Case Study: Spackenkill Union Free School District achieves faster, tape-free backups and rapid restores with ExaGrid

Spackenkill Union Free School District Gives ExaGrid High Marks for Backups

Spackenkill Union Free School District, a Poughkeepsie, NY district serving about 2,000 students, saw rapid data growth from new classroom technologies and struggled with time-consuming tape-based backups managed by non‑technical staff. Daily tape changes, long nightly full backups (4–6 hours) and retention concerns made the district look for a more efficient, scalable solution.

The district implemented an ExaGrid disk-based backup appliance that integrated with its existing Symantec Backup Exec and used byte‑level deduplication to reduce storage needs. The change eliminated tapes, cut backup times in half (nightly incrementals to ~30 minutes; full backups to 2–3 hours), made restores minutes instead of hours, and provided a cost‑effective, scalable platform for future growth.

Spackenkill Union Free School District

Brett Hasbrouck

Network Specialist