The Computerworld Honors Program
Honoring those who use Information Technology to benefit society
LOCATION:
Cleveland, OH, US

YEAR:
2007

STATUS:
Laureate

CATEGORY:
Media, Arts and Entertainment

NOMINATING COMPANY:
Overland Storage

ORGANIZATION:
The Cleveland Indians

PROJECT NAME:
Best Practices Data Protection for In-House Video Application

Short Summary
The Cleveland Indians have earned a reputation as one of the most technically advanced teams in Major League Baseball. The team was among the first to develop a state-of-the-art video system to capture every at-bat at home games for use in training and advanced scouting. Capturing and retaining all the vital videos, however, caused an exponential spike in storage, which then overtaxed the Indians’ data protection foundation.

Faced with ever-increasing technology requirements, the IT team added more file servers and a Fibre Channel storage area network (SAN) to hold up to three years of video online while supporting custom and off-the-shelf financial, retail and back-office applications. The team then embarked on a search for a best-in-class solution for safeguarding its data, which entailed a review of various disk-to-disk-to-tape solutions from a variety of leading storage hardware and software vendors.

In late 2005, the Cleveland Indians bolstered its data protection foundation by installing CommVault backup and recovery software as well as Overland Storage’s NEO 4000 tape library and REO 9000 disk-based VTL appliance. As a result, the team has reduced its backup window by more than 50 percent while lowering administrative overhead from 45 minutes daily to nearly nothing.

Additionally, Overland’s expansion on-demand capabilities enable the Indians to extend its online video catalog to store every game from all 32 major league teams, totaling some 2,600 games for the 2007 baseball season. The Indians are also evaluating other Overland products, including an entry-level tape autoloader for storing video at a state-of-the-art spring training facility that is currently under construction in Arizona. Furthermore, the team is contemplating the addition of Overland’s primary storage appliance, the ULTAMUS RAID, into the mix in order to expedite access for up to five years of online video data.


Introductory Overview
In 2004, the Cleveland Indians became one of the first teams to deploy a state-of-the-art video system to capture every at-bat at all home games. The images then are cataloged in a data asset management system for advanced scouting and training purposes. The system, which is accessible via a simple, touch-screen monitor, enables players, coaches and scouts to easily and quickly find and select different images.

The new video system caused an immediate, exponential jump in storage requirements, especially since each video clip is upward of 10 MBs. With storage for the video system growing by more than 1 TB a year, the Indians quickly exceeded 9 TBs of vital multimedia and operational data.

Faced with ever-increasing technology requirements, the IT team added more file servers and a Fibre Channel storage area network (SAN) to hold up to three years of video online while supporting custom and off-the-shelf financial, retail and back-office applications. Still, performing nightly differentials and weekly full backups became a daunting task, especially when it became apparent the team had outgrown its existing data protection foundation. Backups became “hit or miss,” with the process taking up to 45 minutes of supervision each day. Keeping pace with escalating storage surges was another growing concern.

In seeking a much more reliable, expandable backup and recovery platform that could scale to meet both existing and future requirements, the team embarked on an evaluation of leading software and best-of-class disk- and tape-based data protection solutions. After examining different software alternatives, the team selected CommVault’s Galaxy before researching a flexible, scalable D2D2T solution.

Since selecting one vendor for both disk and tape backup was preferred, the IT squad reviewed leading D2D2T products from ADIC, Quantum, Spectra Logic and Overland Storage. They also looked at tape libraries from Qualstar as well as disk offerings from EMC and Nexsan Technologies. Overall selection criteria included product quality, reliability, scalability, expansion on-demand capabilities, configuration flexibility, company and product vision as well as price.

After a thorough examination of different technologies, the Cleveland Indians determined that Overland Storage met its selection criteria with its NEO 4000 tape library and REO 9000 scalable disk-based VTL appliance. Initially populated with 3 TBs, the REO is being expanded by another 9 TBs with room to grow to 44 TBs of raw capacity. With the REO/NEO in place, the Cleveland Indians have substantially increased the amount of data backups the team can keep online. The team now stores 21 days of critical operational data backups on the REO disk-based appliance while keeping up to 60 days of data and video backups on the NEO tape library.

With its REO/NEO combination, the Cleveland Indians have reduced its overall backup window by more than 50 percent, from nine to four hours. Meanwhile, administrative overhead went from 45 minutes daily to nearly nothing. File recovery is equally fast; less than five minutes to restore a video clip that once took up to 75 minutes to locate and retrieve. Having the REO also eliminates inventorying tapes, another well-received time savings.

Additionally, Overland’s expansion on-demand capabilities have allowed the Indians to extend its online video catalog to store every game from all 32 major league teams, totaling some 2,600 games for the 2007 baseball season. The Indians are evaluating other Overland products, including an entry-level tape autoloader for storing video at a state-of-the-art spring training facility that is currently under construction in Arizona. The team also is considering Overland’s ULTAMUS RAID primary storage for holding up to five years of online video for expedited access.



