Nikkei Advanced Systems Adopts Nutanix to Improve BCP and Automates IaaS Platform Issue Detection and Alert Functions

INDUSTRY

IT Service

CHALLENGES

• Ending support for the provision of free tools used for IaaS data backup
• Improving efficiency while maintaining the current data backup operations
• Burdensome operation costs and overheads
• Management man-hours required for data backup operations

SOLUTION

Nutanix Cloud Platform

Applications

• Secure Web Service
  

BENEFITS

• Realizing a stable data backup environment for IaaS
• Reduce operational costs of data backup environment
• Centralize data backup management for IaaS consisting of multiple virtualization infrastructure
• Improved operational efficiency by reducing backup management man-hours

COMPANY OVERVIEW

Since it was founded in 1987, Nikkei Advanced Systems Inc. (NAS) has supported the IT infrastructure needs of the Nikkei Group and other companies, with technology and expertise in IT system operation management, system development, network integration and other areas that it has built up in serving the Nikkei Group. NAS operates a datacenter business and provides server housing, colocation, office space, virtualization technology-based hosting, and Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) in the form of its Secure Web Service.

CHALLENGES

NAS’ Secure Web Service used compatible free tools to perform data backup. However, because these free tools lack capabilities for detecting data backup issues and alert functions, NAS had to develop an original program that the company runs on a daily basis to detect malfunctions. With the provision and support for these free tools due to end in 2022, NAS needed a new data backup solution.

SOLUTION

Using the free tools mentioned above, NAS had customized an automated mechanism in place for data backup to dedicated storage servers according to set tasks. In its search for a new data backup solution, the company put priority on maintaining and improving the efficiency of its existing data backup operations, as well as on the costeffectiveness of the solution.

“The cost of data backup in IaaS is passed on to the customer,” said Tetsuo Mishima, Datacenter Business Division at Nikkei Advanced Systems. “As such, we had to avoid expensive data backup solutions even though we were required to switch from free tools to a commercial solution. We had to choose the best solution that met our needs from all perspectives - functionality, performance, and cost.”

NAS has been using Nutanix since 2017 to transit from a conventional 3-tier virtualization infrastructure to a hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI). The integrated system with Nutanix Cloud Platform and Veeam, an enterprise data protection solution, were put into consideration as it was announced around the time that NAS was looking for a data backup solution.

“Streamlining infrastructure operations is a top priority in any datacenter business,” said Mishima. “Veeam is an outstanding solution for the integrated management of data backup and recovery of an array of virtual machines (VMs) and physical servers. We needed to build a low-cost alternative to the free tools, but we were concerned about the time and eff ort required to build and operate the alternative environment, so the announcement of the integrated system with Nutanix was a ‘real godsend’.”

After examining and comparing a number of data backup products, NAS chose Nutanix because of its ability to start small, its low cost, its proven track record, and its ability to automatically detect and alert issues. Nutanix supports the backup of approximately 70 VMs.

NAS built a backup environment in December 2020. After running verification tests from January 2021, NAS launched pilot operations in March. Currently, it is implementing migration from the old tools.

CUSTOMER OUTCOMES

“Nutanix allows us to perform data backups as we used to, and it also handles process automation without any problems,” said Mishima. “We’re still in the trial stages and using only some of Nutanix’s rich assortment of functions, but the way it enables centralized management of backup operations has improved efficiency.”

Nutanix’s automated malfunction detection and alerts have eliminated the need to write a new detection and alert program, thereby reducing the man-hours required for data backup operations.

“Also, the previous data backup tools could only perform data back up for a single virtualized infrastructure, so we were using multiple tools to back up the data of an IaaS consisting of multiple virtualized platforms,” said Mishima. “Nutanix enables us to centrally manage not only all virtualization platforms, but also data backup and recovery all on a single management console, making operations much more efficient and cost-effective.”

NEXT STEPS

NAS is looking into using Nutanix effectively to expand IaaS using public clouds like AWS.

“With Nutanix, it will make it relatively easy to roll out disaster recovery (DR) services using AWS or other major cloud platforms as backup sites.,” said Mishima. “We are also looking at going beyond simply streamlining backup to considering using Nutanix functions to expand IaaS. We plan to completely migrate our entire datacenter infrastructure to Nutanix within the next few years. We believe the early adoption of a cutting-edge solution like the system integrated with Veeam to realize the centralized management of IT infrastructure backup will further boost customer trust in our services. We aim to continue to transform outstanding Nutanix functions into customer value by pursuing the various other possibilities in public clouds and other areas.”