SiliconANGLE's theCube presented a spotlight on backup and recovery at VMworld 2011. Guest Link Alander, Associate Vice-Chancellor of Lone Star College System, met with Dave Vellante, Co-Founder of Wikibon to discuss how they use backup and recovery in the education arena.
The Lone Star College System is the largest community college system in the Houston, Texas area, and soon to be the largest in the entire state. From an IT aspect, there was a challenge in its ability to meet the current demand of almost 100,000 students, having grown from 63,000 students in 2008 to the 100K range in 2011. It currently has six campuses online over a span of 1400 square miles. They need the ability to provide services from the infrastructure side, as well as operational support needed at the campus level.
Alander proclaimed, "The best opportunity you can ever have is the opportunity to rip and replace everything." In just eighteen months they implemented an entire centralized VM environment, a new WAN structure to support it, and increased from 5% virtualization to 93%. They expect to reach the 98% virtualization mark and maintain it by the end of the year. In a nutshell, "Virtualization is king for us."
Alander and his team were fully pro-active in selecting their partners, anticipating potential issues before the new system was implemented, rather than waiting until they ran into problems after the fact. They explored who could give them instant recovery, who could they trust that the back-up is really happening, and who could ensure that the data is protected. They ended up using EMC's Avamar backup and recovery solution for VMware environments.
Vellante asked if the industry is getting better in solving the problem the school was facing back in 2008. Alander said they are constantly keeping track of changes in the industry now, and they're always looking for different strategies. Not so much for change, he said, but for validation of their existing backup and recovery system, knowing what it can and can't do. Alander was firm in his statement, "We're not going to become stagnant."
Forgot Password
Almost there!
We just sent you a verification email. Please verify your account to gain access to
VMworld 2011 | Las Vegas. If you don’t think you received an email check your
spam folder.
In order to sign in, enter the email address you used to registered for the event. Once completed, you will receive an email with a verification link. Open this link to automatically sign into the site.
Register For VMworld 2011 | Las Vegas
Please fill out the information below. You will recieve an email with a verification link confirming your registration. Click the link to automatically sign into the site.
You’re almost there!
We just sent you a verification email. Please click the verification button in the email. Once your email address is verified, you will have full access to all event content for VMworld 2011 | Las Vegas.
I want my badge and interests to be visible to all attendees.
Checking this box will display your presense on the attendees list, view your profile and allow other attendees to contact you via 1-1 chat. Read the Privacy Policy. At any time, you can choose to disable this preference.
Select your Interests!
add
Upload your photo
Uploading..
OR
Connect via Twitter
Connect via Linkedin
EDIT PASSWORD
Share
Forgot Password
Almost there!
We just sent you a verification email. Please verify your account to gain access to
VMworld 2011 | Las Vegas. If you don’t think you received an email check your
spam folder.
In order to sign in, enter the email address you used to registered for the event. Once completed, you will receive an email with a verification link. Open this link to automatically sign into the site.
Sign in to gain access to VMworld 2011 | Las Vegas
Please sign in with LinkedIn to continue to VMworld 2011 | Las Vegas. Signing in with LinkedIn ensures a professional environment.
Are you sure you want to remove access rights for this user?
Details
Manage Access
email address
Community Invitation
Link Alander, Lone Star College System | VMworld 2011
SiliconANGLE's theCube presented a spotlight on backup and recovery at VMworld 2011. Guest Link Alander, Associate Vice-Chancellor of Lone Star College System, met with Dave Vellante, Co-Founder of Wikibon to discuss how they use backup and recovery in the education arena.
The Lone Star College System is the largest community college system in the Houston, Texas area, and soon to be the largest in the entire state. From an IT aspect, there was a challenge in its ability to meet the current demand of almost 100,000 students, having grown from 63,000 students in 2008 to the 100K range in 2011. It currently has six campuses online over a span of 1400 square miles. They need the ability to provide services from the infrastructure side, as well as operational support needed at the campus level.
Alander proclaimed, "The best opportunity you can ever have is the opportunity to rip and replace everything." In just eighteen months they implemented an entire centralized VM environment, a new WAN structure to support it, and increased from 5% virtualization to 93%. They expect to reach the 98% virtualization mark and maintain it by the end of the year. In a nutshell, "Virtualization is king for us."
Alander and his team were fully pro-active in selecting their partners, anticipating potential issues before the new system was implemented, rather than waiting until they ran into problems after the fact. They explored who could give them instant recovery, who could they trust that the back-up is really happening, and who could ensure that the data is protected. They ended up using EMC's Avamar backup and recovery solution for VMware environments.
Vellante asked if the industry is getting better in solving the problem the school was facing back in 2008. Alander said they are constantly keeping track of changes in the industry now, and they're always looking for different strategies. Not so much for change, he said, but for validation of their existing backup and recovery system, knowing what it can and can't do. Alander was firm in his statement, "We're not going to become stagnant."