Benefits
Has your project helped those it was designed to help?   Yes

What new advantage or opportunity does your project provide to people?
Clearly, this project benefits the Indians’ players, coaches and scouts foremost. For players, the system gives them the flexibility to study a particular pitcher and analyze how well they handled different pitches in order to fine-tune their own batting skills. Likewise, pitchers can study how different players fared against them to adjust their pitching techniques as appropriate.

For coaches, the video system provides a valuable and highly efficient training tool since they can easily study how well their players did when facing different teams and pitchers while also being able to quickly access the touch-screen system during a game if they need immediate access to a particular piece of video.

The Indians’ scouts have received a big productivity boost from the in-house video system. They now can view up-to-date and current video of how well players from all teams are performing during the season without spending the time and budget to travel to geographically dispersed games in order to get a look at a new or hot player.

In the long run, the new video system produces big savings for the Indians because it gives the players, coaches and scouts the latest video to enhance their jobs without creating a burden on the team’s existing IT infrastructure. In this fashion, the Cleveland Indians deliver valuable, time-sensitive data in the hands of the people who need it most without the time, effort and high costs typically associated with top-notch video applications.


Has your project fundamentally changed how tasks are performed?   Yes

How do you see your project's innovation benefiting other applications, organizations, or global communities?
It’s much easier for the IT team to access critical data backups now that up to 21 days of important operational files are stored on the REO. Since 90 percent of file restores involve information that has been backed up recently, the team usually can go to the REO and recover the file in minutes. Meanwhile, the process of recovering video backups also has been streamlined significantly. In the past, restoring a video clip could take up to 75 minutes to locate and restore. Now the process is nearly instantaneous. Additionally, having a substantial amount of video at the coaches’ fingertips means they can increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the team’s training regimes. For players who are struggling, easily accessible video is valuable in helping them improve their skills and study how they fared against different opponents.

Meanwhile, scouts no longer have to travel to the different games in order to follow a particular player’s progress. They can simply use one of the touch-screen displays and easily navigate the system to monitor an individual player’s performance.

Thanks to a top-notch, in-house development team, the Cleveland Indians produce a significant number of highly tailored applications. In addition to the in-house video system, the team has developed its own scouting application since the team wanted to leverage unique reporting capabilities. In fact, the Cleveland Indians’ IT team wraps customized reports around its video and scouting applications, both of which are considered mission-critical and instrumental to the club’s continuing success.

The ability to safeguard video data while making it accessible to other crucial applications, such as the Indians’ scouting program, is an essential benefit of the innovative data protection project.




The Importance of Technology
How did the technology you used contribute to this project and why was it important?
Technology played a huge role in this project as the Cleveland Indians wanted to upgrade its data protection technology to better safeguard its growing cache of online video data. To ensure greater availability of ever-increasing data storage, the IT team decided to replace a 20-tape Dell library with complementary disk- and tape-based backup and recovery solutions. They felt a complete disk-to-disk-to-tape (D2D2T) approach would solve existing problems while providing the most expandability to grow over time. The team projects an additional 2 TBs in video storage alone each year while increasing operational data is expected to raise overall storage substantially.

In assessing tape libraries, the Cleveland Indians sought a highly expandable platform that could support at least two drives as well as more than 30 LTO-3 tapes. In reviewing disk-based appliances, they wanted a flexible, easy-to-use solution. Cost was a major consideration for both categories along with native Fibre Channel support, dependability and vendor reputation.

In late 2005, the Cleveland Indians implemented its Overland NEO 4000 tape library alongside the REO disk appliance for greatly improved data protection. REO and NEO scalability is a big plus, especially in dealing with the team’s unpredictable storage growth. Initially, the team created two LUNs on the REO for multiple streaming of utility server data as well as critical operational information. This data, which is kept on the REO for 30 days, also is archived on the NEO along with monthly full and weekly incremental video backups. The team retains data on the NEO for up to 60 days before offloading to tape for long-term safekeeping.

At the onset of the project, the IT team populated its REO with 3 TBs and now is in the process of adding another 9 TBs while still having ample room to grow to 44 TBs of raw capacity. The team also plans to expand its NEO library by adding two more drives or possibly another chassis to keep video online for every game from all 32 major league teams, which would total some 2,600 games. Plans also are underway to increase the team’s SAN storage to accommodate up to 21 TBs through the 2008 baseball season. At this point, evaluation has begun of the capabilities and value of tier-one SAN solutions as well as a mix of mid-range products that would provide a more economical alternative.

With Overland’s highly flexible and scalable REO and NEO D2D2T solutions, the Cleveland Indians can continue to embrace the latest video and other technologies without worrying about protecting massive amounts of storage. To that end, the IT team believes its next data protection purchase will be an Overland product. In terms of lowering administrative overhead while increasing the team’s confidence in the integrity of its data, Overland’s REO and NEO offer a “future proof” data protection solution.



