AutoVirt, provider of file virtualization and data management solutions, today announced that A&W Food Services of Canada, one of Canada‘s largest and fastest growing restaurant chains, is implementing a virtualized file storage environment with AutoVirt.
The AutoVirt solution was chosen to replace existing StorageX technology, as AutoVirt offered a more advanced and easier to use solution for the management of backend corporate file systems, over the soon to be end-of-lifed StorageX technology. A&W’s new virtualized environment, which will come online without any disruption to users, will enable A&W to completely reorganize its file environment for streamlined backup, retention and security policies, leading to tremendous improvements in operational efficiency and dramatic cost savings.
When Bruce Jamieson, the company’s Network Systems Manager, joined the Corporate IT Department about five years ago, he inherited a number of challenges, especially in regards to the company’s backend file storage environment. The file system had very little structure, making it impossible for Jamieson to separate the relatively few files that required specialized policy-based treatment from the rest of the data. As a result, Jamieson needed to apply the same expensive backup, retention and security policies to all the files in his environment. Jamieson needed to find a solution that would enable him to clean up, and then more easily manage the company’s backend corporate file data. After an extremely successful server virtualization initiative, he was sold on the value of virtualization and decided to apply a virtualization solution to his file infrastructure as well.
Jamieson also plans to leverage AutoVirt’s file virtualization capabilities to consolidate how his users view and access their files, making it easier for them to find what they are looking for. Jamieson will be able to archive unused files to lower-cost SATA drives, shrink A&W’s backup window, and apply appropriate retention policies to data after users leave the company. These activities all result in hard and soft savings across disk, tape, hardware, software and operational processes.
Leave a Reply