Eastern Illinois University

University Reduces Backup Window by 83% with Sun SAN

Established in 1895, Eastern Illinois University provides quality, affordable undergraduate and graduate education for approximately 11,000 students. The university, located in Charleston, Illinois, is committed to developing broadly educated, responsible citizens.

Customer Challenges

Reduce administration time and increase availability of academic and administrative applications
Maximize use of storage resources
Ensure continuity of operations in event of disaster
Accommodate growth in data

Solution

Eastern Illinois University selected a comprehensive information lifecycle management solution from Sun to support upgrade to an open systems platform running SunGard Banner. This SAN-based solution enables the university to take advantage of disk and tape storage tiers to meet its performance capacity and cost requirements.

Business Results

Improved application availability due to 83% reduction in backup window (from 12 hours to 2)
Enhanced ability to meet performance, capacity and cost requirements, increasing returns on storage assets
Achieved better protection for data assets with strengthened business continuity capability
Gained ability to add scalability on demand in preparation for increasing data volume

Products and Services

Story Details

Originally established in 1895 as a teacher’s college, Charleston, Illinois-based Eastern Illinois University (EIU) provides a full range of academic curricula, although its College of Education is still the largest. To derive the most value from its resources, EIU is committed to streamlining its academic and administrative processes. To support an implementation of SunGard Banner –a suite of student, financial aid, finance and HR software delivering a unified, digital information environment for academic institutions–and an upgrade to an open systems platform, the university embarked on a major upgrade of its IT environment.

High on EIU’s list of improvements was maximizing its utilization of storage resources to improve its return on investment. The university also needed to improve its disaster recovery capabilities to ensure continuity of operations in the event of an outage or disaster. EIU wanted to reduce its current backup windows to ease the burden on administrators and ensure high availability for academic and business applications and be able to scale to accommodate increasing data volume.

" Sun’s expertise is top-notch. I was even more pleased than I thought I would be. From the very beginning through to the end, Sun stayed with us. They guided us through the process. They went above and beyond some of the things we had in our RFP. "

— Brian Murphy, Associate Director, Information Technology, Eastern Illinois University

Challenged to find a comprehensive solution to its storage issues, the university selected a storage area network (SAN)-based solution from Sun. Components of the tiered storage solution include a Sun StorageTek FLX280 enterprise storage system, a Sun StorageTek D240 media tray, a Sun StorageTek L700e tape library, a SAN network topology with Brocade switches, Sun StorageTek Business Analytics software and a suite of Veritas software products. Working against a tight budget, consultants from Sun Services deployed this comprehensive, end-to-end solution. The solution is covered by a Sun support agreement.

The SAN consolidates many direct-attached devices into one multitiered storage solution, enabling the university to meet its performance, capacity and cost goals. It allows the university’s storage administrators to move information into less expensive storage when it is no longer of immediate importance. The SAN thus provides an information lifecycle management (ILM) solution that helps EIU improve its return on investment.

With its new SAN-based solution, the EIU increased application availability with a dramatic 83 percent reduction in its nightly backup times, from 12 hours to just 2. The ILM solution allows the university to utilize storage resources more cost-effectively and avoid additional purchases of storage. The ability to add scalability on demand has helped EIU accommodate growth in data. With the upgraded storage subsystem, EIU also has a business continuity solution that meets the requirements of its auditors.

The Sun ILM solution helps the university gain more value from its storage assets. Administrators now have a close-up view of the storage environment, including information on the age of data, the use of storage resources and the availability of excess storage capacity. This makes them more productive, enabling them to spend more time supporting the university’s commitment to providing an outstanding education.