Originality
What are the exceptional aspects of your project?
The exceptional aspects of this project are the fact that a first-class development team was able to design an in-house video application that has the potential of transforming the training and scouting functions at the Cleveland Indians. It’s quite unusual for a ball club to have a dedicated development team available for customizing applications to meet specific and unique requirements. Most teams opt for commercially available professional scouting programs and while there are solid applications on the market, they lack the specific reporting capabilities the Indians wanted to include in its scouting solution.

Other exceptional aspects of this project involve the use of leading-edge D2D2T data protection technology to lower backup and recovery time and effort. The Cleveland Indians are among a growing group of forward-thinking organizations that recognize the importance of reliable, scalable backup and recovery solutions to reduce business risks while ensuring vital data is always safe and sound.



How is it original?
At the time the in-house video system was developed, most Major League Baseball teams were just beginning to dabble in this technology to aid coaching and training. The Cleveland Indians were pioneers in accelerating the use of video in everyday operations. The team also was an innovator in the way data protection was approached. It was understood early on that tape-based backup and recovery was better suited for data archiving applications, whereas disk-based appliances were ideal for slashing backup and recovery times and administration.

In terms of creating a clear set of best practices for safeguarding critical but storage-intensive video data, the Cleveland Indians are innovative front-runners.


Is it the first, the only, the best or the most effective application of its kind?   First

Success
Has your project achieved or exceeded its goals?   Exceeded

Is it fully operational?   Yes

How many people benefit from it?   300

If possible, include an example of how the project has benefited a specific individual, enterprise or organization. Please include personal quotes from individuals who have directly benefited from your work.
Approximately 300 people involved with the Cleveland Indians benefit from this innovative data protection solution, even though the system is completely transparent to their daily work. The bottom line is that the team has substantially reinforced its data protection foundation so the Cleveland Indians are better prepared to accommodate continually rising storage requirements without exposing their data to undue risks.

Coaches, scouts, players and employees all expect around-the-clock access to pertinent operational and video data without delay or downtime. By deploying its best-of-class data protection solution, the Cleveland Indians assure the integrity of crucial business and video data while ensuring that both can be recovered quickly in the event of an accidental deletion or widespread disaster recovery. Early on, the Indians’ data protection plan was put to the test when a cumulative Microsoft ServicePak roll-up caused the team’s SQL database server to crash unexpectedly. Fortunately, the IT team was able to restore valuable data from its REO disk appliance and get everyone up and running in minutes.

Overall, the Cleveland Indians’ strategic backup and recovery plan has far-reaching implications that benefit individuals as well as the entire team. Most important, this reliable and highly scalable data protection infrastructure ensures consistent, cohesive and continuous business operations no matter what happens.



How quickly has your targeted audience of users embraced your innovation? Or, how rapidly do you predict they will?
On most days, the data protection plan is transparent to the Cleveland Indians’ end-users but the aforementioned disaster recovery drill that occurred when the team’s Microsoft SQL database server suffered a major outage brought the data protection plan front and center for most employees. Fortunately, the rapid restoration of business-critical database files needed to run daily operations was met with a collective sigh of relief as the IT team was able to minimize the impact of the failed server on business operations. However, this initial “test by fire” produced immediate validation for the team’s best practices approach to data protection.

Difficulty
What were the most important obstacles that had to be overcome in order for your work to be successful? Technical problems? Resources? Expertise? Organizational problems?
The most important obstacle that had to be overcome was educating executive management on the value of data protection. While they clearly understood the importance of adding more storage to accommodate the team’s rapidly rising requirements, management needed help in grasping the critical role that data protection plays in minimizing the impact of data loss or corruption. It was crucial for the IT team to explain how D2D2T technology would provide a highly reliable and scalable foundation for safeguarding existing and future data requirements. In articulating the assorted benefits of the innovative technology, it was critical to present the products and their purported benefits in terms that would enable management to visualize the long-term impact of adding this technology, especially when faced with a lengthy list of priority projects and limited funding resources.

In sharing its five-year technology vision, however, the IT team was able to prove the value proposition of its recommended approach for bolstering data integrity and resiliency while also soliciting unanimous support for its long-range data protection plan.



Often the most innovative projects encounter the greatest resistance when they are originally proposed. If you had to fight for approval or funding, please provide a summary of the objections you faced and how you overcame them.
There really wasn’t a fight for approval or funding, but this project required the team to find creative ways to prove the worth of moving beyond typical tape-based backup to incorporate a highly effective D2D2T solution. Once management understood the business reasons behind the technology decisions, it became much easier to secure approval on the IT team’s specific product recommendations.
Digital/Visual Materials
The Program welcomes nominees to submit digital and visual images with their Case Study. We are currently only accepting .gif, .jpg and .xls files that are 1MB or smaller. The submission of these materials is not required; however, please note that a maximum of three files will be accepted per nominee. These files will be added to the end of your Case Study and will be labeled as "Appendix 1", "Appendix 2" or "Appendix 3." Finally, feel free to reference these images in the text of your Case Study by specifically referring to them as "Appendix 1", "Appendix 2" or "Appendix 3."

Currently Uploaded Appendices:
No appendices currently uploaded.