MTM, located in Kocaeli, Turkey, was established in 1997 as the country’s first hologram manufacturer. MTM is involved in the origination and production of holographic materials for security and brand authentication applications. By January 1, 2006, the company had established the most advanced technology printing facility. The company’s novelty and uniqueness lie in the fact that all the steps of hologram manufacturing and printing are done in one place.
MTM’s IT environment consists of 5 physical servers, 110 virtual machines, and 35 physical workstations. The environment is projected to grow further in the nearest future. Virtual machines store domain controllers, databases, file servers, and specific applications that assist in holographic manufacturing. The IT environment supports MTM’s manufacturing process from hologram creation to production. In order to achieve what is known as lean operations, MTM needs all data and applications to run without any interruptions. Otherwise, the company risks losing its customers and revenue.
A while ago, MTM relied on different VM backup solutions available on the market. The main issue MTM encountered with them was time-consuming backups. For example, to back up 6TB of data with one of the VM backup tools, a full backup required 15 hours, while an incremental backup took 10 hours. With another backup tool, a full backup needed five hours, and the incremental backup two hours. Moreover, both solutions used too much disk space for reading/writing. The IT team also had to continuously check the disk drives, oversee the backup progress status, and monitor successful or failed backup jobs. Besides, MTM was not happy with the failed recoveries. After two years of being disappointed with performance and stability, MTM decided to replace this solution as well.
MTM Security’s criteria for the new product were affordability, ease-of-use, as well as competent and responsive technical support. According to Deniz Selen, IT Director at MTM Security, NAKIVO Backup & Replication offered the most affordable licensing price compared to the other solutions that the company was evaluating. NAKIVO Backup & Replication also provides virtual data protection for VMware, Hyper-V, and Nutanix AHV. NAKIVO Backup & Replication is a complete solution, with backup, replication, recovery, backup to cloud, backup to tape, global data deduplication, and other functionalities. NAKIVO’s technical support can be reached from the product interface. The pricing model includes both perpetual and subscription licenses.
“Currently, the product is installed on a NAS server,” says Deniz. “What makes NAKIVO Backup & Replication awesome for us is that the upgrade process is extremely simple. We never had to restart the whole server to upgrade the product. We want new features all the time, and we do not want to wait for days to be updated, so NAKIVO Backup & Replication rocks in this department.”
MTM Security takes advantage of VM backup, replication, and recovery. With VM backup, the company has managed to boost backup performance after switching to NAKIVO Backup & Replication. “With NAKIVO Backup & Replication, 6TB of data gets backed up in only 41 minutes. The difference in performance is huge, as we went from almost five hours to just 41 minutes. NAKIVO Backup & Replication uses LAN-free data transfer mode for backup, and not only boosts the speed but also lowers the load on our network,” says Deniz.
VM replication jobs take 30 minutes to complete, due to virtual disk capacity differences. “VM replication jobs are extremely easy. All I need to do is select a VM and then select a target. VM replication saves time in terms of administration and costs,” says Deniz. Lastly, VM recovery does not fail anymore, and even if an error occurs, NAKIVO Backup & Replication automatically returns to the last recovery point. So, there is no need to stop the software. “I used many VM recovery products in the past, but NAKIVO Backup & Replication is superb in terms of recovery capabilities,” says Deniz.
NAKIVO Backup & Replication provides MTM Security with improved VM backup performance, consistent VM recovery. The solution is also affordable and offers user-friendly upgrades. While full VM backup would take more than five hours in the past, with NAKIVO Backup & Replication, VM backup jobs are completed in 41 minutes. This is an impressive five-fold improvement. MTM Security also saved lots of money on licenses and the fact that upgrades are free of charge. “NAKIVO’s sales and support teams are amazing. Whenever I needed technical assistance, I remotely connected to support, and they always resolved my problems efficiently. With NAKIVO Backup & Replication, we received professional support and gained uninterrupted protection of our data and applications,” says Deniz.
MTM was founded in 1997 within the TUBITAK MAM Technopark area. The company focuses on holographic material production, software R&D, bank check printing, and gift voucher check printing. MTM is the first hologram manufacturer in Turkey and the first Turkish organization affiliated with IHMA (International Hologram Manufacturers Association), with member ID 1053. MTM takes pride in having reached this technological level thanks to the valuable contributions of Turkish engineers. Having expanded its certification portfolio since 2006, MTM was chosen as the World’s First Governmental Level Security Printing House, with the ISO 14298:2013 certificate. For more information, visit www.mtmsecurity.com.
