The storage and backup environment of the Christian mental health organization Eleos was in need of replacement. The stability of the environment fell short of the high demands of the healthcare facility. Moreover, the management required a lot of capacity from the compact IT team. In consultation with PQR, Eleos chose Nutanix’s reliable hyperconverged server/storage solution. For backup, the choice fell on Rubrik. Eleos does most of the management itself, but PQR Lifecycle Services provides additional support and ensures continuity with periodic audits.
About Eleos
Eleos is specialist in christelijke geestelijke gezondheidszorg.About Eleos The mental health organization’s 650 employees work from the belief that faith and psychological functioning are inextricably linked. Within this approach, the organization is convinced of the power of social connections such as family, school and church. Eleos operates with 35 branches throughout the Netherlands and offers various types of support, from clinic and sheltered housing to outpatient help.
Facilitating growth
A reliable storage and backup environment is crucial to Eleos’ services. Michiel van Nieuw Amerongen, network administrator and IT department coordinator, explains: “Our storage environment was at the end of its useful life. The technology was no longer stable and we were using physical tapes. We regularly had to go to our data center in Amsterdam to replace disks and resolve incidents. In addition, the capacity was too limited, especially as Eleos continues to grow.” Backup and restore also had limitations. “Keeping the backups in the air was a hefty burden on our compact IT team. Backups took a lot of time and had to be checked continuously. Opportunities for quick restores were also limited.”
Smoother IT processes
After a market survey and a demo by PQR, the combination of Nutanix and Rubrik proved to be the best solution for Eleos. Van Nieuw Amerongen: “Our storage is now appliance-based. The process has fewer links and the footprint in the data center is smaller, while we now have ample capacity. The IT process runs smoother and there are fewer outages, giving our team more room for innovation and projects.” Another benefit is the decrease in management burden. “We now do maintenance during the day and without disrupting daily operations. An upgrade is done with a few commands and we can quickly install new servers for a test environment. That is a matter of rolling out an image and takes only a few minutes instead of hours or even days. For example, we can facilitate the BI department better and faster.”
No data loss
Greater reliability and less management were also the main arguments for revamping the backup and restore environment, according to Van Nieuw Amerongen. “The backup was tape-based and very labor intensive. It was almost a day’s work to manage, check and if necessary restart all the jobs. Especially within a healthcare organization, the risk of data loss is not acceptable. In case of incidents, it was cumbersome to restore files, making it difficult to provide colleagues with the requested service.”
Minutes instead of days
In consultation with PQR, Eleos chose Rubrik. “This solution combines seamlessly with Nutanix and is very reliable and easy to use. You link a new virtual server to the Rubrik SLA and then know for sure that the backup is well taken care of. Management is actually replaced by monitoring. The dashboard quickly gives an up-to-date picture of the situation. It is a big advantage that the help desk can now keep an eye on the backup. If there does happen to be a problem with a job, they can solve it independently or restore a file in minutes. In the past, that was a lot of figuring out that could sometimes take days.”
Continuity guaranteed
Eleos transitioned “as is” to the new storage and backup environment. Van Nieuw Amerongen: “But we are definitely looking ahead. In time, for example, we also want to start using the Acropolis Hypervisor.” For the new environment, Eleos chose consulting, project management and Lifecycle Services from PQR. “PQR has been our IT partner for projects for many years. They know our environment and know where our priorities lie. They combine this experience with in-depth knowledge of the latest technological developments. Basically, Eleos does the management of the Nutanix and Rubrik environment itself. “Still, it’s nice that we have fixed maintenance moments and can be sure that our environment will be closely scrutinized then. The results of this check are the basis for our project planning. That way the continuity of our IT environment is guaranteed and we don’t encounter any surprises.”