Texas Medical Association
Healthcare
Texas Medical Association makes Veeam backups six times
faster and saves $600,000 with Cisco UCS S3260 Servers
Texas Medical Association:
Size: 500 users, 50,000+ members
Industry: Healthcare
Location: Austin, Texas
Solutions
• Cisco Unified Computing System
S3260 Storage Servers
• SmartStack Infrastructure (Cisco
UCS Blade Servers and Nimble
Storage)
Texas Medical Association (TMA) is the
largest state medical society in the U.S.,
serving more than 50,000 physicians and
medical students. TMA stands up for Texas
physicians by providing solutions to the
challenges they encounter in the care of
patients. Services include medical-practice
help, advocacy, continuing education, and
IT services. TMA also provides billing and
other software as a service to other state
medical associations.
Challenge: Peace of mind that records
are backed up and easy to restore
TMA’s business applications live on
SmartStack Solution infrastructure—Cisco
blade servers with Nimble storage. Reliable
backup and quick restores are crucial,
especially for customer relationship
management and email.
“Our main asset is member relationships,”
says Aaron Haley, network operations
director for TMA. “Everything we do for
members depends on knowing their history
with us and how to contact them.”
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If the member record won’t open for Dr.
Grey, TMA can’t tell her which courses she
needs for medical license renewal, ask
her opinion on proposed legislation, or bill
for membership.
Before, TMA backed up 12 TB of virtual
servers and data to network-attached
storage (NAS) using Veaam® Availability
Suite. Veeam worked flawlessly, but the
storage repository slowed backups.
“NAS storage isn’t good for backups,”
Haley says. “Daily backups took 12 to 24
hours and sometimes didn’t complete
before the next one began. When staff
asked if we could restore a missing
member file or email, the answer was
‘maybe’.”
Another deficit of the NAS backup
repository: management ate up 20 hours
a week. IT had to constantly add new
nodes to increase storage capacity.
“Our biggest IT challenge is making the best
use of staff time,” Haley says. “We’d rather
spend time on IT to improve health for
Texans than babysit our backup repository.”
Solution: back up to Cisco Storage Server
Then Cisco partner Revel Technology
recommended the Cisco UCS™ S3260
Storage Server. With 600TB in just four
rack units, the UCS S3260 provides
ample capacity for years of growth. Fast
I/O speeds up Veeam backups. TMA
conducted a trial.
Texas Medical Association
Healthcare
With Cisco UCS S3260, Texas
Medical Association:
“Veeam backups that took 12 to 24 hours
with NAS took just 3-5 hours with the
S3260,” Haley says. “We had our solution.”
Staff and members rest easy
The biggest benefit of faster backups for
TMA is peace of mind.
Backs up 12TB in 3-5 hours
“Since we migrated from scale-out NAS
storage to the S3260, we no longer have
trepidation about backup,” Haley says. “Our
executives, physician board, and other state
medical associations rest easy knowing that
the data we maintain about members and
programs is backed up and protected.”
Lowered 5-year TCO by $600,000
Lost email or member file? IT can restore it
in 15 minutes or less. For extra protection,
TMA also backs up to the Veeam Cloud
Connect service from iLand, a Cisco
partner.
Freed up 20 hours a week for
strategic IT projects
Five year costs dropped by US$600,000
Switching to the S3260 as the Veeam
backup repository lowered 5-year TCO by
$600,000. Savings include $200,000 in
capital costs, $100,000 for support, and
$300,000 in staff time. Switching to the
Cisco storage server also shrank TMA’s
backup footprint from 18 RUs to 4 RUs,
lowering power and cooling costs. The
$600,000 savings can go toward Texas
health initiatives, such as giving away
children’s bicycle helmets, vaccination
campaigns, and public health education.
Less time managing backups, frees
more time for strategic IT
The IT team no longer spends 20 hours
a week starting, stopping, and monitoring
backups.
“There’s no day-to-day management for
Veeam on the S3260,” Haley says.
IT manages the S3260 using Cisco UCS
Manager—the same application they use to
manage Cisco UCS blade servers. And with
600 TB of capacity, IT won’t have to add
another storage server for quite some time.
Haley concludes, “The great benefit of
moving our Veeam repository from NAS to
the S3260 is time savings. We’ve shifted
our focus from mundane, day-to-day
backup operations to strategic projects
that increase staff efficiency or member
services.”
One example: a sleek intranet portal where
staff can find all the tools they need to do
their jobs.
Products and Services
Unified Computing
Networking
• Cisco UCS S3260 Storage Server
• Cisco Nexus 9396PX Switch
• SmartStack Infrastructure
•Cisco UCS B200 M3 Blade Servers
•Nimble Storage
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