4-page Case Study - Posted 6/29/2007

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City of Southlake

City IT Department Improves Data Protection and Backup Process Efficiency

Southlake, Texas, is a small, growing city of 26,000 people. Residents and local businesses rely on the city’s comprehensive Web site to find information about city services and make other transactions online. In addition, city employees process mailed-in paper documents, such as utility bills, and enter that information into various databases. The city’s IT department, which manages the entire technical infrastructure, had been using a data backup and recovery solution that was difficult and time-consuming to configure. Southlake implemented the beta of Microsoft® System Center Data Protection Manager (DPM) 2007 and achieved continuous data protection, greatly increasing the efficiency of its IT operations. DPM also integrates fully with the city’s existing Windows®-based infrastructure and has helped simplify administration tasks related to data protection.

Situation

Now I can rest easy every night, because DPM [Data Protection Manager] is watching and protecting all our data. I know that the window of opportunity for losing data is dramatically lower than it was before.  Gary Gregg Manager, Information Services City of Southlake

A five-person IT department manages and supports the Web site and information databases. “We make sure everything stays connected and that both city employees and residents are getting the online resources they need,” says Gary Gregg, Manager of Information Services, City of Southlake, and former Chief of Police for the city.

Based on the Windows Server® 2003 Enterprise Edition operating system, the IT environment that Gregg and his team manage includes Microsoft® Exchange Server 2003 messaging software for e-mail, and Microsoft Office SharePoint® Portal Server 2003 for an online portal that city employees use to share and edit important government documents. All data is managed and stored using Microsoft SQL Server™ 2005 database software. The city uses Microsoft Systems Management Server 2003 to manage and configure the environment.

“All city files and records are on our main file server. It’s obviously critical that we secure that data,” says Gregg. With half a terabyte of information, The City of Southlake had been using a commercial software solution to provide disk backup and recovery for all its data. Time-consuming and difficult to configure, the backup and recovery process frequently exhibited problems, often with potentially disastrous results. “The way we had the software configured, we were only backing up the data to tape once a day, overnight,” states Gregg. “So if we worked six hours during the day, for example, we would completely lose that six hours of data if a server or database failed.” Gregg estimates that 150 city employees might typically work on inputting documents and data into the city’s database. “So that six hours actually represents 900 hours of work that would need to be recreated,” he says.

Because the city’s many departments are growing as the city itself adds new residents, the number and diversity of databases and applications are also expanding. “The infrastructure we’re managing is getting bigger and more complex,” says Gregg. “I am not comfortable with the idea of losing six hours worth of data and trying to restore and rebuild a database when we’re spending an increasing amount of time and energy on normal IT administration.”

A reliable solution was needed. In late 2006, Gregg and several others in his department began searching for a new data backup and recovery solution.

Solution

In November 2006, the City of Southlake received word from a consultant about Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager (DPM) 2006. DPM is an integral part of the Microsoft System Center family of IT management solutions and is designed to help IT administrators manage their Windows®-based environment. It enables an integrated disk and tape solution to provide continuous data protection for Microsoft application and file servers.

The solution captures changed files to a secondary disk, which can be backed up to tape.

After exploring that solution, Gregg was invited by Microsoft to try the public beta release of DPM 2007 (also known as DPM v2). The updated version, which uses a series of wizards and workflows for installation and administration, was specifically created to protect and recover SQL Server 2005, Microsoft Exchange Server 2003, and Windows File Services.

Like its predecessor, DPM 2007 offers continuous data protection to disk; however, v2 combines the near real-time protection with traditional tape backup capabilities. The beta solution also ensures that information is backed up every 15 minutes. In addition to disk and tape protection, the v2 solution provides administrators with one-click, statistically zero-data-loss recovery.

The City of Southlake IT administration office implemented the beta of DPM 2007 in April 2007.

Benefits

With Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager 2007, the City of Southlake has a continuous backup solution that provides fast, reliable data recovery capabilities. DPM 2007 greatly reduces data backup administration time and helps make the data protection process more efficient overall. The solution also integrates seamlessly with the city’s existing IT environment.

With our previous solution, we had the potential to lose an entire day’s worth of data. Using DPM, we’re able to make replications and full backups of our SQL Server databases every 15 minutes.  Gary Gregg Manager, Information Services City of Southlake

Ensures Fast, Reliable Recovery

By monitoring data changes in real time and automatically synchronizing those changes every 15 minutes, DPM makes it possible for Gregg and his fellow IT administrators to quickly and easily recover information, as opposed to trying to find and restore data from unreliable tapes.

