Gateshead Health NHS Foundation Trust has implemented backup and recovery software from Veeam as part of a wider move to a virtualised environment.
Virtualisation management specialists Veeam Software is supplying its Backup & Replication v5 platform to the organisation, enabling it to backup, test and recover its virtual environment.
Gateshead was previously using a tape-based backup which was not designed with a virtual infrastructure in mind, according to Jon Potts, infrastructure manager at Gateshead Primary Care Trust. Potts added that restore time has been reduced to around 15 minutes from the two hours it previously took. There is very little downtime during the backup process, Potts added.
As well as faster backup and recovery times the organisation can now verify that its backups have been successful and are recoverable.
Potts told CBR that the organisation looked at a number of different platforms before settling on Veeam due to its ease of use, primarily accessing the Enterprise Manager software through a web portal and the ability to use SureBackup to verify the recoverability of backups.
Gateshead Health NHS Foundation Trust is in the middle of a project to virtualise its entire IT infrastructure, which it hopes will mean reduced costs and improved utilisation. Previously server utilisation at the organisation was between 5 and 10%, Potts said. Physical space in its server room was also a concern, he added.
The process of rolling out Veeam Backup & Replication across its virtual servers should be completed by September this year. It expects to see a return on its investment next year.
"Like any other public sector body in the current climate, we are under pressure to reduce costs without affecting service," said Potts. "Virtualising our IT infrastructure has proved a vital step in allowing us to keep costs down while maintaining the levels of service a foundation trust requires."
"At the moment, our primary concern is rolling out Veeam Backup across our entire virtual infrastructure: when this is complete, we will be able to provide a fully functional, fully protected virtual environment using a fraction of the space and resources of a physical alternative. As close to 100% of our infrastructure becomes virtualised, the ability to, for example, create isolated testing environments on our backup infrastructure will prove invaluable in allowing us to trail new services, applications and infrastructure without having to invest in extra computing resources or risk affecting the main environment," he added.
