Bank Midwest is using the Data Domain DD580 and the DD690. The INI Group interviewed Bryan Wilken, Vice President of Information Technology. This is how Bryan describes his role:

“My primary focus is managing IT projects.  I do budgeting, and making sure that I’m aligning the bank’s strategic goals with technology.  Another focus of mine is also spent in the information security realm.  I help plan and implement and monitor the different facets of information security with Bank Midwest.”

The following is an overview of Bank Midwest’s IT environment:

• Approximately one hundred seventy full-time employees. 
• Five hundred million dollars in assets. 
• Annual IT budget of seven hundred fifty thousand dollars
• Environment consists of approximately thirty servers in their data center. 
• Online data is one point two terabytes growing at a rate of five hundred gigabytes per year
• Windows and AS400 environment
• Five hundred gigabyte nightly back up

Listen to individual answers by clicking on the following questions:

1. Why did you decide to implement a disk-to-disk backup solution that supports data deduplication?
2. What was the process you used to make your final decision to go with Data Domain?
3. Can you give us examples of how Data Domain provided real value to your company?
4. Can you tell us how Data Domain has improved the overall economic effectiveness within your IT operations?
5. Did you look at any other disk-based backup or VTL solutions?
6. Did you look at any software-based solutions provided by the backup vendors?
7. How has implementing Data Domain changed your usage of tape now and in the future?
8. Can you give us any insights on Data Domain that would be useful for other IT professionals considering the solution?
9. What are the next steps using your Data Domain solution?
10. Would you recommend using Data Domain to other IT professionals? And tell us why.

For more information on EMC/Data Domain, go to www.datadomain.com