Steve Wright, DediPower Managed Hosting’s Head of Technical Operations, was accustomed to looking outside of the box to find solutions that met his company’s specific needs. Faced with the need to centralize and automate his company’s backup environment, Wright discovered that R1Soft CDP Enterprise Edition was the only backup software that offered the features he needed. Since deploying R1Soft, DediPower has stabilized its backup environment while improving its ability to respond to customer requests to protect new applications and recover old ones.

1. [Customer Success] D
[Customer Success] DediPower Managed Hosting
DediPower Managed Hosting
ting
DediPower Managed Hosting Turns Automated,
g Turns ted,
Centralized Backup Management Into a Reality
ment lity Company: DediPower Managed Hosting
er
Website: http://www.dedipower.com
Website: http://www.dedipower.com
w
with R1Soft CDP E t
ith Enterprise Edition
i L
Location: Cadogan House, Rose Kiln Lane,
tion: C d H R
Reading, Berkshire, RG2 0HP
Phone: +44 870 252 3600
52
Industry: Managed Hosting Services
Founded: 1998
Overview
Steve Wright, DediPower Managed Hosting’s Head of Technical Operations, was accustomed to
Wright, r Hosting’s Technical
hnical ed Challenges:
looking outside of the box to find solutions that met his company’s specific needs. Faced with
x company’s
mpany’ th Lacked centralized control of backup software
ontrol
nd company’s up Wright d
the need to centralize and automate his company’s backup environment, Wright discovered that Inability to effectively detect failed backup jobs
effectively
are offered
f
R1Soft CDP Enterprise Edition was the only backup software that offered the features he
Use of tapes was less preferred
s
g ed
required. Since deploying R1Soft, DediPower has stabilized its backup environment while
improving its ability to respond to customer requests to protect new applications and recover old ones.
pond ct Current backup software failed to meet special
ware
requirements
DediPower Managed Hosting Profile
ged
DediPower,
DediPower, backed by its philosophy of "Support with Passion", is a leading international
ts assion",
Solution:
nd th
provider of IT hosting and cloud infrastructure solutions. With data centres in the UK, North R1Soft Continuous Data Protection®
America and Asia, DediPower supports thousands of customers including Sony, Virgin, Eidos,
Power stomers Sony, Virgin, dos, – Enterprise Edition
n
Lovemoney.com
money ology ervice
NHS, BluHalo and Lovemoney.com with the latest technology to reduce costs, improve service Benefits:
levels and maximize their online potential. It is ranked among the UK's 50 fastest growing
ir mong Internal systems use R1Soft APIs to monitor
and manage backups s
private tech companies by the Sunday Times Microsoft Tech Track 100. DediPower is
Times Tech Track
headquartered in Reading, UK.
ng, Exception reports identify backup jobs in
entify
need of attention
DediPower’s base line service level agreements (SLAs) start at 99.99% uptime and include
DediPower ’s de Centrally manages backups across all 5
ackups
options for 100% uptime. Its data centers are fully compliant with Tier 3 data center standards,
e. ant Tier ards, of its global data centers
ters
providing clients with tailor-made solutions for all of their online and eBusiness needs.
lor-made Native integrated support for most
pport
Microsoft applications
s
Lack of Visibility Puts DediPower ’s Backup SLAs in Jeopardy
Visibility DediPower’s kup Bare-Metal Restore reduced system
educed
Looking outside of the box was nothing new for Steve Wright, DediPower Managed Hosting’s
ox Wr
right, Hosting’s
ng’ recovery times
Technical ations. diPower
Head of Technical Operations. Having been a part of DediPower Managed Hosting since its
Wright
t t d
inception in 1998, Wright had learned over the years that most software was not designed to
meet the specialized needs of managed service providers (MSPs) like DediPower.
eds s DediPower.
“Our customers have dynamic
environments and their requirements
d
Backup software was no exception to this rule. Most enterprise backup software products
o erprise for backup can change rapidly. The
hange rapidly.
lacked the centralized controls that he needed to effectively manage his backup environment
ontrols effectively
f ely ment fact that many of these applications
f
as well as detect and report backup failures.
port are natively supported and the
ported
flexibility in the solution provided by
olution
ailed oblematic me.
This inability to detect failed backups was particularly problematic for DediPower at the time. R1Soft have been a big bonus.”
n
The company guarantees in its customer SLAs that it can provide 99.99% or greater uptime but
p yg es np g p me - Steve Wright, Head of Technical Operations,
Wright, Technical
if backups fail and go undetected, DediPower ’s ability to meet those SLAs is jeopardized.
ndetected, DediPower’s DediPower Managed Hosting

