Case Study: Solomon Cordwell Buenz reduces backup window from 108 to 36 hours with ExaGrid (and Veeam)

Architecture Firm Chooses Veeam and ExaGrid, Reduces Backup Window from 108 to 36 Hours

Solomon Cordwell Buenz (SCB) is an award‑winning architecture and design firm with offices in Chicago and San Francisco that was facing rapid data growth after a virtualization initiative. With nearly 14 TB of AutoCAD, PDFs, office files and databases, their tape‑based backups were taking about 108 hours each week (running from Friday night to Wednesday morning), so IT needed a backup solution optimized for virtual environments to shorten the backup window and improve recoverability.

SCB deployed Veeam Backup & Replication alongside a two‑site ExaGrid system (with the ExaGrid–Veeam Accelerated Data Mover), replicating data nightly between sites. The combined solution uses source and zone‑level deduplication, runs synthetic fulls on the appliance, and provides faster restores—cutting full backup times from 108 hours to about 36 hours—while offering easier management, scalability, and quicker recovery (seconds to minutes).

Solomon Cordwell Buenz

Pat Stammer

Systems Administrator, Solomon Cordwell Buenz