Russell Lands Expands into the Cloud Using TwinStrata CloudArray

NATICK, Mass., May 22, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- TwinStrata, Inc., the leading innovator of cloud-based data storage, backup and disaster recovery solutions, today announced that Russell Lands, creator of distinct recreational neighborhoods along the shores of Alabama's Lake Martin, has selected TwinStrata CloudArray® to achieve the ideal combination of data protection with future-proof scalability, while reducing its management costs.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20111115/NE06670LOGO )

Russell Lands owns and operates 25,000 acres of land holdings situated along more than 200 miles of shoreline on 44,000 acre Lake Martin; four world-class marinas; Russell Crossroads, the town center including restaurants and recreational facilities with thousands of acres of forest and approximately 100 miles of hiking, biking and equestrian trails; nine retail stores including Russell Do-It and Russell Home Decor Centers; and Willow Point Golf and Country Club. The company employs more than 500 people in numerous locations.

Earlier this year, company management was challenged to keep pace with growing storage demands, both onsite and offsite, for its many business operations.

To meet disaster recovery objectives, Russell Lands used Veeam Backup & Replication 6.0, and transferred data to an offsite colocation provider. The company originally considered an expensive upgrade of its VMware servers to increase storage capacity but instead took advantage of a special offer of a Free CloudArray 1TB virtual storage appliance for Veeam users, and quickly upgraded to an unlimited capacity CloudArray appliance. Deploying CloudArray not only enabled them to bypass the costly storage capacity upgrade but also the need for a colocation provider, resulting in a 75 percent reduction in offsite storage expenses.

"Year after year, we had to make the same decision.  How fast will our data grow this year?" said Cliff Grappe, Russell Lands IT Director. "With the TwinStrata solution, we don't have to guess any longer."

Grappe set the local cache size to several hundred GB, and provisioned several TB of cloud storage space. With a cache large enough to retain 95 percent of data that is accessed by Russell Lands employees, users do not experience any loss in performance.

"With TwinStrata, we get twin benefits.  We still experience local performance because of the locally cached data yet our data also sits at an offsite storage location with far better disaster recovery provisions than we could ever afford before," said Grappe.

"With CloudArray, businesses like Russell Lands can meet off-site backup and disaster recovery requirements with the significant advantage of data growth on-demand rather than the endless cycle and costs of traditional storage upgrades," said Nicos Vekiarides, Chief Executive Officer at TwinStrata. "We're proud to have earned the business of Russell Lands, a company with a history of looking toward the future, and pleased to have assisted them in their transition to cloud storage."

CloudArray virtual or physical appliances take minutes to configure and integrate public cloud, private cloud and local or remote storage devices into flexible "Cloud SANs" that provide unlimited storage, continuous data protection, tapeless offsite backup, instant disaster recovery, and branch office storage consolidation. CloudArray appliances are available from TwinStrata with software appliances available for immediate free download at www.twinstrata.com/CloudArray-download.

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About TwinStrata, Inc.

TwinStrata is an innovator in enterprise-class data storage, data protection and disaster recovery/business continuity solutions using cloud storage. With TwinStrata CloudArray®, companies of all sizes can simply and economically leverage the scalability and efficiency of cloud storage while maintaining the availability, performance and security of local storage. CloudArray software and hardware solutions support all file and operating systems, and deliver substantial advantages over traditional off-site storage solutions, including a pay-as-you-go model, unlimited elastic capacity, local performance, in-cloud snapshots and disaster recovery, dynamic caching, automated policies, AES256 encryption, and continuous access to data. For more information visit TwinStrata.com or call 508-651-0199.

About Russell Lands

In 1834, Russell family settlers from England fell in love with a tract of land in central Alabama. The Russells' love for the land continued throughout the years. Nearly 100 years ago, news came of a huge new lake that would soon meander deep into their beloved forest. The Russells could envision the hundreds of miles of beautiful shoreline encompassing Lake Martin and today they continue to brag about the 44,000 acres of deep blue water that surrounds the old Russell Forest. That place is Russell Lands On Lake Martin (RussellLandsOnLakeMartin.com). The company is one of uncommon vision, diversity and commitment to community - whose endeavors go beyond creating fine lake homes and communities.  Willow Point Golf and Country Club (www.willowpoint.com), owned and operated by Russell Lands, is one of the most revered private clubs in Alabama and considered to have the "most beautiful lakeside golf course" in the country.  Russell Crossroads, the new central town hub of Russell Lands On Lake Martin's 25,000 acres of land holdings, is designed to reflect the agrarian era with period architecture of the 1920s promoting "walkability" of the town.  Today, the town consists of the Discovery Center, Catherine's Market (www.catherinesatcrossroads.com) and SpringHouse restaurant (www.springhouseatcrossroads.com) and The Stables.  Russell Marine (www.russellmarine.net) offers boating enthusiasts world-class sales and service through four Lake Martin locations and is nationally ranked in the Top15 Boat Dealers for the fifth consecutive year. Russell Do-It and Home Decor Centers in nine locations make it easier for homeowners to build and personalize the homes in which they live. In 1998, Russell Lands constructed the Lake Martin Amphitheater (www.lmat.org) - a unique venue for celebrating culture and the creative arts. And the company continues to serve the community through Children's Harbor - the not-for-profit organization created by Russell Lands Chairman and CEO, Ben Russell - whose mission is to strengthen children and families through a variety of programs, services and good works.  For more information, go to www.RussellLandsOnLakeMartin.com .

Contact:
Mark Smith, JPR Communications
818-884-8282, ext. 22
[email protected]

SOURCE TwinStrata, Inc.

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