricultural enterprises. The agency has 28 branch offices.
significantly shorter.
Customer Success Story: Argea Sardegna | February 2015
BUSINESS Supporting Sardinian farmers Argea (Agenzia Regionale per la Gestione e l’Erogazione degli Aiuti in Agricoltura), one of Sardinia Region’s government agencies, is dedicated to supplying public funding to farmers. Its subsidies are mainly provided by the European Union as part of the Union’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). Additional funds are provided by the Italian national government and the Sardinia regional government. Argea’s main role is in ensuring effective use of public money aimed at supporting farmers. This involves collecting and processing funding applications, checking farmers’ eligibility, and granting subsidies – while ensuring compliance to EU, national and regional laws. Argea’s other tasks include inspecting farms to ensure proper use of pesticides and managing a number of databases on farms and agriculture production. Headquartered in Cagliari, the agency covers the whole Sardinian territory, with 28 branch offices and approximately 550 employees. With many Sardinians dependent on agriculture and sheep farming, Argea plays a very important role in the island’s economy.
CHALLENGE Ensuring service continuity through an effective data recovery solution The majority of Argea’s core activities are performed electronically. This applies, in particular, to three key tasks: •
Maintaining official relationships with funding sources, namely the EU, the Italian government
•
Processing farmers’ applications
•
Ensuring data exchange across 28 branch offices throughout Sardinia.
and the Sardinian regional government
Any limitations to data availability would prevent us from performing our core activities”. Leonardo Ortu | System Administrator
Customer Success Story: Argea Sardegna | February 2015
IT plays a crucial role in Argea’s ability to provide its services. “Most of our activities rely on IT. Any limitations to data availability would prevent us from performing our core activities, ranging from our official relationship with the EU to our daily internal administrative tasks,” reveals Leonardo Ortu, who – together with his colleague Francesco Deriu – is responsible for system administration at Argea. To support its activities, Argea has created a substantial IT infrastructure that includes approximately 600 workstations, both desktops and laptop PCs. The agency’s main datacentre is located at its headquarters in Cagliari and supplemented by three peripheral datacentres at branch offices in the cities of Oristano, Nuoro, and Sassari. Argea’s information systems employ a hybrid virtual and physical infrastructure. The virtual part is based on the VMware vSphere 5.1 virtualisation platform installed on two servers in a high availability configuration. The physical part includes three application servers, one of which is configured as an Oracle database. Peripheral datacentres are equipped with servers that perform functions such as domain controller, proxy antivirus, Windows Server Update Services and file server. The Oristano datacentre also includes a server that serves as a remote repository. All of Argea’s systems employ the Windows Server 2008 R2 operating system. Fully aware of the need for a disaster recovery solution, Argea addressed its data backup concerns many years ago. But the backup solution initially implemented by the agency was not suitable for the task. “We have been using VMware VDP (vSphere Data Protection) as a recovery management solution for some time, but it was unable to match our data safety requirements. VMware VDP’s main limitation was that it only backed up the machines included in the virtual platform, while we needed to also safeguard the physical machines used in production,” explains Deriu.
SOLUTION Short recovery times and no more failed backup routines Aiming to equip its IT infrastructure with an effective disaster recovery solution, Argea compared the various data backup suites available on the market. After a thorough evaluation, the agency decided to adopt Arcserve UDP. “We chose Arcserve UDP after verifying that it would allow us to implement all the functionality we needed with a single tool and in a phased approach,” explains Deriu. “Another reason for choosing Arcserve UDP was its unique virtual standby function that allows us to protect our most critical systems by converting backups to virtual machines for the Microsoft HyperV virtualisation platform.” Argea implemented Arcserve UDP in three phases during 2014. The first phase saw the product installed at the main datacentre, for backup only. Later, Argea implemented the remote repository service at its Oristano datacentre. Finally, Argea configured the remote repository server for virtual standby. Argea IT personnel received technical support and training from the Italian office of Arcserve and IT partner VAR Group (Empoli, Italy). “Coaching was essential to us,” notes Ortu. At the main datacentre, Arcserve UDP is installed on a physical server connected to a dedicated storage area network (SAN) through iSCSI. All Argea servers – both physical and virtual, wherever located – have been mapped onto Arcserve UDP.
Customer Success Story: Argea Sardegna | February 2015
Every night the backup process is launched for all systems according to a preset sequence. When the backup is finished, a copy of all data is sent to a server dedicated as a remote repository and for disaster recovery at the Oristano datacentre. Then, for some of the systems, ‘twin’ virtual machines are created in the Microsoft HyperV virtualisation platform through a dedicated routine using the virtual standby function. The backup process covers all the data of the main datacentre, including 21 servers, resident applications, directories and shared files. It amounts to 3.88 TB. Most of the data (90 percent) is backed up on a daily basis and the rest on a weekly basis. Backup processes are performed out-of-hours, from 10pm to 6am, with no impact on bandwidth availability. With Arcserve UDP implementation Argea has achieved a dramatic improvement in the performance of its backup process. “The number of failed backup routines is now zero and the time needed to recover data is very short: just a few minutes for a file or directory, approximately an hour for a server, virtual or physical,” explains Ortu. The extent of the improvement was confirmed when a serious accident occurred shortly after the Arcserve UDP implementation: “We were forced to restore several parts of our network after an attack from the cryptolocker virus,” recalls Deriu. “The whole operation was performed in a very short time, with very limited inconvenience for our users.”
