Keeping a system running smoothly in adverse conditions is a special challenge - just ask Larry Douglas! General contractor Hunt-Kiewit Joint Venture assigned the computer guru that task during the construction of the Seattle Mariners' new Safeco Field.
Douglas was perpetually on call, handling all computer-related tasks. He researched, bought, and installed software and hardware; provided tech support; fixed glitches; trained employees; and programmed a little when necessary.
Douglas' task was to maintain business continuity in a fast-changing, temporary work site. His system had more than 200 workstations and five Windows NTŪ servers. Because of the vast amount of record keeping involved in such a huge project, and the unique hazards a construction site poses to computer equipment, Douglas ranked reliable backup and disaster recovery as a #1 priority.
Dependable performance by a server containing critical information could make the difference in whether concrete got poured or steel went up on time within budget. Even though each server had an uninterruptible power supply to protect from unreliable power, the construction site's special threats of dust, water and vibration caused severe problems. In this environment, "you are going to lose equipment," he said.
When the stadium project started, Douglas was using ARCserve from Computer Associates. Due to software reliability problems and technical support issues, he decided he couldn't depend on ARCserve.
After researching new products including Microsoft backup, he chose UltraBac, finding it clean, speedy and able to automatically back up open shared files. With comparable features, lower costs and a money back guarantee, "that made the decision right there," according to Douglas.
UltraBac provides a backup, storage management and disaster recovery system. The software has garnered praise for offering faster backup and retrieval, using less memory and disk, and being easier to use than competitors' products. UltraBac is scalable and was designed expressly for Windows NT, 2000 and XP.
Douglas made the switch just before the company moved. This occurred over two weekends, requiring all equipment and applications to be up and running each Monday morning. "I had to have something very dependable," he said.
The conversion was quick. He estimates his own purchase order took longer to get than it took to download the product. After 30-minutes of training, Douglas successfully backed up his system on the first night, and thanks to the logical design of the software, barely cracked the user's manual after that.
At first Douglas frequently spot-checked tapes to make sure he could restore, but after not finding any problems he backed off to checking only occasionally. "It operates so nicely, you essentially forget that it's there." He did however install all upgrades.
From the first backup, Douglas saw timesavings. He estimates UltraBac is one-third faster than ARCserve. UltraBac also paid off in crises - letting him find and restore needed files. "That's proof that this thing works," he said. Fortunately, he never had to test UltraBac's Disaster Recovery Feature - it restores a lost system from tape without reloading NT or any other software.
By the time the Mariners threw the first pitch on Safeco Field, Douglas had moved on to his next project, happy with his UltraBac experience. Douglas noted, "The only safety net you have is a backup."
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