Remote Electronic Storage Solutions

Remote Electronic Storage Solutions

(RESS)

Partnership
I.S. Solution Center

Storage Technology Corporation
2270 South 88th Street
Louisville, Colorado 80028 USA

In The Beginning

Mounting and dismounting tapes was once one of the most manual, error-prone, time-consuming operations in Information Systems (I.S.). StorageTek’s Automated Cartridge Systems (ACS's) eliminated this costly process and brought tape automation to the data center. However, customers saw additional benefit that could be derived from the ACS, a solution to offsite vaulting of backup tapes and the ability to implement self-administered hot-site disaster recovery.

Based upon customer request for an automated solution versus manual tape movement, StorageTek Nearline marketing, working in concert with StorageTek I.S. designed and implemented Remote Electronic Storage Solution (RESS). StorageTek I.S. was selected as a partner because of the expertise that existed in the area of business resumption and due to the fact that their offsite tape movement and disaster recovery process assimilated other customer environments.

StorageTek’s I.S. disaster recovery process consisted of creating two tape backup copies and sending one to an offsite vendor for storage on a daily basis. I.S. contracted with another vendor for hotsite recovery in the event of a disaster. Recovery and testing required identifying, boxing, and shipping the backup tapes from the storage vendor to the hotsite vendor. The disaster recovery process only included mainframe systems. Client/server and network disaster recoveries were still in the planning process.

StorageTek I.S. was tasked with developing, implementing and proving the RESS concept. In addition, I.S. would demonstrate the RESS solution through customer tours (customers would actually fly to Longmont on a helicopter to see RESS and tape manufacturing), adding creditability with customers that we use our own solutions. This demonstrated an internal partnership between I.S. and marketing to develop, implement, and showcase viable storage solutions.

The Plan

A project team was established for the StorageTek I.S. RESS design and implementation. The concept was new and required extra effort in the planning and design phases. However, the implementation was successful, on schedule and with no major roadblocks.

The StorageTek I.S. RESS costs consisted of $434,000 for capital equipment, supplies, network, etc. Approximately $400,000 for expense items like maintenance and depreciation. It should be noted that STK equipment costs were at the internal cost. There was an additional estimated $200,000 to build the RESS data center in building 10, Longmont. The total cash outlay to implement RESS was just over $1 million. StorageTek I.S. people resources were not included in the cost, as the project became a part of their job. The total ongoing yearly cost including maintenance and depreciation was $196,000 for the first 4 years.

Tangible Savings

RESS reduced the use of an offsite storage facility providing hard dollar savings of approximately $2,400 per month or $28,800 per year of ongoing expenditure. Also several hours per day of operator’s time was saved by the elimination of ejecting and boxing tapes for offsite shipment.

Even more significant in terms of cost savings was the elimination of a mainframe hotsite provider at a cost of over $400,000 per year. RESS enabled future client/server and network hotsite solutions to be implemented using an internal hotsite solution versus paying more hotsite recovery costs to an outside provider. Estimates to have a full mainframe, client/server, and network hotsite provider were almost $1,000,000 per year. While RESS is not a hotsite solution by itself, it is the enabler of a self-administered hotsite. Without the ability to automatically create and restore critical information from an offsite copy, an internal solution would not prove cost-effective.

Intangible savings were recognized by having the data offsite at the time of creation versus physically shipping the backups the next day.

From a corporate perspective, as of March 1995, an estimated $227 million in StorageTek revenue could be contributed to the implementation and demonstration of RESS. This figure has increased since then but has not been tied directly to RESS.

The Net Result

So in summary, RESS provided an automated offsite tape solution and enabled implementation of a full internal hotsite solution. This justified the RESS project from both a StorageTek corporate and I.S. viewpoint.

Since the original "proof of concept" in StorageTek I.S., many external customers have implemented the RESS solution generating more than $200 million in revenue to the corporation.

This is a prime example of what the StorageTek I.S. Showcase Group can provide to other organizations within the corporation and to the "bottom-line."

Contact your StorageTek representative for additional information.

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