BENEFIT Safeguarding service continuity while reducing costs and risks Argea gained many important benefits by moving from its previous backup solution to Arcserve UDP. “Now we have a very efficient disaster recovery solution in place, safeguarding the continuity of our activities while reducing risks and costs,” says Deriu. “The flexibility of Arcserve UDP has allowed us to adapt the implementation process to meet our needs and ensures it will accommodate future upgrades,” he added.
Arcserve UDP allowed us to implement the functionality we needed in a single tool. Francesco Deriu | Amministratore di Sistema
Customer Success Story: Argea Sardegna | February 2015
By adopting Arcserve UDP, Argea is now able to: •
Safeguard service continuity and legal compliance
•
Avoid cost and risk from lost data
•
Improve the overall robustness of its IT infrastructure
•
Scale its data recovery solution to match future needs.
“We are very satisfied with the results achieved by adopting Arcserve UDP. The improvement of our recovery management function significantly helps us to safeguard both the quality and continuity of the services provided by Argea. The Arcserve staff provided an excellent service: they are competent, kind and always ready to help. For the future, we are planning to use Arcserve UDP to also protect our most critical workstations,” Deriu concludes.
www.arcserve.com
Copyright ©2015 Arcserve (USA), LLC and its affiliates and subsidiaries. All rights reserved. All trademarks, trade names, service marks and logos referenced herein belong to their respective companies. The information and results illustrated here are based upon the speaker’s experiences with the referenced software product in a variety of environments, which may include production and non production environments.
Argea safeguards ongoing support for Sardinian farmers with Arcserve UDP
Organisation: Argea Sardegna
CLIENT PROFILE
Industry: Public sector Revenue: Over €131 million (2014) Employees: 550
BUSINESS
CHALLENGE
SOLUTION
BENEFIT
Argea (Agenzia Regionale
To safeguard the
Argea adopted Arcserve
Arcserve UDP allows
per la Gestione e
continuity of its core
UDP for the automated
Argea to safeguard
l’Erogazione degli Aiuti in
activities, Argea needed
backup of 3.88 TB of
service continuity while
Agricoltura) administers
a solution for automating
data on 14 servers.
reducing costs and risks.
public resources (over
the backup of its data.
The number of failed
It also provides scalability
€329 million in 2014)
Its requirements included
backup routines has now
to accommodate future
that aim to assist
short recovery times and
been reduced to zero
needs.
approximately 60,000
a gradual implementation.
and recovery times are
Sardinian agricultural enterprises. The agency has 28 branch offices.
significantly shorter.
Customer Success Story: Argea Sardegna | February 2015
BUSINESS Supporting Sardinian farmers Argea (Agenzia Regionale per la Gestione e l’Erogazione degli Aiuti in Agricoltura), one of Sardinia Region’s government agencies, is dedicated to supplying public funding to farmers. Its subsidies are mainly provided by the European Union as part of the Union’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). Additional funds are provided by the Italian national government and the Sardinia regional government. Argea’s main role is in ensuring effective use of public money aimed at supporting farmers. This involves collecting and processing funding applications, checking farmers’ eligibility, and granting subsidies – while ensuring compliance to EU, national and regional laws. Argea’s other tasks include inspecting farms to ensure proper use of pesticides and managing a number of databases on farms and agriculture production. Headquartered in Cagliari, the agency covers the whole Sardinian territory, with 28 branch offices and approximately 550 employees. With many Sardinians dependent on agriculture and sheep farming, Argea plays a very important role in the island’s economy.
CHALLENGE Ensuring service continuity through an effective data recovery solution The majority of Argea’s core activities are performed electronically. This applies, in particular, to three key tasks: •
Maintaining official relationships with funding sources, namely the EU, the Italian government
•
Processing farmers’ applications
•
Ensuring data exchange across 28 branch offices throughout Sardinia.
