Objective
Quicker, error-free backups and fast
data restores for end-users
Approach
Company quickly decided in favour
of HPE Data Protector Sof tware,
then compared a number of dierent
hardware solutions
Case Study
HEIDELBERG simplifies
backups and restores flexibility
Printing press manufacturer converts to HPE
Data Protector Software and HPE StoreOnce
IT Matters
• Shorter backup cycles and easier
administration of the entire
backup environment
• Combination of HPE StoreOnce
deduplication technology and LTO6
tapes has led to a 90 per cent
reduction in the number of
tapes required
• High degree of flexibility as the HPE
StoreOnce allows data to be stored on
a NAS, StoreOnce Catalyst or a virtual
tape library
• Option for IT administrators to
restore data remotely at the weekend
or overnight in the event of an
emergency (as they no longer have to
access the tape library)
Business Matters
• Faster restoration of unintentionally
deleted data for end-users, sometimes
within just a few minutes
• Higher data availability, partially due
to hourly backups via HPE StoreOnce
and HPE Data Protector Software
HEIDELBERG previously
backed up its businesscritical data to a tape library,
but this has now been
replaced by a combined
hardware and software
solution formed entirely
of HPE products: an HPE
StoreEver MSL 6480 Tape
Library with LTO6 tapes,
HPE Data Protector Software
9.0 and the HPE StoreOnce
4900 with deduplication
technology. This all HPE
solution has enabled the
company to create backups
and restores more flexibly
than ever before.
Challenge
Reliable backups, fast restores
Generations of printing companies all
over the world have built successful
businesses on the back of HEIDELBERG
machinery. Heidelberger Druckmaschinen
AG (HEIDELBERG) oers a wide range of
products for every stage of the printing
industry’s process and value creation chain
and digital workflows, from oset and digital
printing solutions to pre-press and postpress products and consumables. In addition
to this core business, the company also
oers a comprehensive suite of software
components which bring together all of
the processes printing companies carry
out on a day-to-day basis and provides
individual consulting services, covering
topics as varied as methods to increase
productivity in print shops, environmentally
friendly printing and tailored financing
solutions for investment projects.
Case study
HEIDELBERG
“We no longer have to worry about getting backups completed within
Industry
Engineering
certain time frames. The HPE StoreOnce deduplication feature has
removed the restrictions on our processes and enables us to carry out
backups and restores simultaneously. So we can backup data from
programmes such as Microsoft® SharePoint much more frequently and
incrementally throughout the day. This has made us much more flexible.”
— Peter Brecht, project manager and storage & backup administrator, HEIDELBERG
Page 2
“We are an important supplier and reliable
partner for the global printing industry. It
is therefore essential for us to ensure that
all of our employees around the world
can always access the data they need for
their processes. We can’t aord downtime,
so reliable backups and fast restores
are absolutely vital,” says Bernd Böckler,
Heidelberg’s global data centre manager.
And it is not just Heidelberg itself that needs
this data to be available at all times, many of
its customers do too. For the past 10 years,
HEIDELBERG has oered its internet based
Remote Service product to companies
around the world. What started o as an
online fault management system has been
expanded step by step towards more
preventative services. The product’s latest
feature is remote monitoring. This function
allows HEIDELBERG to detect imminent
machine errors at an early stage, long before
they actually cause the machines to fail.
Any restorative measures can then be taken
as part of the company’s service plan. This
gives its customers a high level of security in
terms of production planning and increases
machine availability dramatically.
Today, around 10,000 systems in 50
countries around the world are connected
to HEIDELBERG’s Remote Service platform,
and the company processes over 2,000
customer queries each month. Around
80 per cent of all electronic errors can be
resolved remotely, so this system represents
a powerful online service tool for technical
production facilities both inside and outside
of the print media industry.
The data required to provide this service, as
well as data from the company’s Microsoft®
Exchange system, file services and the
databases for many of its applications, is
stored in the company’s global data centre.
These applications include both oice
software and more specialised programs
used in areas such as production planning
and manufacturing.
As well as site-specific applications, the
global data centre also hosts a number of
applications for other production facilities
and sales and service units around the world
across a total of around 400 virtualised and
100 physical servers.
Ineicient tape storage
The storage area network at HEIDELBERG’s
global data centre currently holds around
170 TB of data with an additional 60 TB
of direct attached storage – and volumes
are only going to increase. Each day, all of
this data is backed up using an automated
process triggered by the HPE Data
Protector Software. The company’s previous
solution was an HPE StorageWorks ESL
712e tape library with 16 drives. It would
use up around 2000 LTO3 tapes each year.
Alongside this solution, the IT team also ran
an HPE StorageWorks 9000 Virtual Library
system, predominately for incremental or
temporary backups that would then be
used to transfer the data to the tapes for
permanent storage.
