Methodist Healthcare is using the Data Domain DD580 and the DD690. The INI Group interviewed Jeff Hagan, systems administrator. This is how Jeff describes his role:

“I am a system administrator, one of four team members on the systems administration side. We manage all the servers within our companies. I have been with Methodist and HCA for ten years. Our job is to manage all the servers both from a backup responsibility and from the storage responsibility as well. Methodist is a partner with HCA Healthcare. We are actually HCA employees but we manage the Methodist system of hospitals for IS, for information systems."

The following is an overview of Methodist Healthcare’s IT environment:

• Seven thousand employees
• Five hospitals
• Two hundred servers
• VMware 3.5
• Windows 2000, 2003 & 2008 Server
• Seventy virtual servers
• Netbackup 6.52
• Oracle, Sybase
• Sixteen terabytes of online storage

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. How has implementing Data Domain changed your usage of tape now and in the future?
7. Can you give us any insights on Data Domain that would be useful for other IT professionals considering the solution?
8. What are the next steps using your Data Domain solution?
9. 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