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About Nanometrics, Inc.
Since 1975 Nanometrics Inc., (NASDAQ: NANO) has been a leading provider of high performance control metrology systems used in the manufacturing of semiconductors, photovoltaics and LEDs. Located in Milpitas, California, Nanometrics employs more than 450 people in 12 offices worldwide. Dave Kizer, Director of Information Technology, leads a 10 member team that manages and administers all the computer systems necessary to keep the company running.
The Challenge
Dave Kizer and his team relied on Linear Tape‐Open (LTO) technology and Iron Mountain off‐site storage to backup and store the company’s 3TB of data. Incremental backup was done daily with a full backup each weekend. At the height of the economic downturn in 2008, Nanometrics was forced to layoff more than 7 percent of its workforce. The IT department was hit especially hard and Kizer saw his staff reduced by 60 percent. Outsourcing became a strategic tool to reduce administrative overhead and increase operational efficiency. Data backup is a necessary IT function but tedious and time consuming when relying on tape. Finding a service provider to outsource offsite data protection and recovery became a key way for Kizer to continue operations and redeploy remaining IT staff to other areas of critical need.
In addition to cutting costs, Kizer also had to consider compliance when choosing a disaster recovery partner. As Nanometrics is a public company, Kizer needed a service provider who would ensure the company was in compliance with Sarbanes‐Oxley.
The Solution
Kizer, armed with this list of criteria, turned to Simply Continuous’ Data Recovery Vault to fully outsource Nanometrics' data off‐site data protection and recovery program. "With the economic downturn and the layoff, finding a recovery service provider who could take this program off my plate as well as reduce my overhead costs related to tape backup and recovery was a high priority," said Kizer. "I had 1½ staff dedicated to tape backup and with this service, I could redeploy them to other projects."
In addition to reducing administration overhead and saving money, Dave Kizer needed a service that could demonstrate that Nanometrics' financial data was protected and recoverable in order to comply with Sarbanes‐Oxley. "The Data Recovery Vault service makes it easy to demonstrate to auditors that our financial data is protected and recoverable. I know my data is safe in a SAS‐70 datacenter and I can log into Simply Continuous’ portal to verify that all my data is replicated off‐site and ready to be recovered whenever I need it."
Kizer continues, "with tape, I never had complete confidence that my data was there unless I went through the motions of doing a full recovery. It could take hours or days to do a full recovery from tape. But with Data Recovery Vault, it’s easy to view my data within seconds of logging into the portal."
Nanometrics backs up 3TB of data to an on‐site Data Domain appliance provided as part of the Data Recovery Vault service. The on‐site appliance then securely replicates the backup data to Simply Continuous’ Universal Recovery Platform and its support of a scalable Data Domain infrastructure. In the event of a recovery, Simply Continuous provides four different modes of recovery to ensure success. By architecting the service to include four different modes of recovery, Simply Continuous guarantees that customers like Nanometrics can retrieve their data back securely and more quickly than with tape or online backup services. The four different recovery modes include:
- Recovery from the on‐site appliance
- Recovery by replicating the off‐site appliance to the on‐site appliance
- Recovery by downloading the data from the Data Recovery Vault portal
- Recovery by shipping a replacement appliance fully‐loaded with Nanometrics’ required recovery data
Results
Dave Kizer and his team retired their outdated LTO tape backup infrastructure, cancelled their off‐site tape vaulting service with Iron Mountain and redeployed key IT personnel to work on other strategic initiatives. In its place emerged an enterprise-class recovery service provider to handle the day‐to‐day logistics of off‐site backup and recovery for Nanometrics. "I saw a 20 percent reduction in cost with Data Recovery Vault," says Kizer. "I can also recover files in minutes rather than hours and sometimes days with tape. And to top it all off, I have a trusted partner who I can refer to when the Sarbanes‐Oxley auditors come knocking at my door."
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