Vector Seismic Data Processing, Inc.

Refining Data Protection

Customer Challenge:
Protecting data pertaining to customer projects and leads, as well as internal business data, without hiring a full-time IT person to handle backup and recovery.

“With LiveVault, our backup is out of sight, out of mind. Because LiveVault’s backups are automatic, I don’t have to think about it.
That’s a huge time savings for me."
Kevin Revels, Vice President, Vector Seismic Data Processing, Inc.

Running a well-oiled machine
The United States is the world's largest energy producer and consumer. During 2003 alone, the United States produced 7.9 million barrels of oil per day. To keep up with our nation’s consumption, and retain our position as the top energy producer, oil companies must constantly look for new sources of petroleum. Vector Seismic Data Processing, Inc. helps oil companies quickly and easily identify the best places to drill.

Many years ago, to locate oil sources, geologists analyzed surface features, soil types and small core samples obtained by shallow drilling. Today, companies use modern techniques including the creation of shock waves that pass through hidden rock layers, interpreting the waves that are reflected back to the surface. Vector Seismic translates this complex information into an easy-to-read graphic so oil companies can quickly and easily determine the best places to drill, and thereby maximize their revenue.

Because it is so closely linked to the growing oil industry, Vector Seismic consistently develops and deploys new technology to remain competitive and meet customer needs. As the methods of oil discovery become more sophisticated, Vector Seismic is committed to enhancing its internal processes to keep itself on the technological forefront.

Re-fueling data backup
Like many companies, Vector Seismic employees use their e-mail system as more than a message system. It’s a de facto repository of customer requests, project commitments, task management and team progress reports. As happens to most companies at one time or another, Vector Seismic was caught off-guard when its Exchange Server went down. Because they had only been doing tape backup on a sporadic basis, the company lost a good portion of its e-mail system, which contained valuable information pertaining to customer leads and projects in progress. In the end, this caused a loss in productivity for almost three days. Upon close examination, Vice President Kevin Revels determined that Vector Seismic had been doing very little to protect its data. After this data loss, Revels knew his company needed a stronger backup and recovery solution.

Revels turned to LiveVault. He subscribed to the LiveVault Online Backup & Recovery Service through Valerent, a leading provider of IT solutions. Valerent was already providing a new server for Vector Seismic, and Revels was confident in their services and impressed by LiveVault’s offering. Now, the LiveVault Online Backup and Recovery Service continuously protects Vector Seismic’s data and automatically stores it at a secure, offsite facility, where it is available for immediate recovery in the event of a system failure, virus, human error or other disaster.

The LiveVault service is designed for customers whose servers reside outside of major data centers. These customers are often small and mid-sized businesses or enterprise remote or branch offices, who have primarily relied on in-house tape backups to keep their data safe. Industry analysts estimate nearly 50 percent of tape-based backups for these distributed servers fail to fully recover, which exposes these businesses to significant risk. Conversely, LiveVault guarantees recovery of all business-critical data and assures that companies will return to the state of their business prior to a data-loss event.

Energy-efficient data backup & recovery
Like many small to mid-sized companies, Vector Seismic does not have the resources to consistently and reliably handle backup, tape management and offsite storage for disaster recovery. With LiveVault, Vector Seismic is relieved of the burden of backup staffing and scheduling. The fully managed service is professionally monitored around-the-clock.

“We’re a small company, so it doesn’t make sense for us to pay
a full-time IT person to handle backups. LiveVault is much more economical for us,” said Revels.

In addition to the convenience factor, LiveVault gives Vector Seismic the option of continuously backing up its data. Vector Seismic can now recover information that has been saved up to the moment when an interruption occurred, as opposed to the traditional tape backup they had been using. This will prevent a loss of productivity like what the company experienced prior to deploying LiveVault.

“With LiveVault, our backup is out of sight, out of mind,” said Revels. “Because LiveVault’s backups are automatic, I don’t have to think about it. That’s a huge time savings for me.”

When Revels wants to check the status of Vector Seismic’s data protection, he simply logs on to his MyLiveVault Web Management Portal. From there, he can set online backup policies and initiate data recovery via the Web 24x7x365. With LiveVault, Revels can check the status of his data protection operations at anytime, from any Web browser. In the future, if Vector Seismic experiences an interruption or system failure, Revels will be prepared. He’ll simply log on and initiate a restore from a point of his choice. LiveVault’s 100% data recovery guarantee will save Revels from the stress and time spent on data recovery.

“I’ve been very pleased with the LiveVault service and have even recommended it to my colleagues at other companies,” said Revels. “In the future, I’d like to expand the use of LiveVault within Vector Seismic by increasing the number of systems and amount of data under protection.”