Case Study:

Banner & Witcoff, Ltd.

Double-Take Software Customer Profile Company: Banner & Witcoff, Ltd. Business: IP Attorneys Offices: Chicago, Boston, DC, Portland Employees: 87 Needs: 24x7 access to data and systems Business Intellectual property law firm, with 87 attorneys practicing at locations in Chicago, Boston, Washington, DC, and Portland, Oregon. Customer Challenge To quickly and easily restore data and enable systems failover at any or all of four regional offices from a remote location in the event of a disaster. Banner & Witcoff Top IP Attorneys Banner & Witcoff, Ltd. is dedicated to excellence in the specialized practice of intellectual property law, including patent, trademark, copyright, trade secret, computer, franchise and unfair competition law. The firm actively engages in the procurement, enforcement and litigation of intellectual property rights throughout the world, including all federal and state agencies, and the distribution of such rights through licensing and franchising. The firms client base is broad, in terms of number of clients, client size, geographical distribution of clients and technologies represented. Banner & Witcoff represents businesses in virtually all technological fields. Firm members deal with legal problems whose technical subject matter ranges from automotive manufacturing to lasers, from custom catalysts for petrochemical processes to genetically engineered pharmaceuticals, and from consumer electronics to computer control of medical devices. Because of the sensitive nature of Banner & Witcoffs business, data loss or systems outage is simply out of the question. Proper Prior Preparation Bill Costello is the manager of information technology at Banner & Witcoff. As a former firefighter, Costello knows the importance of being prepared to deal with the unexpected; he applies that same line of thinking to insulate the firm from an interruption in IT services.

Double-Take Software

257 Turnpike Road Southborough, MA 01772 1-800-674-9495 www.doubletake.com

Double-Take Software Case Study Banner & Witcoff, Ltd.

Whether its an errant keystroke or a building fire, the threat of a disaster has never been greater. Costello is committed to making sure the firms systems and data are available in the event of an unplanned event of this type. For these reasons, the firm began to re-evaluate its methods for backing up and recovering data. The key thing in disaster recovery is being able to access current data, and also having critical systems failover, says Costello. Our clients expect us to be operational 24x7, and so we have no tolerance for downtime. That means having a solution that quickly restores data and makes systems available. Previously, as with most businesses, Banner & Witcoff backed up its data to tape, and then moved the tapes to an offsite storage facility. This method proved inadequate for several reasons: Tape backup was conducted on a nightly basis; each day this left Banner & Witcoff with 24 hours of new, unprotected data Retrieving the tapes and restoring the data was a time-consuming process, which forced the firm into a holding pattern time that should be spent servicing clients Tape backup did not protect the firms applications, only its data

Banner & Witcoff needed a new solution that would continuously back-up data for quick restoration and one that would enable systems failover, so attorneys would be back and operational in a minimum amount of time. Of the 80 servers in their environment, Costello identified a significant number of critical servers that required this level of redundancy. Theres been a traditional focus in information technology on the basics, such as anti-virus systems and backing data up to tape, says Costello. But in the last few years theres been a shift in thinking, encouraging many companies to adopt an approach to disaster recovery that has greatly matured. That approach includes the capability to resume services at a redundant facility where both systems and data are available instantly. To accomplish this feat, Banner & Witcoff searched for technology that would efficiently replicate files from its critical servers at three offices across the country (Chicago, Boston, Washington DC) to servers at a disaster recovery location many miles away. Just as importantly, the replication needed to occur without impacting production servers and end-user productivity. To solve all of these issues, Banner & Witcoff turned to Double-Take from Double-Take Software. Business Continuity that Fits As part of its business continuity and disaster recovery plan, Banner & Witcoff now wanted to have a backup of both data and entire systems at a secure co-location facility, from which a systems failover could be performed quickly and easily and data could be quickly restored. Costello identified a facility in Oak Brook, Ill. But the major challenge was finding the technology to reliably transfer data to the co-location site. We needed a solution that would transfer information constantly and without any degradation to our production environment, Costello said.

