Vinchin Ensures the Data Security for the CRUK Manchester Institute

I did not anticipate an impeccable solution until Vinchin offered one. Their product not only provides us the flexibility and reliability to back up data but also succeeds to recover data in seconds, which has greatly contributed to our cancer research data management. Vinchin, as a strong backing behind our data, is always there with us going forward.

Marek Dynowski, PhD | Head of Scientific Computing

Cancer Research UK Manchester Institute

Business Challenge

The CRUK (Cancer Research UK) Manchester Institute is a leading cancer research institute originally from the University of Manchester, a world-known institution with a reputation for education and innovation. From investigating the molecular and cellular basis of cancer, to translational research and the development of therapeutics, it covers almost the whole spectrum of cancer research, and aims to transform people’s lives by making positive change across the world.

As the institute’s cancer research has been continually making great progress, the need to keep important data safe is highly in demand, let alone it also has strong links with the Christie Hospital – the largest cancer center in Europe, treating more than 40,000 patients per year.

With numerous data of cancer research and patients being generated daily in more than 100 virtual machines, traditional data backup method would be definitely time-consuming for deploying agents hundred times, yet not easy for data management. Therefore, an agentless, centrally managed and easy-to-use backup & recovery solution has become the urgent need.

Knowing is owning. The importance of data cannot be over-emphasized. “We could ill afford the downtime and the data loss on cancer which will be very grave for institute and our patients. There was a fire on the Paterson Building which housed the majority of the CRUK Manchester Institute in 2017. Fortunately, it was not the worst but this alerted us that we should move to a better backup and recovery system going forward.” Said Marek Dynowski.

Vinchin Solution

“Previously, we can hardly find a comprehensive backup solution on oVirt because the cumbersome legacy solution with agent on each virtual machine wasn’t geared for our needs and relied on agent-based backups,” said Marek. In order to change the time-consuming installing process, Vinchin provides CRUK Manchester with agentless backup solution. It succeeds to back up all the oVirt virtual machines directly from hypervisor and no need to install any agent on the OS. “Deploying Vinchin on oVirt environment is quite easy”, said Marek, “which spares a lot of time and effort for our research process.”

Institute has been one of the main targets for ransomware, while power failure and other unexpected factors also puts data at risk. “One of the deciding factors when selecting Vinchin was the capability of recovering data in an instant. All you need to do are just a few steps. Bang! You can go back to where you were like nothing bad happened.” Said Marek. “The legacy system is seemingly from the Stone Age compared with the solution provided by Vinchin as the long-time recovery is totally a disaster for us.” Vinchin is keenly aware of the great inconvenience of data loss.

“My fellows and I are fed up with the poor service from previous solution provider,” said Marek. “Worse still, the customer service is severely time-lagged even inside working hours which denies our access to protect our data! Vinchin is rather than just a vendor but also a think tank. Prompt response from their support team can come to us any time when we need.”

Result

"Vinchin is not only a professional data backup and recovery software company, but also the one that is constantly improving its service with customer satisfaction, which made us feel even more secured.” Said Marek.

“For the research institute like us, we are not willing to spend a lot of expenditure on the backward legacy data management but on cancer research we are committed to. Vinchin, provides us with effective, safe-guaranteed and easy-to-use backup and recovery solutions, is a really great partner that we are willing to construct a long-term relationship with.” Said Marek Dynowski. Now, cancer researchers and patients of the institute can fully assure that their important information is always under great protection. 

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