Case Study: California Department of Education achieves faster, scalable backups and avoids forklift upgrades with ExaGrid

California Dept of Ed Faces Forklift Upgrade, Replaces EMC Data Domain with ExaGrid System

The California Department of Education, which supports public education across the state, faced a capacity crisis when its EMC Data Domain system required a costly forklift upgrade. With roughly 1,900 users at headquarters and additional statewide users, the agency sought a more scalable, cost-effective backup solution that would integrate with its existing Symantec NetBackup environment.

They deployed ExaGrid’s GRID-based appliances (initially two EX21000E systems, later adding two more), gaining easy scale-out capacity, lower acquisition costs and about 25% reduced maintenance. Backups now handle ~11 TB, run much faster (previously Friday night to late Sunday, now finishing by Sunday morning), restores are quicker from the landing zone, and post-process deduplication delivers a 14:1 data reduction allowing three months of retention — all with simpler management and responsive support, eliminating the need for future forklift upgrades.

California Department of Education

John jackson

Backup and LAN Administrator