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News Release from: Storage Expo | Subject: Storage Expo 2006
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 23 August 2006
Robust, reliable and compliance solution
New back-up, data management and compliance solutions system provides better system manageability
Stevensdrake was established in 1782 and is now one of the leading law firms in the South East of England Based in Crawley, Stevensdrake concentrates on two divisions - corporate law and private law
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 11 Jul 2006 at 8.00am (UK)
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Its corporate law division encompasses a wide range of services, including company, corporate, property, employment, insolvency, debt recovery and litigation.
This division also offers a range of services to commercial clients.
Stevensdrake comprises 9 Partners, 3 Consultants, and 90 personnel in total.
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Stevensdrake's overriding objective was to maintain its leading position in the market by offering a wide range of services to an increasingly sophisticated customer base.
However, it was clear that Stevensdrake's business objectives could only be achieved if the business was supported by a comprehensive IT infrastructure.
A significant element to this was the need for stevensdrake to efficiently manage its backup and data file storage, a task that would involve consolidating its backup solutions.
It also required a system that could restore data as quickly as possible.
Increasingly, the need for a complete and fast disaster recovery solution was not only perceived as essential, but was also becoming a requirement of clients in the commercial environment that stevensdrake focuses on.
Stevensdrake would also need to control its data management from a single point if it were to protect its key data, and build room for future migration and growth.
Stevensdrake had recently migrated from Novell Netware and GroupWise to Microsoft Windows 2003 Server and Exchange 2003 server as a result of a new debt recovery software solution it had recently implemented.
It had also deployed Citrix Metaframe via a 3 server farm in a bid to allow stevensdrake to maintain its investment in its existing PCs.
These new implementations had resulted in a complex infrastructure, in addition to increased demand for a robust storage solution.
Finally, new legislation meant that stevensdrake had to ensure its storage infrastructure could retain its data for longer periods of time, an implication that could lead to spiralling costs if not managed effectively.
"In a legal practice, every possible precaution had to be taken, from a business sense and legally, to ensure that our data would not be lost" said Gavin Pickering, a partner at stevensdrake.
"In any competitive market such as the legal industry, it is vital to ensure that the business objectives are supported by the organisation's IT infrastructure, and clients' highly sensitive information can be kept as secure as possible" said Pickering.
"A robust storage solution was crucial if stevensdrake were to maintain its leading position, in addition to offering new services".
After outlining the data management infrastructure, Stevensdrake scoped out a solution employing Commvault Galaxy Back-up, Data Migrator, and Data Archiver solutions.
CommVault's suite of software provides fast, granular backup and recovery of distributed environments.
"Unlike other solutions, Galaxy addresses storage resources and data as logical entities rather than physical resources," says Neil Harding, IT manager, Stevensdrake.
"Now our key legal data is logically mapped to storage resources, which means that the entire system is quicker and easier to manage".
Key to Stevensdrake's storage solution, was CommVault's QiNetix Data Migrator solution, that allows data migration to be managed centrally.
Traditionally, system administrators tackled data growth by periodically deleting unneeded files from disk, a system that resulted in some files being mismanaged or sometimes ignored.
Unlike these systems, CommVault Data Migrator works by matching user availability and access with storage media performance, allowing stevensdrake to get the most efficient use from its storage resources.
Finally, CommVault's QiNetix DataArchiver was implemented to meet Stevensdrake's compliance requirements.
The solution was crucial to stevensdrake, who needed a solution that would allow its IT administrators to store specific email data or move it to long-term archival storage media, whilst at the same time allowing it to be retrieved in a matter of minutes as the need arose.
Alasdair Kilgour, UK Managing Director at CommVault commented, "CommVault's family of products provides Stevensdrake with a storage solution that gives them piece of mind on its data back ups and archiving strategies".
"As new regulations come into force, the ability to manage data centrally is a fundamental first step of compliance".
Once the Galaxy Back-Up and Recovery, QiNetix Data Migrator and QiNetix Data Archiver solutions were fully implemented, Stevensdrake was able to manage the system more easily and far more quickly.
"Thanks to CommVault, we are now able to manage our data more efficiently, and adhere to key data regulations," said Pickering, a partner at Stevensdrake.
"This in turn has allowed us to accommodate future expansion more effectively, in addition to allowing us to design our own Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity plan".
As a result of the implementation, the time taken to manage and back up was dramatically cut.
Pickering concludes: "Thanks to CommVault, we can now save a significant amount of time when backing up and restoring information, a factor that we believe will allow the implementation to pay for itself many times over".
CommVault is exhibiting at Storage Expo 2006 the UK's largest and most important event dedicated to data storage.
Now in its 6th year, the show features a comprehensive FREE education programme and over 90 exhibitors at the National Hall, Olympia, London from 18 - 19 October 2006.
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