Client: Winthrop and Weinstine, P.A.
Industry: Legal
Solution: Two DD430 Restorers
Company
Winthrop & Weinstine, P.A., is a full-service, entrepreneurial,
commercial law firm dedicated to advancing the best interests of its clients
and community through the timely delivery of legal services. Founded by six
attorneys in 1979, the firm has grown to 85 attorneys in a wide variety of
practice areas. With offices in Minneapolis and St. Paul, MN, Winthrop &
Weinstine serves clients ranging from individuals to Fortune 500
corporations.
Customer Challenges
As a law firm, Winthrop and Weinstine acquires a sizable amount of
information and research in support of each case and client. Typically, the
data it needs to backup, primarily its document management and email systems,
adds up to about one terabyte. However, the firm’s backup requirements
can change quickly with the addition of new cases.
“In a matter of a week, we can double our amount of data,” said
Craig Wilson, IS Manager at Winthrop and Weinstine. “With just one new
litigation case, our data grew by 1.5 terabytes.”
When it comes to backup, reliability ranks as the firm’s top
priority. Yet it encountered a number of problems on a tape-based system:
- Backups and restores were slow and unreliable. Though the firm had a
relatively new tape system, it often failed — as validated by monthly
restore tests.
- Tapes carried logistical and financial burdens. To handle its volume of
data, Winthrop & Weinstine needed a significant number of tapes, which was
cumbersome to handle and amounted to about $1,200 in new tape costs each
month.
- Sending tapes to an off-site vault, via courier, increased security risks
and the firm’s liability.
- Administrators spent a substantial amount of time retrieving and restoring
tapes.
Looking ahead, Winthrop and Weinstine wanted a more reliable,
cost-effective solution, as well as a more manageable approach to disaster
recovery.
Data Domain Solution
Winthrop and Weinstine engaged Nexus, a Data Domain channel partner, to
assist with a new backup and disaster recovery strategy. It considered using
its existing SAN, but the inability to create snapshots ruled out that option.
Instead, the firm decided to pilot disk-based backup with Data Domain’s
Capacity Optimized Storage.
Winthrop and Weinstine initially tested one DD430 Restorer at its
Minneapolis site. The solution immediately proved itself on the firm’s
number one objective — reliability. “We wanted stability out of
the box and Data Domain passed with flying colors,” Wilson said.
“The data is there, easily validated, and we can quickly get it back,
which matches the firm’s philosophy of high availability.”
Though the firm continued backing up to tape and disk concurrently, the
ease and reliability of the Data Domain disk-based solution has triggered a
gradual move away from tape.
Business Benefits
With the Data Domain solution, Winthrop and Weinstine has a more stable,
cost-effective solution for backup, restores and disaster recovery. The firm
now logs 18-21x compression rates, making it more flexible as its data
needs grow quickly. Administrators also report notably faster restore times.
By reducing its tape use, the firm lowered its media costs by about $10,000
a year. Furthermore, Winthrop and Weinstine minimizes its liability. It
doesn’t need to move tapes offsite, freeing it from the security risks
inherent in transporting tapes. But high availability remains the most
compelling benefit.
“Data Domain is more of a guarantee,” Wilson said. “I
don’t have a tape or external component that could fail. In fact,
we’ve never had a failure with Data Domain, whereas we often had
failures on tape.”
Finally, Winthrop and Weinstine has moved the second Data Domain Restorer
to the Time Warner Telecom office for offsite replication. The
solution’s proven reliability, as well as quick restore capabilities,
gives the firm a high level of confidence as it expands its disaster recovery
efforts.
“We wanted stability out of the box and Data Domain passed
with flying colors. The data is there, easily validated, and we can quickly
get it back, which matches the firm’s philosophy of high
availability.”
Craig Wilson
IS Manager, Winthrop and Weinstine, P.A.