and the Sardinian regional government
Any limitations to data availability would prevent us from performing our core activities”. Leonardo Ortu | System Administrator
Customer Success Story: Argea Sardegna | February 2015
IT plays a crucial role in Argea’s ability to provide its services. “Most of our activities rely on IT. Any limitations to data availability would prevent us from performing our core activities, ranging from our official relationship with the EU to our daily internal administrative tasks,” reveals Leonardo Ortu, who – together with his colleague Francesco Deriu – is responsible for system administration at Argea. To support its activities, Argea has created a substantial IT infrastructure that includes approximately 600 workstations, both desktops and laptop PCs. The agency’s main datacentre is located at its headquarters in Cagliari and supplemented by three peripheral datacentres at branch offices in the cities of Oristano, Nuoro, and Sassari. Argea’s information systems employ a hybrid virtual and physical infrastructure. The virtual part is based on the VMware vSphere 5.1 virtualisation platform installed on two servers in a high availability configuration. The physical part includes three application servers, one of which is configured as an Oracle database. Peripheral datacentres are equipped with servers that perform functions such as domain controller, proxy antivirus, Windows Server Update Services and file server. The Oristano datacentre also includes a server that serves as a remote repository. All of Argea’s systems employ the Windows Server 2008 R2 operating system. Fully aware of the need for a disaster recovery solution, Argea addressed its data backup concerns many years ago. But the backup solution initially implemented by the agency was not suitable for the task. “We have been using VMware VDP (vSphere Data Protection) as a recovery management solution for some time, but it was unable to match our data safety requirements. VMware VDP’s main limitation was that it only backed up the machines included in the virtual platform, while we needed to also safeguard the physical machines used in production,” explains Deriu.
SOLUTION Short recovery times and no more failed backup routines Aiming to equip its IT infrastructure with an effective disaster recovery solution, Argea compared the various data backup suites available on the market. After a thorough evaluation, the agency decided to adopt Arcserve UDP. “We chose Arcserve UDP after verifying that it would allow us to implement all the functionality we needed with a single tool and in a phased approach,” explains Deriu. “Another reason for choosing Arcserve UDP was its unique virtual standby function that allows us to protect our most critical systems by converting backups to virtual machines for the Microsoft HyperV virtualisation platform.” Argea implemented Arcserve UDP in three phases during 2014. The first phase saw the product installed at the main datacentre, for backup only. Later, Argea implemented the remote repository service at its Oristano datacentre. Finally, Argea configured the remote repository server for virtual standby. Argea IT personnel received technical support and training from the Italian office of Arcserve and IT partner VAR Group (Empoli, Italy). “Coaching was essential to us,” notes Ortu. At the main datacentre, Arcserve UDP is installed on a physical server connected to a dedicated storage area network (SAN) through iSCSI. All Argea servers – both physical and virtual, wherever located – have been mapped onto Arcserve UDP.
Customer Success Story: Argea Sardegna | February 2015
Every night the backup process is launched for all systems according to a preset sequence. When the backup is finished, a copy of all data is sent to a server dedicated as a remote repository and for disaster recovery at the Oristano datacentre. Then, for some of the systems, ‘twin’ virtual machines are created in the Microsoft HyperV virtualisation platform through a dedicated routine using the virtual standby function. The backup process covers all the data of the main datacentre, including 21 servers, resident applications, directories and shared files. It amounts to 3.88 TB. Most of the data (90 percent) is backed up on a daily basis and the rest on a weekly basis. Backup processes are performed out-of-hours, from 10pm to 6am, with no impact on bandwidth availability. With Arcserve UDP implementation Argea has achieved a dramatic improvement in the performance of its backup process. “The number of failed backup routines is now zero and the time needed to recover data is very short: just a few minutes for a file or directory, approximately an hour for a server, virtual or physical,” explains Ortu. The extent of the improvement was confirmed when a serious accident occurred shortly after the Arcserve UDP implementation: “We were forced to restore several parts of our network after an attack from the cryptolocker virus,” recalls Deriu. “The whole operation was performed in a very short time, with very limited inconvenience for our users.”
BENEFIT Safeguarding service continuity while reducing costs and risks Argea gained many important benefits by moving from its previous backup solution to Arcserve UDP. “Now we have a very efficient disaster recovery solution in place, safeguarding the continuity of our activities while reducing risks and costs,” says Deriu. “The flexibility of Arcserve UDP has allowed us to adapt the implementation process to meet our needs and ensures it will accommodate future upgrades,” he added.
Arcserve UDP allowed us to implement the functionality we needed in a single tool. Francesco Deriu | Amministratore di Sistema
Customer Success Story: Argea Sardegna | February 2015
By adopting Arcserve UDP, Argea is now able to: •
Safeguard service continuity and legal compliance
•
Avoid cost and risk from lost data
•
Improve the overall robustness of its IT infrastructure
•
Scale its data recovery solution to match future needs.
“We are very satisfied with the results achieved by adopting Arcserve UDP. The improvement of our recovery management function significantly helps us to safeguard both the quality and continuity of the services provided by Argea. The Arcserve staff provided an excellent service: they are competent, kind and always ready to help. For the future, we are planning to use Arcserve UDP to also protect our most critical workstations,” Deriu concludes.
www.arcserve.com
Copyright ©2015 Arcserve (USA), LLC and its affiliates and subsidiaries. All rights reserved. All trademarks, trade names, service marks and logos referenced herein belong to their respective companies. The information and results illustrated here are based upon the speaker’s experiences with the referenced software product in a variety of environments, which may include production and non production environments.
