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CASE STUDY
Griffiths & Armour GroupSangfor WAN Optimization Has Significantly Improved the Disaster Recovery Plan
ABOUT SANGFOR WANO
www.sangfor.net
Cost e�ective WANO solutions for midsize enterprises
IN BRIEF Customer Profile:
Griffiths & Armour Group, one of the UK’s leading independent insurance brokers and risk managers, is
headquartered in Liverpool with five branch offices in Glasgow, Manchester, London, Dublin and Guernsey.
The firm found it increasingly important to have a reliable disaster recovery plan that would ensure the
security of its data in the event of a disaster. Griffiths & Armour deployed Sangfor WAN optimization
devices to improve its data backup process and enhance its disaster recovery plan.
Challenge: Meeting Recovery Point Objectives
The major problem Griffiths & Armour faced was that the large amount of data needed to transfer to
Glasgow was causing performance problems with its Veeam replication software. This meant the company
was in danger of not meeting its recovery point objectives. Hence, there was an urgent need to reduce the
level of data transmission and improve data replication and backup speeds. In addition, the firm needed
to ensure business continuity through an effective disaster recovery plan.
All of Griffiths & Armour’s servers and databases are aggregated through a storage area network (SAN)
in Liverpool, which serves as the firm’s main data center. The main servers have been virtualized using
VMWare vSphere, meaning that several servers can run on the same physical machine. Griffiths & Armour
“Our data is growing
really fast. It is extremely
important to securely protect
the contents of our SAN.”
Industry
>> Financial Services Company
Challenges:
>> Improve disaster recovery speed
>> Ensure business continuity after a disaster
Solution:
>> Sangfor WAN optimization has increased
backup frequency, minimizing potential
data loss
Benefits:
>> Increased disaster recovery speed
>> Enabled business continuity
>> Reduced traffic by more than 70 percent
Sangfor WAN Optimization Controller brings
the latest technologies together to improve
the efficiency of the network and accelerate
the customer's business.
>> Link optimization
>> Streamline application
>> Data deduplication
>> Bandwidth management
>> Comprehensive reporting
>> Virtual WANO and software client.
“We’re looking to back up at
least twice a day, so in the event
of an incident, we lose no more
than half a day’s worth of data.”
runs Citrix, enabling more than 200 users to access
centralized applications and data via remote desktop
sessions. Users are constantly making changes to the
data and writing to the SAN. “Our data is growing really
fast. It is extremely important to securely protect the
contents of our SAN,” said Chris Yue, Griffiths & Armour’s
IT operations manager.
The company looked at various solutions, including a bandwidth upgrade and WAN optimization solutions
from several suppliers. Having previously tried and failed with other products, Griffiths & Armour didn’t
want to make the wrong choice.
Solution: Sangfor WAN optimization has increased the frequency of backups,
minimizing the potential for data loss
Sangfor provided WAN optimization solutions to the disaster recovery site and branch office in Liverpool
and Glasgow. A mirrored data system was set up to replicate the data in Liverpool to Glasgow. The purpose
of the mirroring arrangement was to provide a fully functioning alternative site to Liverpool, so that if the
Liverpool office suddenly becomes unavailable for any reason, staff at the branch offices can simply switch
their connections over to Glasgow and keep working, maintaining business continuity.
In addition, Sangfor’s WAN optimization solution for
Griffiths & Armour utilizes application proxy and byte
cache technologies to greatly reduce the number of
packets and interactions traveling over the WAN, which
increases backup frequency and minimizes potential
data loss. “We’re looking to back up at least twice a day,
so in the event of an incident, we lose no more than half
a day’s worth of data,” said Yue.
ABOUT SANGFOR
ABOUTGRIFFITHSANDARMOUR
Benefits: Sangfor WAN Optimization Has Improved the Disaster Recovery Plan
“Sangfor WAN optimization
has put us back on track
and given us realistic
recovery point objectives.”
“Everything worked better
than we expected. Return
on investment was
achieved in the first year.”
With a free proof-of-concept demonstration by Sangfor,
Griffiths & Armour witnessed significant improvements
in its network and did not hesitate to purchase the
devices. “We took a no-obligation trial where the units
were deployed in Liverpool and Glasgow. During the trial,
we had some assistance with a few issues. We found the
technical support team was very helpful in resolving
them,” explained Yue.
Sangfor WAN optimization devices were able
to accelerate traffic by using two circuits as
opposed to one, reducing traffic by more than
70 percent. “Sangfor WAN optimization has put
us back on track and given us realistic recovery
point objectives,” said Yue.
As well as providing improved performance, the solution has been remarkably cost-effective. Compared
to a bandwidth upgrade and WAN optimization from other suppliers, Sangfor offers great savings.
“Everything worked better than we expected. Return on investment was achieved in the first year,”
concluded Yue.
[email protected] Sangfor Technologieswww.sangfor.net
[email protected] 2901 Tasman Dr., Suite 107
Santa Clara CA, 95054
Sangfor Technologieswww.sangfor.net (408) 520-7898
Griffiths & Armour is a leading independent
and privately owned UK insurance broker
and risk management adviser. Its client
profile encompasses corporate, professional,
commercial, public and individual sectors,
many of whom have a combination of
domestic and international exposures.
Founded in 2000, Sangfor, a global
networking devices and services provider,
offers the latest networking technologies
for mid-sized enterprises. And these
cost- effective WAN Optimization solutions
have been helping more than 28,000
customers around the world maintain their
competitive advantage.
