CASE STUDY
Birmingham , nestled in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains , was established more than 150 years ago at the crossing of two railroad lines near one of the world ’ s richest deposits of iron ore , coal and limestone . Mining defined the Alabama city in the mid-1800s , but over time Birmingham transformed into a powerful banking and business center . Now , several Fortune 500 and 1000 companies are based in the city including Regions Financial Corporation and Vulcan Materials .
Birmingham fosters city growth through a progressive business climate . One example is the city ’ s website , which makes it easy for companies to apply for business licenses , pay for building permits and file taxes . The website streamlines city services for residents too . They can pay parking tickets online , check trash pick-up schedules and submit city-related questions to an online customer service portal . Like most cities , Birmingham also provides police protection and fire and rescue services .
“ The continual operation of city services is clearly paramount , which means we have to have complete confidence in our ability to back up and recover every application supporting every city service ,” said Darryl Burroughs , Deputy CIO of Infrastructure Operations for the City of Birmingham . “ When we began to lose confidence in our legacy backup solutions , we immediately searched for a replacement .”
David McDonald , Systems Administrator for the City of Birmingham , said : “ Clearly , we have to be able to recover data because it includes police and fire records . Like many city governments , we run thin on personnel , so having someone spend time troubleshooting backups was impractical .”
Birmingham considered three replacements for the legacy systems .
“ Our requirements were simplicity , flexibility and affordability ,” McDonald said .
All city services are supported by a modern IT infrastructure . Key applications support fiscal processes , geographical mapping and records management in the police and fire departments .
“ Simplicity to save on administrative time , flexibility in backup storage and affordability because every city must be cost-conscious . Veeam was the only solution to meet all three requirements .”
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