Sneak Peek into Unitrends’ On-Prem Data Center

Unitrends offers an all-in-one backup and continuity solution that customers have reportedly dubbed a game-changer. And in their Burlington, Massachusetts office, the vendor boasts its own data center along with another incredibly valuable resource: Bob Antia, who heads up IT for the provider. He appears to know the data center better than his own kitchen and I was lucky enough to get my own private tour.

Antia walked me through the chilly, 884 sq. ft. data center. It houses dual CRACs (15 ton Lieberts), dual fed power and redundant power along with Ansul Inergen fire protection. The space keeps various sales engineering and development IT assets safe, Antia told me.

There were 11 racks, each one holds 30 servers, for support, development, sales engineering and more. All of the company’s data is backed up on the Unitrends solution and then sent to the cloud for safe keeping.

“We eat our own dog food,” Antia said. “It’s all about minimizing downtime.”

When asked about how much downtime he expected in the event of a natural disaster, outage or fire, Antia said, “ultimately none.”

He predicts that because he’s installed backup batteries that cover until the generators kick in, which takes about 2 minutes. The batteries can sense when the power has been shut off and last for about 15 minutes without it. The vendor also has a natural gas generator and one that runs on diesel fuel: each with a lifespan of about 8 to 12 hours.

“And here’s something important to remember about backup,” he told me. “When you need one, you need two.”

Antia told me that the fire department is the only variable that could increase downtime. In the event of a fire or other emergency, Unitrends may have to wait for certain permits from the department before reopening. But he didn’t seem at all concerned about actually putting a fire out. The fire extinguishers that stand taller than me could be the reason for his confidence.

So the provider seems to have their own disaster recovery plan down pat. And their clients are locked down as well with their own separate data center.

Antia also gave me a brief history of data centers in general and explained that the concept was originally created based on the railroad and evolved from there. The only items in data centers that haven’t changed are the actual racks, he said.

“Remote computing has been with us forever,” Antia told me.

And when asked what he thought about the rapid tech evolution that he’s been forced to adapt to, Antia brushed it off, saying: “It’s just another tool. It’s a new hammer.”

If you’d like to know more about Unitrends, check out their website.

And if you’re looking for a new solution, download our Backup and Disaster Recovery Buyer’s Guide today.