2. Almost any backup software can solve a hosting provider’s backup problems, but today’s
forward-looking companies want more. They need solutions that automate and centralize
backup management while expediting recoveries. Using R1Soft CDP Enterprise Edition,
DediPower Managed Hosting was able to make automated backups and near real-time
recoveries a reality for its customers.
R1Soft Best Fit for DediPower’s
Requirements Third, R1Soft was designed from the ground up
Recognizing that he needed to fix the problem, to use disk. This would improve backup
Wright took a look at the more well known success rates, reduce backup windows and
enterprise backup software providers in the eliminate the need for DediPower to manage
market, such as Veritas NetBackup (now hundreds of tapes.
Symantec), Legato NetWorker (now EMC) and
IBM TSM; however, none of them really suited This rich combination of features convinced
DediPower’s or its customers’ requirements for Wright to move ahead with R1Soft CDP as
manageability and overall ease of use. DediPower’s backup platform of choice.
Moreover, most of the other providers were, at
that time, still pretty committed to using tape. DediPower Moves Ahead
So it was as he was doing his research that with R1Soft
Wright ran across R1Soft Continuous Data Wright made the decision to implement R1Soft
Protection® (CDP) Enterprise Edition, which had over three (3) years ago and has not looked
three features that distinguished it from its back since. One of the first things Wright did
competitors. after implementing R1Soft was take advantage
of its APIs and make calls to R1Soft from
DediPower’s internal systems so he could
Continue: R1Soft Best Fit for
centrally monitor and manage his backups.
DediPower’s Requirements
First, it offered a centralized Web interface.
DediPower’s internal systems were configured
Other backup software took a more traditional
so that they could log onto R1Soft and
approach of installing their software on a server
immediately pull back all data related to the
and then requiring administrators to access it
status of backups. Once this information was
locally on the server. But with data centers in
gathered, DediPower could run exception
the UK, Hong Kong and the United States,
reporting to confirm that servers were config-
DediPower could benefit immensely from
ured for backup and if they had any issues
R1Soft’s Web interface, which would give
during the backups, ultimately using these
Wright’s team the ability to access backup
reports to demonstrate to customers that
servers in any of these data centers, see if
backups of their application servers were
failures were occurring and then work to
completing successfully and within the
resolve them.
designated backup windows.
Second, R1Soft provided an API that DediP-
Wright says, “Even if a system goes through a
ower could call from its internal management
change, our internal systems quickly capture,
systems. This would enable Wright to take
highlight and report on information from R1Soft
management of backups to the next level such
letting us know that we need to perform certain
that DediPower’s administrators would not
actions. This is one of the keys to proving to
even need to log onto the backup servers.
our customers that our backup infrastructure is
Instead, Wright could configure DediPower’s
maintained and reliable.”
internal systems to call the API, automatically
log onto R1Soft and then pull up all of the data
related to the backup.

3. [Customer Success] DediPower Managed Hosting
Application Support and
Bare-Metal Restore Unexpected Wright says, “R1Soft’s ability to automate our
Bonuses backups coupled with its centralized manage-
As he used R1Soft, Wright also discovered that ment reporting saves us so much time by
it included support for Microsoft Exchange, freeing up the time of our systems administra-
SQL Server and MySQL backups. This has tors so they can focus even more time on
given him the flexibility required to adapt to the keeping our clients’ solution performing at the
rapidly changing needs of his customer base highest level.”
without necessitating the purchase of new
licenses in order to provide that additional level Since deploying R1Soft, DediPower has gone
of support for his clients. on to leverage other features such as CDP’s
application integration and Bare-Metal Restore
Wright says, “Our customers have dynamic (BMR), which have added even more value.
environments and their requirements for backup R1Soft’s native support of Microsoft Exchange,
can change rapidly. Having to add a new module SQL Server and MySQL enable DediPower to
every time they introduce a new application quickly respond to a customer’s needs for data
would not have worked effectively for us. The protection, should they unexpectedly change;
fact that all of these applications are natively while using BMR, DediPower can restore the
supported by R1Soft has been a big bonus.” machine in less than a couple of hours.
DediPower’s support teams have also earned The robust combination of features found in
kudos from its customers because of R1Soft’s R1Soft CDP has enabled DediPower to transform
Bare-Metal Restore feature. its backups. While the company initially switched
to R1Soft to solve its backup problems, in doing
At times, a customer’s server fails or applica- so, DediPower discovered a new goal: creating
tion data is corrupted and the application needs an environment in which all of its backups were
to be restored. Other times, the customer centrally managed and then automated. Using
simply wants to test a production application on R1Soft CDP Enterprise Edition, DediPower was
a test server to see how the application able to achieve that objective.
performs under certain conditions.
In either of these scenarios, DediPower’s support
teams can now grab an available server, perform
a Bare-Metal Restore and have that system
online and ready for use for either production or
testing in less than a couple of hours.
Backup Automation is
What DediPower Wanted and
Found in R1Soft
DediPower Managed Hosting initially adopted
R1Soft because it solved the key challenges
that the company faced in its environment:
centralizing and simplifying the management of
its backups.

4. www.r1soft.com
www.r1soft.com
About R1Soft:
R1Soft is the developer of Continuous Data Protection® (CDP) software, scalable and
r ®
high-performance backup software for Windows, Linux, and virtual environments. Recognized
kup gnized
as the leading commercial backup software in hosted services and the Cloud, R1Soft CDP
cial ervices DP
currently protects more than 200,000 servers worldwide.
tly e e.
R1Soft is a division of BBS Technologies, Inc | 2010 © Copyright BBS Technologies, Inc.
sion Technologies, Technologies,