“We have so much information that’s changed and edited regularly,” says Gregg. “Employees are constantly changing everything, from City Council meeting presentations to planning and zoning documents. Now, when they need to see an original document, we can show them that immediately, because of DPM.”

Provides Continuous Data Backup

Unlike the city’s previous solution, which backed up data only once each day, DPM 2007 provides data backup every 15 minutes. “With our previous solution, we had the potential to lose an entire day’s worth of data,” says Gregg. “Using DPM, we’re able to make replications and full backups of our SQL Server databases every 15 minutes.”

Gregg now has greater confidence overall. “In the event that a server fails, we have ensured that the loss of data is measured in minutes, rather than hours,” he says. “Now I can rest easy every night, because DPM is watching and protecting all our data. I know that the window of opportunity for losing data is dramatically lower than it was before.”

Saves Time for IT Staff

The City of Southlake’s new DPM solution also increases the efficiency of the IT administrative staff, because it saves time previously spent on the data protection process.  “It gives me a lot more flexibility,” Gregg remarks. “Previously, we could not schedule backups during the day, because we’d have to do lots of complex configuration work just to do what we needed to do. Now it’s all automatic, so we can concentrate on other aspects of our jobs.”

Gregg mentions a recent situation that demonstrates that improved efficiency. “We have a document-imaging application that contains all the city’s documents that required signatures, dating back to the 1980s,” he says. “That is a huge volume of data. The server that maintains that data went down, but we had a backup server available. By installing the DPM agent on the backup server, we were able to easily and quickly restore the data from the replica. Previously, we could have potentially lost years of data, and we would have had to scan all those documents again.”

Simplifies Administration of Data Protection Tasks

DPM 2007 also features simplified administration capabilities, according to Gregg. “The solution was very easy to deploy and configure,” he says. “The wizard process is very intuitive, and it’s very difficult for an administrator to make any installation errors. With our other solution, we had to have special training sessions on backup and recovery techniques. But with this, I simply set up the DPM server and deploy the software. I don’t have to train anyone how to use it.”

That level of simplicity means that Gregg can allow another staff member to install DPM if necessary. “As soon as the solution is installed, it reports back and asks what we want it to copy,” he says. “It also lets us know when that work is finished. It couldn’t be any simpler.”

Integrates with Existing IT Environment

Additionally, DPM 2007 integrates fully with existing Windows-based IT environments, such as the one in place at the City of Southlake. That integration means administrators can use the Active Directory® directory service in Windows Server to manage groupings of data from within a single user interface. They can also deliver data from Microsoft servers—in this case, from SQL Server, Exchange Server, and SharePoint Portal Server 2003—to any disk and tape protection combination.

“The integration is very smooth, because it allows me to monitor servers and documents and also back everything up,” says Gregg. He can also use a single Group Policy to configure protection across different applications and file-sharing platforms.

With a reliable, easy-to-administer, fully integrated solution, the City of Southlake has improved its data protection capabilities significantly. “This is an application that makes data recovery and replication easy and automatic,” Gregg says. “As a result, my job as IT administrator is much less stressful than before.”

For More Information

For more information about Microsoft products and services, call the Microsoft Sales Information Center at (800) 426-9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft Canada Information Centre at (877) 568-2495. Customers who are deaf or hard-of-hearing can reach Microsoft text telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234 in the United States or (905) 568-9641 in Canada. Outside the 50 United States and Canada, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information using the World Wide Web, go to:
www.microsoft.com

For more information about the City of Southlake, visit the Web site at:
www.cityofsouthlake.com

Microsoft Server Product Portfolio

For more information about the Microsoft server product portfolio, go to:
www.microsoft.com/servers/default.mspx

Microsoft System Center

Microsoft® System Center is a family of leading IT management solutions that helps you proactively plan, deploy, manage and optimize your IT environment. System Center solutions capture and aggregate knowledge about your infrastructure, policies, processes, and best practices so your IT staff can build manageable systems and automate operations in order to reduce costs, improve application availability and enhance service delivery.

For more information about the System Center family of solutions, go to:
www.microsoft.com/systemcenter

This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY. 

Document published June 2007