Double-Take Software Case Study Banner & Witcoff, Ltd.

The company already had a reliable VPN network that allowed lawyers and other employees to connect to their respective office and work from home or on the road whenever necessary. Double-Take was able to utilize the existing VPN Infrastructure to replicate data securely, avoiding costly upgrades to the firms WAN. After testing various products from vendors such as Veritas, Banner & Witcoff, with help from the technology-consulting firm and Double-Take Software Xcelerate Partner of Keno Kozie Associates [www.kenokozie.com], found what it needed in Double-Take. The law firm was able to deploy the software five times faster than other backup and recovery products, and Double-Take also enabled Banner & Witcoff to replicate via their existing VPN connections, which saved the firm about 80 percent versus the cost of implementing Frame Relay or point-to-point connections. What stood out about Double-Take was its byte-level replication and performance in moving data. Despite high utilization, it requires minimal demand on production servers. Double-Take is the first product we found that was friendly in this environment. Backup, Recovery & Failover With its patented STAR (Sequential Transfer Asynchronous Replication) technology, DoubleTake represents a step forward in high availability and data replication, continuously capturing and replicating changes to data files at the byte level as they occur. Double-Take offers the flexibility to replicate selected files, directories, or entire volumes to one or more target servers over existing network connections. Double-Take also provides failover capabilities to allow businesses to quickly resume operations after a disaster or system outage, with or without user intervention, and without the time and complexities of restoring from tape. With Double-Take, Banner & Witcoff now has the means to continue client service should one or more of its four office buildings become unavailable. Because of the Double-Take failover capabilities, should a failure occur, endusers can continue to access both their data and applications from the disaster recovery facility, so they can continue to service clients seamlessly. Users can continue performing their jobs with minimal to no interruption; downtime and lost productivity are minimized or even eliminated completely. By using Double-Take to replicate our data to the disaster recovery location, we can rest assured we will stay open for business no matter what happens to one of our buildings. Every time we test the failover function, Double-Take performs flawlessly. Bill Costello, manager of information technology, Banner & Witcoff

Practice Makes Perfect Double-Take has been successfully replicating Banner & Witcoffs data to the Oak Brook disaster recovery site since early 2003. With Costellos experience in emergency services, the firm conducts monthly disaster recovery drills. Theres an obligation to our clients and the company to protect data and systems, says Costello. A client in Japan may not care if we cant get into a building because of a fire. We have to maintain the ability to work around the clock. During Costellos readiness drills, Double-Take has successfully replicated and restored data to the appropriate server in Oak Brook every time without Banner & Witcoff losing any

Double-Take Software Case Study Banner & Witcoff, Ltd.

information. At the same time, Costellos drills show that system failover occurs in about 30 seconds. But the biggest benefit that Double-Take brings to Costello and senior management is peace of mind knowing that even if one of its buildings becomes unavailable, the lawyers and staff in that building will still be able to provide legal services to clients. Double-Take helps us provide assurance to clients and partners alike that our service capabilities will exist in spite of any disaster, Costello says. For more information, please visit www.doubletake.com. About Double-Take Software NSI Software, Inc. (NSI) doing business as Double-Take Software, provides the worlds most relied upon solution for accessible and affordable data protection for Microsoft Windows applications. The DoubleTake product is the standard in data replication, enabling customers to protect business-critical data that resides throughout their enterprise. With its partner programs and professional services, Double-Take delivers unparalleled data protection, centralized back-up, high availability, and recoverability. Its the solution of choice for thousands of customers, from SMEs to the Fortune 500 in the banking, finance, legal services, retail, manufacturing, government, education and healthcare markets. Double-Take is an integral part of their disaster recovery, business continuity and overall storage strategies. Double-Take Software is privately held and headquartered in Southborough, MA. For more information, please visit www.doubletake.com.
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