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Since deploying Silver Peak wide area network (WAN) optimisation software, Symphony Group has reduced its recovery point to 20 seconds.

Following a complete data centre refresh last year, Symphony Group began to experience network performance issues between its main site in Barnsley and its DR location in Warwick. Using Veeam and IBM XIV storage, Symphony Group quickly found that the data mobility between the sites was being limited by the 100 megabit-per-second (Mbps) network bandwidth allowance, making it increasingly difficult for the company to meet its recovery point objectives (RPOs). With budget constraints in mind, Symphony Group required an affordable solution that would allow them to meet their RPOs - without needing to re-architect its existing network.

Symphony Group turned to leading technology consultancy, Krome, for a solution that would maximise replication throughput over the WAN. The company had tried and tested WAN optimisation in the past, but this time it was different. Symphony Group chose to deploy the Silver Peak Velocity Replication Acceleration (VRX) software, which was purpose-built for storage replication and could scale to over 1 gigabit-per-second (Gbps) connections. In addition, Silver Peak easily integrated with Symphony Group’s existing IBM XIV and Veeam appliances, and offered a budget-friendly flexible subscription pricing model.

“It is absolutely critical for our business operations that we are able to replicate data between our sites in a timely fashion,” said Ruth Rew, Group IT manager at Symphony Group. “Before deploying Silver Peak, we carried out a data centre refresh, which enabled us to asynchronously replicate all of our data to the DR site. However, this was essentially the grain of sand that tipped the scale. Our IT department could not move all of our data and achieve the RPO we required; furthermore the process was putting huge strain on our day to day business operations. Our main focus was to improve our RPO, which with Silver Peak’s software, has reduced dramatically from hours to just seconds.”

Since deploying Silver Peak, Symphony Group has been able to replicate 110GB of data per hour between the two sites with no performance issues, enabling the company to meet its stringent RPOs. The company is now able to use its existing 100 Mbps connection more effectively, without the need for a costly re-architecture of the network, or any upfront financial costs.

“Faced with a tight budget, we simply weren’t prepared to completely tear down our existing network infrastructure; a process that would have been extremely expensive,” continued Rew. “Silver Peak’s subscription pricing model made the whole process a lot more financially viable. As soon as we put Silver Peak in, the results were almost instant.”

“We have always had a good relationship with Symphony Group, so it was not only important that we delivered a high performance solution for their data movement needs, but also a solution that was easy to install and manage,” said Dee Mager, marketing director at Krome. “While it can often be quite a daunting process for companies on a strict budget, many make the mistake of just throwing additional bandwidth at the problem. However, with the right guidance, Symphony Group has avoided this common mistake and implemented the Silver Peak solution to replicate more data in a shorter period of time, without breaking the bank.”