National Staffing Firm Consolidates Storage
and Backup Systems

Snelling and MTI

Snelling Personnel Services ranks among the nation's largest staffing firms, operating 200-plus offices across North America. Snelling is located in Dallas, Texas.

The IT Challenge

As one of the nation's premier staffing firms, Snelling Personnel Services is responsible for processing payroll for more than 13,500 people per week. Like many companies, Snelling's storage and data protection infrastructure had grown and evolved over time, and was ready for a new approach and technology refresh. Indicative of the infrastructure's evolution, Snelling had multiple disparate backup systems and storage islands. Snelling used a Quantum 7100 to back up their Intel servers that shared two CLARiiON FC4500s, an Exabyte 440 to back up the test and production data residing on a Symmetrix 3930, and direct attached tape drives to back up their e-mail and DMZ servers. The existing solution required multiple hardware maintenance contracts, multiple licenses for the backup software, three types of tape media and multiple storage management skills. Snelling turned to MTI to consolidate their backup to a single device, improve application backup and recovery processes and implement a unified storage environment thus increasing their operational scalability, significantly reducing maintenance costs and decreasing demands on IT personnel.

The Solution

Snelling relied on MTI to access, design and implement a storage and data management solution that would address their current set of issues, as well as meet future scalability and operational needs. MTI's expertise encompasses complete storage infrastructure, including storage network design (SAN and NAS), implementation and management of data backup, data recovery, archiving, automated tape libraries and full service 24x7 support.

In order to reduce complexity, cut maintenance costs and provide scalability for future demand, MTI recommended the migration of all of Snelling's production, test and development databases from their Symmetrix 3930, along with all Windows-based storage from the CLARiiON FC4500s to a new CLARiiON CX400-based Fibre Channel SAN. Snelling chose MTI for this implementation because of their outstanding Professional Services team, which completed the integration and data migration required without disrupting service to Snelling's core business.

The Implementation

MTI's backup implementation involved updating Snelling's Quantum P2000, which had been purchased several years earlier, but had not been put into use. MTI updated the P2000 with SDLT 320 drives, upgraded the microcode on the P2000, installed and configured a new backup server, upgraded and reconfigured Legato and implemented dynamic drive sharing to support multiple storage nodes. MTI's Professional Services team took approximately one month to complete implementation on the project.

The storage project for Snelling required extensive integration. MTI provided the initial design for the data layout, parceling the storage based on application needs, and determination of the appropriate RAID levels based on the criticality of the data and the required performance. Following this, hardware and software were installed and configured. MTI consolidated Fiber Channel storage from the Symmetric 3930 and (2) CLARiiON FC 4500's to a single EMC CLARiiON CX400. Data migration for file systems and databases for both Windows and Solaris systems was then performed. EMC SnapView was implemented and configured on the CX400 for the protection and rapid recovery of Snelling's critical applications.

In addition, MTI's expert Professional Services consultants worked closely with Snelling's IT staff to provide complete knowledge transfer on the operation and support of the integrated backup and storage solution.

The MTI installation included:

• EMC CX400 SAN implementation
• EMC SnapView implementation
• Update P2000 to SDLT 320 drives
• Brocade Fibre Channel switches
• Data migration from multiple applications and storage platforms
• Upgraded and reconfigure Legato
• Windows and Solaris system configuration

"MTI came in and assessed our existing operations and worked with us to build a solid business case to present to our Board of Directors," explained Robert Wakefield, vice president of information systems, Snelling Staffing, LLC "Once we had the sign-off, MTI's Professional Services team executed a very successful migration without interrupting our business."

The Results

"MTI helped us increase our operations scalability, while reducing our costs of operations by more than 53 percent annually."

The consolidation of Snelling's production systems to a single SAN significantly reduced maintenance costs and provides substantial room for growth. This also allowed Snelling to consolidate its service contracts. With MTI acting as the single source for all their maintenance needs, the company is now enjoying substantial benefits. "For more than 50 years, Snelling has developed a reputation for providing employees and clients with the highest level of service," added Wakefield. "MTI helped us increase our operations scalability, while reducing our costs of operations by more than 53 percent annually."

MTI recently provided Snelling with a Legato/AX100 component upgrade, for additional low-cost storage.

Technologies Implemented:

EMC CX400 SAN
Update P2000 to SDLT 320 drives
Brocade Fibre Channel switches
Upgraded and reconfigure Legato
Windows and Solaris system configuration
EMC SnapView Implementation

Services Offered:

Architected a complete storage and backup solution;
Consolidate 3 SANs down to 1; Consolidate 4 distinct storage systems down to 1;
Consolidate 3 tape libraries down to one; Data migration from multiple platforms;
Service and maintenance support; 24X7 Customer Support

Benefits Realized by Customer:

Highly scalable storage and enhanced backup infrastructure to meet future demands; Capability to increase quality and quantity of customer facing applications; Seamless transition with no down time; Reduced costs of operations by more than 53 percent annually

www.snelling.com

www.mti.com