Veeam helps Industrial Scientific save millions of lives

The Business Challenge

Industrial Scientific Corporation is dedicated to eliminating death on the job by 2050. The company’s mission is to preserve human life on, above and below the earth.

For nearly 40 years, Industrial Scientific has pioneered the production of safety solutions, including the first gas detector used on a NASA space shuttle. Over time the company has expanded its offerings to incorporate Software as a Service (SaaS) solutions such as SafetyNet, making it possible to predict and prevent workplace injuries by tracking and analyzing safety-related data.

“Our job is to help keep people alive, but we can’t do our job unless the IT systems that support our products and services are protected and available,” said Doug Hathorn, Application Support Manager at Industrial Scientific.

Slow, unreliable backup and recovery put some IT systems at risk, including systems supporting SafetyNet, as well as the production of gas-detection systems and customer call center operations.

“Preserving human life shapes everything we do, so our solutions and customer support must be of the highest quality and exceed expectations,” Hathorn said. “Nothing leaves our factories that we wouldn’t bet our own lives on. It was time to optimize the way we protected critical IT systems.”

The Veeam Solution

Veeam Availability Suite helps Industrial Scientific prevent workplace injuries by protecting the IT systems supporting SafetyNet. Veeam also averts IT outages that could impact both the production of gas-detection solutions and operations in the customer call center. Additionally, Veeam provides Continuous Data Protection (CDP) to radically reduce recovery objectives for critical IT systems by 99% (from 24 hours to three minutes).

“Veeam helps us keep people alive,” Hathorn said.

Veeam backs up and replicates 200 TB across 400 VMware vSphere virtual machines (VMs) on-premises and off-premises to Dell EMC Data Domain Storage. Advanced integration between Veeam and Data Domain Boost software makes backup lightning fast, and high-speed recovery features such as Veeam Explorer for Microsoft SQL Server restore manufacturing databases in record time.

“Veeam also monitors disk space issues in manufacturing databases to alert us if there’s a problem so we can resolve it before manufacturing is affected,” Hathorn said. “And Veeam monitors backup drives to alert us if they’re full because that could impact call center routing and voice mail systems.”

Data loss is unacceptable at Industrial Scientific, so Veeam CDP protects mission-critical systems. CDP provides minimum recovery objectives in a disaster situation because VM replicas are in a ready-to-start state.

“Veeam is an amazing solution, and it’s so easy to use,” Hathorn said. “Before we deployed Veeam, an employee spent half of his day managing backups. After we deployed Veeam, he moved to a new position because everyone on the IT team can manage backup and recovery in addition to their other responsibilities — that how intuitive Veeam is. You set it and forget it.”

The Results

• Helps prevent workplace injuries by protecting systems supporting SafetyNet
  “Veeam is helping us meet our goal of eliminating death on the job by 2050,” Hathorn said.
• Averts IT outages that could impact the production of gasdetection solutions
  Veeam prevents IT outages in two ways. Veeam monitors disk space in manufacturing databases to alert the IT team to issues they can resolve before manufacturing is impacted. Second, Veeam Explorer for Microsoft SQL Server helps them locate and restore manufacturing databases quickly if needed. “If we can’t restore databases fast, manufacturing could be impacted, and that’s not an option,” Hathorn said.
• Provides CDP to radically reduce recovery objectives for critical systems by 99%Veeam CDP saves a copy of every change made to data so files can be restored from any point in time. CDP reduces recovery objectives for Industrial Scientific from 24 hours to three minutes.