Tupperware Brands - Qualstar

QUALSTAR▼CASE STUDIES IN SUCCESSTUPPERWARE BOOSTSBACKUP SPEEDAND RELIABILITYWITH QUALSTAR’SCOST EFFECTIVEXLS TAPE LIBRARY▼WE HOLD THE WORLD’S RECORDS

QUALSTARCASE STUDIES IN SUCCESS“The XLS initiallyappealed to me basedon the price of thelibrary and the costof maintenance.I knew the systemwould last me for awhile. I also know itis easy to expand if Iever need to do so.”Bill SlaughterIT Architect, Tupperware Brands CorporationTHE COMPANYWhile the word “Tupperware” might naturallybring to mind one of the company’s popularair and liquid tight plastic food containers,Tupperware Brands Corporation has evolvedsignificantly since it’s early start in thepost-World War II boom. Today, the Orlandobasedcompany boasts an independent salesforce of 2.3 million who now offer productsfrom multiple consumer categories, includingkitchen preparation, storage and serving aswell as beauty and personal care. Recentlyrecognized by Fortune and Forbes magazinesas one of the world’s most admired companiesand one of America’s best big companies,Tupperware remains true to its early rootsof consumer value, innovation, reuseand sustainability.THE CHALLENGEOverseeing the backup needs of Tupperware’sgrowing data center environment, IT ArchitectBill Slaughter had evolved the company’sOrlando data center to incorporate two TivoliStorage Manager (TSM) servers. The serversare responsible for backing up over 130Microsoft Windows and Linux servers.Mr. Slaughter also opted to round out histiered backup architecture with a large tapelibrary equipped with 16 LTO 2 tape drives.The tape library stores all backup data, plusdeep archival storage. It also houses lesscompressibleweekly server OS image backupsand monthly system backups compressed intoISO format. Backup tapes from the library werealso routinely transported via Iron Mountainto Tupperware’s Orlando data center.As time passed, he began to notice anunsettling trend with the tape library: Anongoing spate of mechanical incidents,sporadic drive reliability issues andincreasingly quirky tape failures. Despitesuch disruptions and their impact onbackup operations, his Unix Team still

THE SOLUTIONmanaged to work around much of it and moveforward with whatever process adjustmentsneeded to be made.While these issues undoubtedly played somepart in his ultimate decision to replace thelegacy system, they were not what ultimatelydrove Mr. Slaughter to explore replacing thelibrary. “The cost of their maintenance wasthe last straw,” he said. He recalled how thevendor had increased library maintenancecosts each year until it had reached somewherein the range of $60,000 per year. Yet, hison-going issues remained. “I told the(incumbent) sales guy, ‘For $60,000 peryear, I can replace this library.’ He didn’t getit. He offered to sell me another library.”A prior contact connected Mr. Slaughterwith Florida-based LH Computer Services.After hearing about his on-going reliabilityissues and high maintenance costs, LHrepresentatives suggested that he take a closerlook at one of Qualstar’s XLS Series enterprisetape libraries, the XLS-812300, equippedwith six LTO 3 tape drives. (By selectingLTO 3 drives which can read and write LTO 2tapes, he insured that Tupperware's significantinvestment in LTO 2 tapes was protected.XLS also supports LTO 4 drives, but they willonly read LTO 2 tapes, not write them).“LH told me they couldn’t imagine why I washaving these problems and that they’d hardlyever had problems with Qualstar libraries,” hesaid. While their experience was reassuring,he had no plans to make a change unless theTCO costs (to purchase and maintain the XLSsystem) were in line with what he had in mind.He wasn’t disappointed. “LH came up witha pretty good 5-year plan to ‘gate-keep’ thecosts down and get us into the XLS library(including purchase costs and annualmaintenance) for about the cost of maintenance(on the legacy library),” he said. Once theplan was accepted, Mr. Slaughter startedmaking arrangements to bring the XLS-812300library into production.Implementation of the XLS went smoothly.“The library install was done pretty cleanly,”he said. “It was integrated inside TSM and we

QUALSTARTHE SOLUTION, CONTINUEDstarted doing backups that first day to ourtest system, then rolled it into production.Everything just seemed so smooth. Within afew days, the data was also migrated overnightfrom some of the storage pools I had on tape.The process all went very well.” An addedbonus is that backup speeds on his LTO 2tapes increased by more than 50%, thanksto using the faster LTO 3 drives.He also noticed an interesting side benefit:Most of the prior “faulty” tapes he’d markedand even set aside as questionable withthe old system suddenly worked fine,registering no errors when run on the XLSlibrary. This, in turn, caused the whole backupprocess to run more smoothly with much lessadministrator intervention needed.THE FUTUREAs Mr. Slaughter looks back at his experiencethus far with Qualstar’s system, he’s satisfiedhe made the right choice. He’s also confidentthe system will serve his needs for quite sometime to come. “I knew the system would lastme for a while. That’s the purpose I bought itfor,” he said. “I also know it is easy to expandif I ever need to do so.”He went on to note the following: “The XLSinitially appealed to me based on the price ofthe library and the cost of maintenance,”Since using it in production, however, he hasalso been happy to report high reliability andgood speeds. “We often keep all drives busyduring our nightly cycles.”The XLS-812300 also gained high marks forMr. Slaughter’s overall experience with thesystem. “I would say it’s a very good systemand has been easy to implement. In our case,I’d highly recommend it. I’ve really had noproblems with it at all.”Qualstar’s highly regarded XLS Enterprise TapeLibrary Systems feature patented CompassArchitecture to deliver very high storagedensity and lower power consumption. XLScost-effectively expands from 240 Terabytes toover 15 Petabytes.The XLS Enterprise Library Systems areavailable exclusively through Qualstar’sworldwide network of Authorized Resellers.Visit: http://www.qualstar.com/xlsfor more information.All information and specifications are based on our knowledge of theproducts at the time of printing. Qualstar reserves the right to changespecifications without notice.Qualstar and the Qualstar logo are registered trademarks of QualstarCorporation. LTO is a trademark of Hewlett-Packard, IBM andSeagate Technology. All other trademarks are the property of theirrespective owners.Qualstar products are covered by one or more of the following patents:6,271,982, 6,560,061 and 7,181,313. Other patents pending.Copyright © 2009 Qualstar Corporation.All rights reserved. Printed in the USA • CS 019 8/09QUALSTAR CORPORATION3990-B Heritage Oak Court • Simi Valley, CA 93063 USA • Fax 805-583-7749 • Tel 805-583-7744 • Toll Free 800-468-0680E-mail: sales @qualstar.com • Website: www.qualstar.com • NASDAQ: QBAKSimplyReliable