The second largest wire harness provider for EU modernizes data archiving with Vinchin Backup & Recovery

We have well installed, configured, and operated Vinchin Backup & Recovery. We select it for the good pricing, simple management, and above all, flexible backup and recovery options. We can set them up according to our needs and schedules. We can archive our dormant data to the cloud for compliance. A real bargain for us.

Hammami Tarek, IT Security Administrator

COFAT

Business Challenge

Founded in 1984, COFAT is a designer and producer of wiring harnesses and also a branch of Elloumi Group, the largest industrial company, and exporter in Tunisia with 30 subsidiaries around the world and more than 10,000 staff. Producing engines, cabins, cockpits, chassis, dashboards, navigation systems, and ABS systems, COFAT is the EU's second largest provider of automotive cables and wire harnesses, accounting for 25% of the market. COFAT supplies half of Chrysler's DC cables in the US and half of Volkswagen and Peugeot's DC cables in Europe.

As technology involves rapidly, the manufacturing industry is also undergoing a transition from the traditional labor force to production automation. COFAT is no exception amid the advent of the virtualization revolution and The Internet of Things (IoT). They use XenServer 7.0 to store assembly line applications, product databases, customer emails, profiles, and other systems. Hammami Tarek, IT Security Administrator at COFAT, said, “The ideal data solution for our XenServer meets operational goals such as cost reduction, efficiency improvement, increased safety, and compliance support.”

Production interruption costs a manufacturer fortune and tarnishes its brand, that’s why an ongoing operation matters so much for COFAT. The IT team of COFAT also stresses that whether the solution stores inactive data for decades efficiently is a factor measured. Hammami mentions that long-term data preservation is important for regulatory compliance and internal annual audits, adding that, “We expect a product of agility and adaptability. The capability to perform a seamless business salvage requires speed and professionalism. That’s the same traits we are looking for in our data protection.”

Vinchin Solution

Vinchin Backup & Recovery offers optional backup strategies that employ transmission modes including SAN (Storage Area Network) transport, which provides a separate and highly scalable network for quick access to storage, thus the fast XenServer backup of COFAT. The company also turns on SpeedKit-enabled incremental backup (substitute for CBT technology, unique to the software) for a speedy backup. Now COFAT can transfer massive data very soon.

“I didn’t know that a backup software works so quickly and effectively until I use Vinchin Backup & Recovery. It is great in many ways, for example, by specifying backup schedules, the backup runs in a set time with few interventions, and we can check the process on the UI, much more convenient than in the past,” said Hammami.

Business resiliency is significant for a manufacturer to avoid and mitigate risks associated with the interruption of operations. Thus, it is extremely important that the data protection solution equips with such features. Vinchin Backup & Recovery has an offsite backup copy ready at the time needed and the instant recovery of it not only makes backups instantly accessible for speedy VM restoration.

Storage media for long-term archiving of COFAT used to be CDs, cheap, accessible but vulnerable at the same time. They decide to keep them in the cloud. The solution provides advanced archive strategies such as encrypted transmission and retention policy for COFAT to save old data for a long time. The professionals in the company can access the files from anywhere, anytime that has an internet connection, and send organized data copies to the cloud. Hammami said, “Management is simpler too. Just as important, the software has great support for the cloud. Its strategies also make archiving easier.”

Result

Vinchin Backup & Recovery transfers a huge amount of COFAT data through SAN for fast backup and leverages its peculiar SpeedKit to speed the process up further. The offsite backup copy of the solution comes in handy if disaster strikes while instant recovery restores a crashed XenServer VM back in seconds. COFAT modernizes data archiving to store cumulative files for decades with the support of the software.

customer_story_cofat.pdf