Indiana Wesleyan University Trades Data Backup Tapes for the Cloud

Do organizations still backup data on tapes? You may be surprised to find that at Indiana Wesleyan University (IWU), the largest private university in Indiana, data backup tapes have only recently been retired.

After years of storing data on tapes, the process finally became too cumbersome for IWU. Data retrieval led to stuck tapes and failing drives. Backing up data to tapes took several days, and then data had to be moved offsite for storage. This system left data unprotected from onsite disasters.

Last week, IWU announced its long overdue transition to cloud data storage. The university has adopted a storage solution from MMY Consulting. IWU backs its data up to the Nirvanix cloud using TwinStrata Cloud Array.

Demand for data storage has been a significant driver of cloud adoption. According to Bret Dunst, DreamHost's vice president of marketing, Amazon paved the way by showing other companies how much organizations were craving the data storage capacity, scalability and retrieval capabilities provided by the cloud.

"We realize that storage is huge right now," Dunst told MSPToday's group editorial director, Erik Linask. "Amazon S3 has shown the industry that there is a very voracious appetite for cost-effective, scalable storage."

The challenge of working with higher education institutions, according to MMY Consulting's practice director for cloud computing, Rod Rudd, is dealing with constraints around costs, maintenance and equipment lifecycles. MMY leverages its partnership with TwinStrata to help higher education institutions move past traditional storage infrastructure.

"With MMY, we provide organizations pay-as-you-go storage solutions that address all their needs without the maintenance headaches whether it's increasing capacity for encrypted offsite data protection, archive storage or primary storage for local campuses," explained Nicos Vekiarides, CEO of TwinStrata.

Advantages of cloud adoption for IWU include the ability to store up to 10 copies of data in the cloud environment, data encryption for improved security, the availability of additional CloudArray software licenses in a Virtual Machine configuration and 24/7 technical support.