Case Study: Furman University achieves faster backups and streamlined disaster recovery with ExaGrid

Furman University Streamlines Backups and Disaster Recovery with ExaGrid

Furman University, a top undergraduate liberal arts college in Greenville, SC, was struggling with an aging tape library that consumed significant IT time for tape generation, swapping and offsite transport. Seeking a modern disk-to-disk backup solution that would reduce administration and improve recovery, the university evaluated options and moved away from tape.

Furman deployed a dual-site ExaGrid disk-based backup system (integrated with Symantec Backup Exec) that replicates nightly backups to an offsite DR appliance and uses post-process, zone-level deduplication. The result: a 22:1 dedupe ratio, nightly incrementals reduced from 5–6 hours to about 90 minutes, faster restores and disaster recovery, simple setup and management, responsive support, and easy scalability by adding appliances.

Furman University

Russell Ensley

Systems Administrator