Case Study: Grand River Conservation Authority achieves rapid, no-compromise data protection and disaster recovery with HPE Nimble Storage

Nimble Storage Enables Rapid, No-Compromise Data Protection and Disaster Recovery for GRCA

Grand River Conservation Authority (GRCA) manages water and natural resources across a 6,800 km² watershed in Southwestern Ontario, serving nearly one million residents. Faced with rapidly growing GIS and database files, unreliable tape-based backups and increasing backup windows that routinely exceeded 24 hours, GRCA risked significant productivity losses and was unable to meet its recovery objectives.

GRCA deployed Nimble Storage arrays (production and DR) and InfoSight, moving SQL, Exchange, file shares and Hyper-V to disk-based snapshot protection and a low-cost DR site on a 10 Gbps link. The change cut RPOs for critical systems from one day to under one hour, eliminated the lengthy nightly differential window, saved over $6K/year in backup licensing, reduced admin time by about 10 hours/week, and lowered power/cooling costs—delivering faster, more reliable backups and much simpler disaster recovery.

Grand River Conservation Authority

Mark McKinnon

Information Technology Architect