FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
It's Second Time Lucky for TDK in the Search for a High Availability Solution
SYDNEY,
NSW, AUSTRALIA, (November 23, 2005)
Running a high availability (HA)
and disaster recovery (DR) solution in-house not only provides a 24 hour, 7 day
a week real-time backup system, it can cost less than what offsite Disaster Recovery
providers charge, without the delays and uncertainties associated with a third-party
service.
TDK, a world leader in audio, video and data recording solutions
and a household name in Australia, can vouch for this. After examining all their
options, the company chose to take DR and HA in-house. In 2004, to accommodate
the ever-growing automation of the business, TDK upgraded to a new IBM iSeries
as their main Server. At the same time, recognising that any downtime of this
main system would affect the company's ability to service its customers nationwide,
TDK looked at different DR and HA options to limit its exposure.
Says
Scott Brownscombe, General Manager of Finance at TDK, "In Australia TDK is
a small, but high profile company, and like many single iSeries installations,
we thought an in-house DR / HA solution would be prohibitive and an unnecessary
drain on resources. However, after comparing the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)
of various solutions over 3 years, we found that running a HA solution on a new
iSeries 800 with a 170 as backup at our warehousing facility (30km from the main
Server at Head Office) was not only more cost effective, but would guarantee us
access in the event of a disaster, and put control in our hands."
The company found an HA solution at a reasonable price it believed would do the
job. However, soon after the start of installation, problems arose.
Harris
Kalenderian, IT Manager at TDK notes, "The HA product we initially chose
proved difficult to use and configure, and never went into full production. We
also found that we couldn't replicate new or modified programs in TDK's ERP software.
We worked at resolving this issue over a period of months until, in 2005, our
business partner, Team Computing, suggested we look at iTera."
Team Computing's Peter
Sanderson goes on to say, "HA users who have been disappointed they couldn't
get a traditional HA system to work or found that the latency and CPU overhead
were unacceptable should have a second look."
"We
recommended iTera's Echo² solution to TDK as over 30% of Echo²'s sales
have been made replacing other solutions for these reasons (as well as the massive
cost savings). Conversely Echo² has never been replaced by any other HA solution."
Kalendrian continues, "Although we didn't want to give up on our current
HA software, when you take into account that every installation of iTera's Echo²
is a success because iTera oversee the installation until a successful rollover
is performed, the decision to change was easy."
"We
were pleasantly surprised when the installation of Echo² proved simple and
straightforward. Training was just as simple and included setting up our system
for replication. There was nothing technical about the setups, they were all menu
driven and we were running live on Echo², immediately afterwards."
"As for using Echo² on a day to day basis, TDK find the daily and
weekly monitoring a breeze, taking just minutes a day." Says Kalenderian,
"Because Echo² is menu driven it's easy to use, and its self-correcting
capabilities mean that user intervention hasn't been required to fix any problems."
Kalenderian concludes, "Once we found Echo², HA became simple.
The software does its job simply, and efficiently, and that provides great peace
of mind. I know that in the event of unplanned downtime we'll be up and running
in minutes - not hours, and not days."
About TDK (Aust)
Pty Ltd:
Employing 30,000 people globally, TDK is the world leader in
audio, video and data recording solutions and is a household name in Australia.
Its products include cassettes, CDs, video tapes, camcorders, speakers, headphones,
DVDs and flash memory cards.
About
Team Computing
Team Computing Australia Pty Ltd was formed with the aim
of providing outstanding customer service through the very best IT solutions based
upon client's needs. The company's references are the "Who's Who of Australian
medium-sized Companies." Team Computing specialiSes in iSeries (AS/400s),
all brands of PCs and accessories, networks and their interconnectivity for all
size businesses.
We are a major sales and support organisation for IMAS in
Australia, having installed all of the core and complimentary modules of IMAS,
many times, and interfaced IMAS to almost everything! We are dedicated to its
support and on-going enhancement. Our clients - the large and the small - know
that whatever they need, they can call us, whether it's for a mouse pad, a technical
query, or a million dollar project. It's what we're here for, and always have
been. Our consultants, each with an average of about 15 years experience provide
the highest level of expert technical support for our clients - including specialist
advice with the best products, service and support.
For more information send an email to team@teamcomputing.com.au, or call +61 2 9438 4333.
