Major League Baseball’s Tampa Bay Rays Deliver Game-Changing Performance with Instant Recovery and Cloud Archival

$80-$100K

Annual hard savings

RTOs

Near-zero RTOs

15x

Data reduction

Overview

A baseball game is only three hours, but daily game preparation during the season and offseason requires a fast and reliable data management solution. “Our business grows so fast and is very sensitive that in the past, keeping up with changes on a daily basis was a struggle. With Rubrik, we just let it run without worrying if it will fail. That makes a huge difference in our day-to-day operations,” said Juan Ramirez, Vice President of Information Technology at the Tampa Bay Rays.

The Tampa Bay Rays mission is to energize the community through the magic of Rays baseball. The organization is committed to building a strong community bond through meaningful interactions and charitable donations and has proudly represented Major League Baseball since 1998.

Our business grows so fast and is very sensitive that in the past, keeping up with changes on a daily basis was a struggle. With Rubrik, we just let it run without worrying if it will fail. That makes a huge difference in our day-to-day operations

Juan Ramirez
Vice President of Information Technology

Featured Product: Rubrik Cloud Data Management

Challenges

Lengthy and unreliable file-level recovery and restore times
Management complexity with tape and disk
Inefficient workflow and replication

Results

Immediate annual hard savings of $80-$100K
Near-zero RTOs
15x data reduction

The Solution

VM and file-level backup and recovery
Global real-time file search
Data archival to public cloud

Challenges

Recovery and management challenges with the legacy approach

Given the criticality of its data, the IT team at the Tampa Bay Rays needs to protect its 350 VMs, especially workloads important for daily game preparation and baseball operations. “Backup had always been a struggle for us. Our previous solution was a mix of tools, and we had a lot of issues with tape and backing up to disk. Also, the recovery times were never there. We used to tell people to give us at least 48 hours to restore a file. It could take anywhere from six hours to four days to retrieve that file. By that time, it was no longer needed,” said Ramirez. For the Rays IT team, a lot of reporting was needed prior to game time. Additionally, certain databases stored most of the information for season histories, players, and all other data used to develop statistics and game plans. Thus, backing up, replicating, and protecting all that data is crucial. “What if we just needed a quick restore or quick VM mount? How easy was it? Our previous solution was very cumbersome, and we were always nervous,” said Ramirez.

Our previous solution was a mix of tools, and we had a lot of issues with tape and backing up to disk. Also, the recovery times were never there. We used to tell people to give us at least 48 hours to restore a file. It could take anywhere from six hours to four days to retrieve that file.

Juan Ramirez
Vice President of Information Technology

Solutions

Modernizing the data center with Rubrik

To alleviate its burden with backups, Ramirez and his IT team needed something fast, efficient, and reliable. The team was looking for a solution to reduce its recovery times, offer them flexibility with its two data centers, and replicate its environment from each data center. Ramirez said, “We saw how easy Rubrik was, how much time we saved, and how flawless it worked. Rubrik gave us what we were looking for from Day 1. It worked well with our infrastructure, integrating perfectly with Nutanix, VMware, and our virtualized environment.”

We saw how easy Rubrik was, how much time we saved, and how flawless it worked. Rubrik gave us what we were looking for from Day 1. It worked well with our infrastructure, integrating perfectly with Nutanix, VMware, and our virtualized environment.

Juan Ramirez
Vice President of Information Technology

Featured: Rubrik CDM

Data management to deliver business agility

“With Rubrik, we saw our SLAs change drastically in just two months. Now, we can go home and sleep. We no longer worry about anyone requesting a restore, snapshot, or VM. We can have it in minutes,” said Ramirez. In the future, the Tampa Bay Rays plan on incorporating Rubrik into its replication, disaster recovery, and testing and development. Ramirez says, “Since it’s been in production, we knew we had to grow it. Rubrik continues to provide. Now, we can provide services that make a difference on the field.”

With Rubrik, we saw our SLAs change drastically in just two months. Now, we can go home and sleep. We no longer worry about anyone requesting a restore, snapshot, or VM. We can have it in minutes.

Juan Ramirez
Vice President of Information Technology

Featured: Rubrik CDM

The Results

Rack and go in less than an hour

“In one hour, we had Rubrik installed. At end of the day, we had at least 30 machines being protected.”

Significant reduction in daily management

“We went from spending 3-4 hours a day on backups to 10-20 minutes a day – if even that. With our previous solution, we had three people managing backups. Now, we have one person just to double-check."

Near-zero RTO plus granular file restore

“We went from telling everyone to request a restore for a file in 48 hours to merely minutes. That’s a major difference.”

Ease of management

“One of the features we really enjoy compared to other solutions is the freedom and insurance. Even if we are running into a certain issue, we can check a point-in-time issue, snapshot, or VM without having to overload the virtual infrastructure. Comparing the production of what we used to have and what we have now, it shows how Rubrik is a tremendous asset to us.”

15x data reduction

“One of the features that we appreciate the most is the amount of data reduction we are seeing on the unit. We are getting a 93.9% data reduction. When we see those numbers daily and how easily it integrates with VMware and Nutanix, it gives us a lot of peace of mind.”

Management simplicity with policy automation

“The dashboard is my favorite feature. In a second, I know everything is running. It delivers us easy management and ease in protecting a workload.”

Immediate savings

“The data here is so important that if we can save a day or even an hour, it translates to a lot of money. We know Rubrik can pay for itself in weeks. Previously, between the tape loaders, licenses, and disks, we were easily spending $80-100,000 a year.”