Case Study: Social & Scientific Systems (S3) cuts backup windows by 70% and slashes storage needs with ExaGrid

S3 Backs up Critical Research Data to ExaGrid

Social & Scientific Systems (S3), a Maryland-based research and IT services firm supporting NIH and epidemiology studies, was struggling with tape-based backups and strict SLAs that required 60 days of onsite retention. Daily differentials and staggered weekend fulls created long backup windows, frequent job retries and heavy tape-management overhead, and recent tape hardware purchases still left the environment poorly scalable and full of redundant data.

S3 deployed an ExaGrid disk-based backup appliance with zone-level deduplication (working with Symantec Backup Exec and vRanger), which was quick to install and simple to manage. The move cut SQL storage by 28:1 (685 GB to 23 GB), reduced pre-compressed data about 5:1, shortened backup windows by roughly 70% so weekend fulls finish by Sunday afternoon, and eliminated weekly tape handling—freeing staff time and enabling plans to replicate to a secondary ExaGrid for DR.

Social & Scientific Systems

Phil Sherrill

Systems Analyst