With stores in six cities across Ireland, Brown Thomas was facing increasing volumes of data and slower backup times. Although these were typically done overnight, the time taken to backup was starting to creep into trading hours. The problem was further exacerbated by the fact that in an event of a sever failure it could take up to 11 hours to bring a new machine online. The retailer selected Acronis software to create backup images of its 'tier one' servers, which control everything from PoS through to merchandising and human resources applications. These images include not only file data but also installed programmes and preferences together with each machine's uniquely configured system settings. Brown Thomas can bring a replacement server online in less than an hour should an existing one fail.

In addition, it purchased Acronis True Image Workstation to create backup images of key workstations and laptops. This has cut the time taken to rebuild a till from two hours to just five minutes. Joe Rylands, group IT director at Brown Thomas, comments: "Acronis has brought peace of mind to us all and an increased level of confidence in the way we backup and recover our data. At the end of the day, you just can't put a price on that."

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