Business Challenge

Sharp Packaging Solutions (Sharp) works across the world to create unique commercial and clinical packaging solutions for the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry. They are made up of two dynamic international divisions, Sharp Packaging Solutions and Sharp Clinical Services. Together their 1,800-strong team works from state-of-the-art facilities in the United States, United Kingdom, Belgium and the Netherlands

Sharp uses Druva inSync which provides a simple approach to protecting, preserving and discovering your data, while reducing costs, risk and complexity. Druva’s “on-premise” solution is managed and maintained by the customer, however Druva has since created a managed hosted cloud solution for their endpoint backup “Druva inSync Cloud”.

At its inception, the system stored backups on Amazon EBS volumes which resulted in higher storage costs. Sometime later, Druva started to utilize Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) which made storage of backups more cost effective, but we still needed to retain large amounts of EBS storage for the older backup data. i2m realized that the new Druva inSync cloud offering would be more cost-effective and require less management than the “On-Premise” version.

Prior to i2m migration, they faced the following challenges:

  • SHARP was utilizing Druva’s inSync “On-Premise” endpoint backup solution that was managed by i2m and hosted on Amazon Web Services.
  • The “On-Premise” version was hosted on an Amazon EC2 instance which required constant updates to take advantage of newly released features by Druva.
  • A legacy end-point backup system was prone to errors and required frequent maintenance, as well as expensive physical storage space and servers.
  • Legacy backup system was not able to take advantage of latest features and upgrades
  • Slow performance of local legacy infrastructure serving FTP/SFTP, Monitoring and document management system.
  • Current mechanism for storing, sharing and managing documents is not efficient.

i2m Solution

Recognizing that Amazon Web Services would be an ideal fit for SHARP, i2m implemented a plan to maximize the benefits of both, including the following changes to SHARP’s IT infrastructure:

  • Druva InSync Cloud Hosted Implementation and Management
  • Elastic CloudGate – AMI and Snapshot Scheduling and Maintenance Solution
  • Cloud based document storage, collaboration and management system using OWNCloud
  • Cloud based Global Alerting/Monitoring Solution for storage and critical systems
  • Cloud based SFTP
  • Automated AMI and Snapshot Scheduling and Maintenance Solution using Elastic CloudGate and AWS Lambda
  • Storage and Systems Governance and Cost Optimization Platform using CloudHealth by VMware

i2m added additional Backup and Recovery features for SHARP’s new cloud environment

Druva InSync for mobile device security and backup giving Sharp new mobile end-point capabilities:

  • Self-Service – Users are able to control their own backup and restore operations.
  • Endpoint Data Protection – High performance backup, encryption, remote wipe and geo-location of laptops and smart devices
  • Data Compliance Monitoring – Identification and remediation at-rest sensitive data risks (PHI, PII, PCI)
  • Federated Search – Quick location of files across endpoints and cloud applications
  • Legal Hold Management & eDiscovery Enablement – Instantly preserve custodian data for investigative and litigation needs
  • OS Migration and Device Refresh – Centralized management for large-scale migrations and self-service refreshes Endpoint Data Protection

Additional Features:

  • Automated AMI and Snapshot Scheduling and Maintenance solution using Elastic CloudGate and AWS Lambda.
  • We designed a global cloud-based monitoring/alerting system for their on-premise and cloud-based resources giving Sharp and us complete visibility and control into their global environments.
  • CloudHealth for ongoing Cost Management, Governance, Security and Optimization.

The following AWS technology was used:

  • Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3)
  • Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS)
  • AWS CloudFormation
  • Amazon EC2
  • Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC)
  • AWS Lambda
  • AWS Identity & Access Management (IAM)
  • AWS Single Sign-On
  • AWS Config
  • AWS CloudTrail

The following i2m managed technology was implemented:

  • Druva InSync Cloud Elite Plus – Endpoint Backup Protection
  • Owncloud – Document Storage, Collaboration and Management
  • Nagios Check_MK – Monitoring and Alerting System
  • CloudHealth by VMware – Storage and Systems Governance and Cost Optimization Platform

i2m Solution Benefits

i2m decided to migrate SHARP to the Druva inSync cloud managed solution. The backend systems and storage are managed by Druva which allowed for a reduction in time spent maintaining the solution. SHARP realized immediate cost savings due to eliminating Amazon EBS, Amazon S3 and Amazon EC2 costs. Druva offers a low flat rate per user which includes unlimited backup storage. This allowed for a scalable and more cost-effective way to run and manage their endpoint backup protection while taking advantage of new features and updates released by Druva. Druva InSync provided a great level of insight, compliance and governance over Sharp’s mobile data and devices globally.

i2m implemented a centralized document storage, collaboration and management application called “Owncloud” which allows them to store and share files in a secure and user-friendly manner. SHARP’s Owncloud is managed by i2m and hosted on AWS using an Amazon EC2 instance.

SHARP now benefits from having Nagios Check_MK – a global monitoring and alerting platform which monitors their storage and critical systems. Nagios Check_MK allows SHARP to view metrics about storage and system performance, utilization and status from a centralized management console.

With the addition of CloudHealth, SHARP was able to gain visibility into their environment with a cloud management platform that enables users to analyze and manage cloud cost, usage and performance in one place. CloudHealth allows sharp to effectively manage their Amazon S3 and EBS storage costs to stay under budget by uncovering hidden costs, monitoring increases in spend and making impactful changes based on custom recommendations.

Elastic CloudGate offers SHARP an automated method for scheduling and maintaining backups and snapshots of EC2 instances and EBS volumes. Automation of EBS snapshot maintenance helps SHARP by checking for stale EBS snapshots and deleting them to help reduce storage costs.

Results

  • Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) – 30% reduction in TCO compared to on-premise solution.
  • Backup and Recovery RTO – Data available immediately for restore, restore depends on size of data being restored
  • Backup and Recovery RPO – 4 hours
  • System Uptime and Availability – 5% increase in uptime and availability of the solution
  • Time Managing the Solution – 70% decrease in time spent managing and maintaining the Druva inSync Endpoint Backup solution from ~10 hours/month to ~3 hour/month