Case study
HEIDELBERG
Industry
Engineering
Page 3
“Due to the large number of tapes, the IT
team was spending an immense amount of
time on administration – mainly because we
chose to store the cassettes at a separate
location on the site for security reasons,”
remembers Peter Brecht, project manager
and the person responsible for storage and
backups at the data centre. “This meant that
restores could take a considerable amount
of time, and we didn’t want our end-users
to keep on having to wait. The number of
errors in the backups was also on the rise.
Each morning, my colleagues and I would
have to first check if there had been any
interruptions to the backups overnight,
and if so, we had to restart the process
from that point.”
Due to the ever-increasing data volumes,
some backups took up to 24 hours. “This
became a real problem as by that point
the next backup would already have been
triggered,” says Brecht.
Solution
Comprehensive solution from HPE
HEIDELBERG decided to look for a new,
modern backup solution. The IT team
began by creating a concept for the new
infrastructure and defining their catalogue
of requirements. “The first thing we agreed
was that we wanted to continue using HPE
Data Protector,” says Böckler. “We went to an
event where HPE told us about the (then)
latest 8.0 version. What we learned there
convinced us that this would be the best
product to meet our needs.”
“When version 9.0 was released shortly
afterwards, there was no doubt in our minds
- we were ready to move over.”
But the question of which hardware to use
proved slightly more diicult. The company
eventually narrowed down its selection of
systems from three dierent manufacturers.
“In the end, the main selling point was
the fact that it is an all HPE solution: the
combination of the HPE StoreEver MSL
6480 Tape Library, LTO6 tapes, HPE Data
Protector Software 9.0 and the integrated
HPE StoreOnce 4900 system means that
we aren’t restricted when it comes to things
such as the connectivity options available,”
explains Böckler. “With HPE StoreOnce,
HEIDELBERG can choose to store its
backups on either a NAS, StoreOnce
Catalyst or a virtual tape library.”
Brecht comments: “We would not have been
able to have all of these options had we
chosen to source components from dierent
manufacturers. HEIDELBERG currently uses
all three types of data storage. We have
optimised the system’s performance by
using HPE StoreOnce Catalyst over Fibre
Channel as it means we no longer have to
back up physical servers connected directly
to the SAN via IP. We can now run part
of the backup via the 8 GB Fibre Channel
network, thereby relieving some of the IP
traic. So we can spread the load better.”
Case study
HEIDELBERG
Industry
Engineering
Customer at a glance
Hardware
• HPE StoreEver MSL 6480
Tape Library
• HPE StoreOnce 4900
Software
• HPE Data Protector Software v9.0
HEIDELBERG
HEIDELBERG achieved global
sales of around 2.33 billion Euros
in the 2014/2015 financial year.
Around 60 per cent of these sales
came from its new machinery
business, which covers everything
from printing presses for sheet
oset, digital and flexo printing to
prepress and postpress machines
and software which brings all of
a printing company’s processes
together. The remaining
40 per cent came from services,
consumables and replacement
parts. HEIDELBERG employs
around 12,000 people across
the globe.
Benefits
High backup flexibility
One of the main benefits Böckler highlights
is the HPE StoreOnce deduplication
technology, which identifies and eliminates
redundant data before it is backed up
– either on the application server, the
backup server or even the target appliance
itself. This is because the deduplication
algorithm is fully integrated into the backup
and recovery process and not linked to a
hardware platform or an operating system.
“We are achieving a deduplication rate of
8.5 to 1,” says Böckler. “And by using new
LTO6 drives, we have managed to reduce
the number of tapes we store by 90 per
cent to just 200. This makes the backups
much easier for us to manage. The main
advantage for the other departments is that
we can restore data for them much faster
than we could do before as we now backup
everything to the HPE StoreOnce and only
store a few tape copies.” Brecht explains:
“We can even restore data from home if
an emergency occurs at night or over
the weekend.”
Another key benefit is that backups taking
24 hours to complete are now almost
unheard of. “We no longer have to worry
about getting backups completed within
certain time frames. The wide variety of
connectivity options the HPE StoreOnce
oers has removed the restrictions on
our processes and enables us to carry out
backups and restores simultaneously.
So we can backup data from catalogue
such as Microsoft® SharePoint much more
frequently and incrementally throughout
the day. It has made us much more flexible,”
says Brecht.
This backup flexibility could also be rolled
out to the company’s other sites, which
are currently running their own solutions.
The global data centre is considering
whether to connect individual sites to
the headquarters via HPE StoreOnce
Virtual Storage Appliances (VSA) so that
deduplication processes can be carried
out using one single technology. Böckler
comments: “This would mean that local
backups could be created on the appliance
and replicated to the HPE StoreOnce here at
the headquarters. The individual sites would
then no longer have to handle tape backups
at all.”
Learn more at
hpe.com/software
hpe.com/storage
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© Copyright 2016 Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP. The information contained herein is subject to change without
notice. The only warranties for Hewlett Packard Enterprise products and services are set forth in the express warranty statements
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Hewlett Packard Enterprise shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein.
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4AA6-3128EEW, January 2016
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