Mimosa NearPoint Serves Up 'Peace of Mind' for Dot Foods
"Mimosa NearPoint has provided us with a way to retain total control over all email data, and protect against significant data loss in the event of a disaster." — Eric Ellerman, Network Manager, Dot Foods

Background

Email management had become a time-consuming, laborious task at Illinois-based Dot Foods. With 2,500 employees and an integrated fax and imaging system in its Exchange environment to send and receive signed contracts and delivery receipts, Dot Food's Exchange database was growing at a rate of 66 MB per day. This mounting store of critical information was at great risk of data corruption and even significant Exchange downtime which would bring business to a screeching halt. Disaster recovery and storage management quickly became key requirements to maintaining availability for Dot Foods' business-critical Exchange environment. Dot Foods is one of the United States' first food redistributors, linking industry manufacturers, distributors, brokers and buying groups.

Dot Foods offers 57,000 dry, frozen and refrigerated products, plus equipment and supplies, to local distributors in all 50 states. A disruption in their business would have a wide-spread ripple effect on all of the businesses they deal with. The critical role of email in this business model is what led Dot Foods Network Manager Eric Ellerman to select Mimosa NearPoint.

NearPoint Solves Multiple Exchange Challenges for Dot Foods

NearPoint’s single, unified solution met Dot Food’s primary email issues by providing:

• Complete Archive of Exchange Information: NearPoint’s unique architecture assures Dot Foods that all Exchange information is accessible by users, at all times.
• Full Email Information Recovery: From automated, application intelligent disaster recovery to easy mailbox recovery, Mimosa NearPoint reliably protects Exchange information and enables “one-click” full email data and service recovery.
• Eliminate PST Files: With NearPoint PST Archiving Option, Dot Foods can upload the contents of existing PST files directly into the NearPoint archive, where they can be protected and easily accessed by users anytime.
• Intuitive user self-service search and restore: Mimosa NearPoint increases end user productivity through intuitive self-service search and restore functionality that gives users instant access to emails that have been archived.

Eliminate PST Files and Increases User Access

“Email is a core business application for Dot Foods. We were relying on aggressive mailbox quotas and the use of PST files to reduce the dramatic increase in Exchange server storage. In reality, however, this approach just shifted the data from Exchange to potentially more expensive and vulnerable end-user computer systems that were outside of our control,” explained Ellerman.

Ellerman knew that PST files cause several problems. Not only did they become corrupted, putting valuable corporate data at risk, but PSTs moved email data beyond IT’s access and control and onto often expensive storage devices. NearPoint easily uploads PST files into the NearPoint Archive, making all data searchable and accessible by Dot Foods users.

NearPoint’s continuously up-to-date archive also reduces the need for new PST files. Because the NearPoint archive is a complete repository of email information — messages, deleted items, calendar items, tasks, and contacts — Dot Food users now rely on full access to this single repository rather than multiple PST files.

“We now have a means of archiving, managing and protecting all email information. This way we know all of the data is safe,” added Ellerman.

Comprehensive Recovery
Ellerman had experienced the pain of restoring a deleted mailbox and looked at NearPoint’s instant recovery capabilities as a must have. Shortly after NearPoint was in place, he discovered how much time he would save with NearPoint when an employee accidentally deleted an important email message folder. Using NearPoint, Ellerman was able to restore the deleted folder in a matter of minutes. Five years ago, Ellerman had to restore a mailbox folder using Dot Foods’ implementation of a traditional tape backup system, but that job took days, as opposed to the minutes it took with NearPoint.

Ellerman will also use NearPoint to secure Dot Food’s critical email data in the case of a disaster. NearPoint’s Disaster Recovery Option protects Exchange information through a noninvasive, Continuous Application Shadowing process, preserving the consistency and integrity of Exchange data, and enabling “one-click” full email data and service recovery.
“With Mimosa NearPoint’s Disaster Recovery Option, our IT staff has the peace of mind knowing that critical business information is protected and well managed,” said Ellerman. “We now feel confident that if a disaster does strikes, no matter how big or small, we are entirely prepared for a complete and speedy restoration of email service for our 2,500 employees.”

NearPoint Delivers Key Benefits to Dot Foods

NeaPoint has improved productivity for both business and IT users across Dot Foods. NearPoint’s “zero footprint” architecture, requiring no agents on the Exchange server or user desktops, simplified deployment and eased training. IT has directly experienced the speed of mailbox recovery and is now assured that email data is protected in the case of a disaster. Business users benefit with instant access to emails that have been archived and increases end user productivity through intuitive self-service search and restore functionality integrated right inside their Outlook desktop application.

 

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