Unisys & EMC Insurance Companies
Breakthrough: EMC Insurance Companies Improves Business Continuity with SAN Solution
Imagine it.
Enhance business performance and eliminate costly downtime by providing full disaster recovery for the company’s open server environment.

Done.

EMC Insurance Companies created an innovative storage area network (SAN) solution with help from Unisys technical consulting services.

Better Business Continuity Through Storage Consolidation

EMC Insurance Companies deployed a SAN solution to more fully address business continuance requirements and respond to growing information management needs – without incurring undue management overhead.

 

Metrics

Business Challenge: Cost-Effective Business Continuance and Timely Disaster Recovery 

Headquartered in Des Moines, Iowa, EMC Insurance Companies has been serving policyholders and independent insurance agents for more than 90 years. Today, EMC is one of the largest property and casualty companies in Iowa with more than 2,300 employees and assets exceeding $2 billion – putting it in the ranks of the top 60 insurance organizations in the United States.

 

EMC had a well-established backup and disaster recovery (DR) plan for mainframes, but it didn’t address EMC’s growing open server environment. The insurer has a responsibility to deliver DR support to all branch offices and independent agents. As the number of open servers grew, EMC found it was unable to recover these systems in the 24-hour recovery time objective. In fact, testing showed that some servers would take from 24 to 36 hours for recovery while others would not be recovered at all.

 

EMC engaged longtime business partner, Unisys, to fully assess its server backup and disaster recovery requirements and recommend new procedures for cost-effective business continuity.

 

The assessment service led to a proof-of-concept initiative based on the deployment of a 100-percent fibre storage area network (SAN). EMC found that the SAN clearly outperformed the localized disk environment and could complete backups for all servers and drives in about four hours – totaling 2 to 3 terabytes of data. Previously, nightly backups were barely completed before the next business day started.

 

Solution: SAN Architecture and Technology

As a result of the services, EMC asked Unisys to implement the SAN, which initially included EMC CLARiiON FC4700 networked storage systems, Brocade 1200 switches and StorageTek L700 tape libraries with 9840 tape drives.

 

When we knew that we had issues with our disaster recovery plan, we knew that Unisys was the right service provider to help us find a solution. Their solution using a storage area network greatly simplified our disaster recovery plan.
Ron Zoss
Manager, Tech Support and Operations
EMC Insurance Companies

“When we knew that we had issues with our disaster recovery plan, we knew that Unisys was the right service provider to help us find a solution,” recalls Ron Zoss, manager, Tech Support and Operations. “Their solution using a storage area network greatly simplified our disaster recovery plan.”

 

The SAN deployment went smoothly, with Unisys helping every step of the way. “Unisys consultants weren’t here to simply set up the SAN and make sure it worked. They were here to walk us through and transfer all the knowledge they could,” explains Mike Lucas, associate operating systems analyst.

 

Since it was first deployed in 2001, the SAN has grown significantly. It now uses EMC CLARiiON CX700 storage. In addition, combining mainframe and open systems tape requirements led to the deployment of StorageTek Powderhorn 9310 tape libraries. Management costs have remained low. “Even though we're managing 10 times the amount of storage now, manageability has stayed the same,” Lucas says.

 

EMC Insurance reduced its recovery window dramatically through the use of EMC MirrorView software to provide near real-time replication of data over distance. “MirrorView allows us to replicate hot, live data to our backup site,” explains Lucas. “Now we can recover servers within 15 minutes of a failure, not the hours it took using tape.”

 

The end result is a rock-solid business continuity position for EMC Insurance Companies. EMC has two production data centers located 30 miles apart. Each location supports production mainframe and open system applications and functions as a backup site for the other.

 

Results: A Secure Future

EMC Insurance Companies continues to reap the benefits of its SAN environment, including:

I don't know that we would be where we are today if we hadn't taken advantage of Unisys services.
Rick Gass
Senior Vice President, Productivity and Technology
EMC Insurance Companies

“Thanks to Unisys, we now have a SAN structure where we share all of the disk space for all of the servers and all of our mainframes,” says Rick Gass, senior vice president, Productivity and Technology. “I don't know that we would be where we are today if we hadn't taken advantage of Unisys services.” 

 

A total of approximately 80 servers now reside on the SAN – more than double the number initially supported. Data from 50 hardware platforms, including Unisys ES2000, ES3000 and ES5000 servers and ES3100 blade servers plus two SUN servers, is replicated to the SAN, backed up to tape and mirrored to the DR site.

 

“The SAN solution provides us with a more stable server environment,” says Gass. “As we continue to move more business-critical applications onto the Web, we are confident that we will be able to provide our insurance agents with reliable service.”

 

The insurer has been growing quickly, yet SAN management has stayed low and security remains high. “EMC Insurance Companies’ data storage needs have been growing by leaps and bounds, but storage management has stayed on an even keel,” explains Lucas. “And as far as securing that data, our growth hasn't added any more challenges – which is a huge positive.”

 

The SAN solution will continue to evolve to support EMC Insurance Companies’ growing business, according to Lucas: “Working with Unisys and EMC, we're going to implement information lifecycle management (ILM) in its entirety in 2006. This will allow us to place data, based upon its value, on the most cost-effective hardware solution.” He adds, “By the end of 2006, we will have multiple Brocade 48000 directors and three EMC CX700s in each site – plus an EMC Centera at each site for ILM.”

 

There's a lot of trust there. We know the Unisys and EMC partnership has the people that can keep us abreast of new technologies.
Ron Zoss
Manager, Tech Support and Operations
EMC Insurance Companies

The Relationship: Trust

“Unisys created an end-to-end solution for EMC Insurance Companies,” says Zoss. “They brought EMC, Brocade and StorageTek together to implement our storage area network and completed that project successfully.” He adds, “There's a lot of trust there. We know the Unisys and EMC partnership has the people that can keep us abreast of new technologies. They'll evaluate our current system and recommend upgrades, recommend changes to improve our business. And we expect to continue that relationship.”

 

Profile: EMC Insurance Companies

Solution at a Glance


 

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