ExponentHR Brings Backup and Replication Times Closer to Reality

RPOs

Bi-directional replication with flexible RPOs (minutes vs. 2 days)

RTOs

Near-zero RTOs

14U vs. 4U

Data center footprint reduction

Overview

“The biggest challenge with every backup system becomes apparent when you need to restore. That’s when most customers learn the true limitations of the product,” explains CTO Misha Vyazmensky. “Rubrik makes it very easy to restore.”

ExponentHR, headquartered in Dallas, Texas, is a leading human resource information systems (HRIS) platform delivered via the SaaS model. It delivers real-time, meaningful employee data and the cost of day-to-day activities for businesses to drive smarter decision-making.

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ExponentHR has deployed multiple Rubrik r300 Series appliances to deliver backup and replication at its headquarters and disaster recovery site.

Rubrik is a next-generation backup product. It is so easy to use that a 12-year-old could use it. At the same time, it has key enterprise features to support our business needs.

Misha Vyazmensky
CTO

Featured Product: Rubrik Cloud Data Management

Challenges

Lengthy RPOs for replication
Lengthy RTOs and troubleshooting complexity for unsuccessful restores
Scaling required forklift upgrades to bulky systems

Results

Bi-directional replication with flexible RPOs (minutes vs. 2 days)
Near-zero RTO plus granular file restore (RTO=minutes vs. 6-12 hours)
Data center footprint reduction (14U vs. 4U)

The Solution

Bi-directional replication
VM and file-level backup and recovery

Challenges

Troubleshooting legacy backup system constrains resources

For the past four years, ExponentHR used the same data protection solution for backup and replication. The 100% virtualized company originally selected a virtualization-centric backup solution, complete with replication to deliver off-site availability. “When [the previous backup solution] works, it’s fine. When it doesn’t work, it’s rocket science to root cause the issue,” Sr. Network Engineer Chris Gurley explains. “Restores are click-intensive and time-consuming. We do quarterly restore testing. It took a hundred clicks and 30 minutes to start restore for just 50 VMs.”

“We have a team of four that ensure our enterprise-level business continues to run. Our old solution constrained our resources when things stopped working. If something broke, it took 8 weeks to fix. We look for products that can deliver high ROI in simplicity and ease of management,” adds Vyazmensky.

Our old solution constrained our resources when things stopped working. If something broke, it took 8 weeks to fix.

Misha Vyazmensky
CTO

Solutions

Delivering backup and replication for a production environment

In April, ExponentHR deployed Rubrik to deliver backup and onsite recovery. The team added more Rubrik appliances to deliver “Brik-to-Brik” replication. Rubrik now protects the entire production environment across two sites.

We use Rubrik to bring replication times much closer to reality. In the past, RPOs ranged from half a day to 2 days. Now we have bi-directional replication.

Chris Gurley
Sr. Network Engineer

Featured: Rubrik CDM

The Results

Bi-directional replication with flexible RPOs

“We use Rubrik to bring replication times much closer to reality. In the past, RPOs ranged from half a day to 2 days. Now we have bi-directional replication. We have mission-critical SQL servers that show up at the other site within minutes of being backed up. Our window of data loss has massively shrunk.”

Near-zero RTO plus granular file restore

"We used to deliver RTOs in the range of 6-12 hours. With Rubrik, we’ve brought restore times down to minutes. We can restore a spreadsheet, a database, and we’ve restored an entire VM in just minutes when things go unexpectedly south.”

Policy automation for operational savings

“Rubrik’s policy-driven nature makes it easy to throw a VM into the policy group and know that it’s getting the protection measures.”

Reduced datacenter footprint

“We have collapsed our datacenter footprint from 14U to 4U, reducing power consumption, data floor space, and complexity."

Increased agility with existing staff

“With Rubrik, we’ve become more agile. It’s easy to manage, deploy, maintain, and restoring is a breeze. ExponentHR has grown significantly, and we’re able to manage a growing infrastructure with the same headcount."