Hipskind Technology Solutions Group started out as one the leading value-added resellers in the greater-Chicago area, with special expertise in storage, virtualization, and data protection. When Hipskind launched their own cloud based protection service to provide backup, DR, and business continuity to customers, they knew they needed a deduplication partner. Deduplication reduces the data stored on local disk, enables replication over WANs, and increases resource utilization in the cloud. The end result is much better protection and dramatically lower costs.
Looking for a Deduplication Partner
“We went out and actually looked at every deduplication appliance on the market,” explains Wally Lang, Hipskind’s General Manager. “We chose Quantum for several reasons, but the primary one is the elegance of their deduplication algorithm. It’s variable length, which makes the deduplication capabilities much greater than standard block level. That allows us to store more data in a smaller space at the customer site and we're replicating less data over the wire.”
Hipskind’s QSafe: Leveraging Quantum Technology to Provide Multi-site Protection
Hipskind’s QSafe, service installs a Quantum DXi appliance, either physical or virtual, at each customer site. Local backups are stored on the appliance while DR copies are replicated and stored in the Hipskind cloud, which uses matching DXi technology. The service can scale to protect data from a terabyte up to multiple petabytes.
Lang explains, “We have an automated process that gives our customers . . . three copies of their files—the primary copy, the local backup, and the replicated copy—spread over two different physical locations.” Data is secure because the DXi technology offers encryption options at the local site, in the cloud, and during replication.
“QSafe uses an OPEX model, so there’s no capital investment on the customer’s part,” Lang says. “But they get the benefit of absolutely the latest technology plus all the maintenance and service at a cost lower than they could procure and deploy for themselves.”
Fast Flexible Recovery for Both Physical and Virtual Servers
Users can restore files locally from the DXi appliance, Hipskind can restore lost files by sending copies from the cloud over the network, or QSafe can transport files to the primary site on removable storage. The system supports both physical and virtual servers.
“Another of the reasons that we selected Quantum is because of their vmPRO software,” Lang says.“It . . . protects virtual machines locally, and it makes its backup copies in native format.That . . . gives us the option of standing up a copy of a VM in our cloud without having to reconstruct the files—it’s a very powerful and fast option for business continuity.”
Technology and Business Support
In addition to DXi and vmPRO, Hipskind also leverages Quantum’s Scalar LTO libraries for customers long-term retention needs.
“Quantum has been a great partner on both the technology and business side,” says Lang. “They brought in engineering support, helped us learn the products, trained our engineers, were flexible on the pricing models, and helped us build this business. It’s been a great fit.”
Westchester, Illinois-based Hipskind Technology Solutions Group is a leading regional IT solutions provider which helps companies maximize return on their IT investment by offering a unique combination of consulting, technology and professional services. Hipskind’s cloud service, QSafe, allows its customers to backup and replicate their data to a secure, centralized data center environment, insuring the availability of their data in the event of a disaster or catastrophic event. Hipskinds’ Q-Safe service provides an economical, subscription based data protection and business continuity program that eliminates the need for large, up-front capital investment.