Gürallar Group was founded more than 50 years ago. The group has several businesses spanning glass tableware and glass packaging manufacturing, roof tile manufacturing and machinery development. It also owns Gürallar Yapi, an immovable property investment and development company. Lastly, Gürallar Group owns the Ali Bey Hotels & Resorts brand and JOALI Maldives.
Gürallar Group headquarters is located in Kütahya, Turkey. The group’s data center has 10 physical servers and 50 virtual machines. Virtual machines store files, databases, web servers, document management applications, an ERP system and other applications. Server problems, malware, hacking threats, natural disasters and human errors pose a real threat to the business. That is why data protection and business continuity are key priorities for Gürallar Group. Loss of data can have a detrimental impact on the group, including disrupting manufacturing, withholding services and losing credibility in the eyes of customers, all of which would lead to financial losses.
Previously, Gürallar Group relied on another VMware backup solution. One of the issues faced repeatedly with that solution was failed jobs. In addition, the backup solution sometimes crashed due to internal database errors. These issues took too long to fix, diverting resources from other important activities. Gürallar Group wanted to keep their business running rather than constantly fixing errors. Recovery times were also rather long, and a whole day was needed to recover a virtual machine. At some point, Gürallar Group decided it was time to switch to a new backup solution that would provide fast performance, reliability and agility.
NAKIVO Backup & Replication is a reliable data protection solution for physical, virtual, cloud and SaaS environments. The software offers a complete set of functionalities, including backup, replication, recovery, backup to cloud, backup to tape, granular recovery, data deduplication and Site Recovery. NAKIVO Backup & Replication is faster, more reliable and easier to manage than legacy solutions. With NAKIVO Backup & Replication, there are multiple deployment options as well, including installation on Windows or Linux, installation on a NAS and deployment as a virtual appliance.
“We selected NAKIVO Backup & Replication due to the good Linux file system support and great data deduplication ratio. NAKIVO Backup & Replication supports a variety of different deployments and that is great to have options. For now, we just installed the product on a Linux OS. The installation process is easy to manage without external help, and the web interface is pretty self-explanatory,” says Yasar Ozkul, Senior Infrastructure and Network Specialist at Gürallar Group.
NAKIVO Backup & Replication performs fast and reliable backups of virtual machines, while saving effort and time. The product performs incremental backups of virtual machines by copying only the changed data blocks to the repository after the initial full backup. This approach saves backup time and storage space. “We perform backup jobs every day, and they are always incremental. Backup jobs complete successfully, and we no longer have to fix constant errors. For VM backup, I enjoy NAKIVO Backup & Replication because of short backup times and good data deduplication ratio. By having lower storage space requirements, we save money on direct storage costs and costs related to electricity,” says Yasar.
LAN-free data transfer also provides savings for the Gürallar Group, while with instant granular recovery, the group can recover application objects near-instantly. LAN-free data transfer increases VM backup speed and reduces the load on the network. “Instant object recovery for Microsoft Active Directory helped us a lot, as rapid recovery ensures business continuity. Active Directory databases can be instantly accessed from deduplicated VM backups and we can search for Active Directory objects and containers or download entire containers or objects. With our previous solution, such near-instant recovery was not possible,” says Yasar.
NAKIVO Backup & Replication provides Gürallar Group with fast and reliable VM backup, where backup jobs complete successfully and in a timely manner. The IT team no longer needs to spend hours on endless errors within the backup solution. NAKIVO Backup & Replication supports a broad array of file systems, including Linux file system. With instant object recovery, the group can recover Active Directory objects near-instantly as well. “We are satisfied with NAKIVO Backup & Replication so far, as the product delivers reliability, performance and agility. The support team is knowledgeable and fast, with someone responding to requests asap. NAKIVO Backup & Replication protects our hybrid environment with VM backup and ensures business continuity with quick recovery,” says Yasar.
Gürallar Group commenced its business in 1948 as a family-owned company and claimed its rightful respected place among the largest private sector groups in the first quarter of the 21st century. The Group carried out the majority of its investments in the first year of its activity in and around Kütahya, Turkey, and significantly contributed to the socioeconomic and sociocultural development of the region. Adopting a long-term strategic perspective, the Group has achieved sustainable growth in different sectors from glass tableware to tourism, construction and machinery. For more information, visit www.gurallar.com.