STW Communications Group tackles 120 terabyte data problem with Simpana

Replacing legacy data protection systems with CommVault’s Simpana software has enabled Sydney-based marketing and advertising conglomerate, STW Communications Group, to manage 120 terabytes of data more efficiently.

The Group is made up of 76 different companies which manage digital images and video content for clients such as IBM, American Express and St George Bank.

In-depth: How to create a clear project plan.

STW Communications Group chief information officer, Tom Ceglarek, who has been with the company for nine months, was tasked with consolidating the back-end infrastructure down to one centralised system.

“Up until three years ago, IT was separated across those 76 companies,” he said. “There was a lot of duplication and no drive towards economy of scale.”

Prior to joining the Group, he worked at advertising agency DDB Group for eight and a half years as head of IT.

Ceglarek said the Simpana implementation was necessary due to projected data growth of up to 50 per cent year-on-year. For example, he anticipates that the Group will be managing 180 terabytes by the end of 2012. “Images and video take up so much space, especially as everything is moving towards high definition [HD],” he said.

“[To have] been able to monitor the environment and the replication backup snapshots through one pane of glass has saved my admins a lot of time trying to remember multiple passwords.”

The project, which is due for completion in March 2012, has consolidated data across 12 locations in Sydney and Melbourne.

A second rollout will be carried out across locations in Australia, New Zealand and Asia Pacific by March 2012.

However, due to the amount of data the Group handles, he said there are no plans to outsource to the Cloud. “I think we’re in a unique position given the sheer amount of data we deal with,” he said. “That requires a great deal of bandwidth which isn’t available in the market yet.”

While the National Broadband Network (NBN) may make Cloud computing possible for companies such as STW, he said it was not “economically viable” to outsource data yet.

In addition to the consolidation project, Cegalrak is reviewing the Group’s internal communications. “We have a standard IP telephone setup with Cisco at the moment but we want to take that on to the desktop and make it more of a unified communications approach,” he said.

Follow Hamish Barwick on Twitter: @HamishBarwick

Follow CIO Australia on Twitter: @CIO_Australia