 "NetApp Centralises Backup Systems At Polaris")
Chennai-based Polaris Software Lab has been able to create a niche for itself in the field of software product development, outsourcing and consulting activities not only in India but also globally. The company has served well known banking and insurance houses of the world, with core focus on the banking segment. More than 8000 solution architectures are working under the brand name ‘Polaris’.
Difficulty managing distributed systems
As the business grew steadily, Polaris had to deal with acute data storage issues. In addition to this, the company has servers, storage systems and back facilities spread across various locations where it has offices.
According to V Balakrishnan, CIO, Polaris Software Lab, “With customers around the globe, we needed a flexible storage system that could help us provide 24/7 service to our customers. Earlier we were using DAS and everything was put on tape.”
With the back up and recovery systems scattered around various sites, retrieving data at the nth moment was creating problems for the software engineers at Polaris. Business continuity was turning out to be a time-consuming process for the Polaris executives as they had to ship back up tapes to off site archive location.
Thus, the company actively started looking out for a solution that could help it overcome its storage and retrieval headaches.
Polaris deploys NetApp FAS Series
Polaris uses Lotus Notes messaging and file services and Oracle-based applications. Hence, it wanted a solution that could smoothly collaborate with these applications. The company hired Wipro to help them evaluate the storage solutions of different vendors. After much consideration and evaluation, Polaris decided to go with NetApp, due to its flexibility and cost effectiveness.
Balakrishnan opines, “We found that the NetApp FAS series which includes NAS, IPSAN and FCSAN were ideal for our typical infrastructure. We migrated to the solution in a distributed manner and project wise."
The NetApp NearStore and SnapVolt solutions have been deployed to address the problems pertaining to SLA. FCSAN has been implemented to support the company’s Oracle-based applications.
The solution was deployed across five locations in India at an investment of Rs 6 crore within a time frame of 3-4 months.
Boosting recovery point and recovery time objectives
The storage solutions have centralised the back up systems, leading to improved recovery point and recovery time objectives.
“The deployment has helped us improve our project delivery process. We have been able to drastically reduce the tape back up process to once in a month instead of every 2-3 days. With the need to meet compliance standard in order to serve MNC customers, we are now more confident about our IT infrastructure and process.”
The company is now providing SLAs to both internal staff and external customers while delivering projects. In the process of upgrading its IT infrastructure, Polaris is adding SAN servers to its portfolio. The company also intends to upgrade the existing storage solution in the near future.
 "Israel targets top Hamas leaders in Doha; Qatar, Iran condemn strike as violation of sovereignty")
 "Nepal: Oli to continue until new PM is sworn in, nation on edge as all branches of govt torched")
 "Who is CP Radhakrishnan, India's next vice-president?")
 "Israel informed US ahead of strikes on Hamas leaders in Doha, says White House")
 "Israel targets top Hamas leaders in Doha; Qatar, Iran condemn strike as violation of sovereignty")
 "Nepal: Oli to continue until new PM is sworn in, nation on edge as all branches of govt torched")
 "Who is CP Radhakrishnan, India's next vice-president?")
 "Israel informed US ahead of strikes on Hamas leaders in Doha, says White House")
