BAKBONE NETVAULT GREASES THE SKIDS FOR RAPID BACKUPS AT WD-40

WD-40 Company, with headquarters in San Diego, is a global consumer products company with brands that deliver above expectation performance at extremely good value to end users who buy in a variety of trade channels. WD-40 Company produces multi-purpose lubricants, WD-40(R) and 3-IN-ONE(R), the Lava(R) and Solvol(R) brands of heavy-duty hand cleaners, and household products X-14(R), 2000 Flushes(R), Carpet Fresh(R), Spot Shot and 1001. WD-40 Company markets its products in more than 160 countries worldwide, and recorded sales of $242.5 million in fiscal year 2004.

The Challenge
WD40 Companys needed to ensure compliance with the latest regulations and while its back up window was shrinking the organisation needed rapid restores of critical applications. VERITAS BackUp Exec, which was at the time running the back up operations, was not meeting the organisations requirements and letting them down, with full backups taking three whole days and the software not flagging/reporting on the SQL server like it was supposed to.

The Solution
Following the recommendation of San Diego-based networked storage provider Zzyzx, WD-40 deployed BakBones NetVault for SQL to manage its data backup and recovery needs in its San Diego headquarters, including a number of mission-critical Web applications linked to a Microsoft SQL Server database, as well as all the company's IT department operations.

Using BakBone's Virtual Disk Library (VDL) technology, which redirects the backup stream to disk instead of tape, WD-40 is now able not only to speed up the backup process by 90 percent, but to significantly reduce the time required to restore data. NetVault is also working to address WD-40's Sarbanes-Oxley compliance needs by addressing the importance of maintaining the integrity and privacy of electronic data by fully archiving the data and restoring it when needed.

"I can now handle in 30 minutes what used to take me five hours -- it's tremendous," said Joy Puterbaugh, senior IS administrator at WD-40, citing the company's 90 percent improvement in time required to incrementally back up SQL Server. "I use the time saved to focus on more pressing tasks than worry about backups. Using NetVault, we sleep better knowing that our SQL data is backed up properly, which was a concern with our previous backup solution. Also, NetVault's enhanced reporting allows us to schedule reports on different aspects of NetVault's operation. Instead of receiving 18 emails now every time a job finishes, I get one fully comprehensive report tailored to my needs."

Another reason why WD40 Company switched to BakBones NetVault was the Virtual Disk Library capability as this enabled them to conduct full backups in less than 24 hours and incrementals in 4-6 hours. Additionally, WD40 found that BakBones NetVault handled the SQL server in a far more efficient manner than VERITAS back up exec and was less time-consuming thanks to its single, comprehensive report after each backup versus the previous softwares 18.

The Outcome
Thanks to BakBone's NetVault WD-40 Company has slashed the time it takes to conduct full backups by a third, simplified the back up process and ensured compliance.