RDA Systems, Inc. is a leading provider of enterprise resource management (ERP) software to local governments and K-12 school districts across the U.S. Founded in 1971, the company helps municipalities realize significant savings, productivity gains and improved service with state-of-the-art technology and outstanding support.

School districts nationwide rely on RDA Systems for uninterrupted access to their ERP and financial accounting data. To fulfil that commitment and expand its service offering to a growing client base, RDA Systems recognized an opportunity to modernize its IT environment with a migration to the Google Cloud. RDA Systems turned to its technology services partner, Redapt Inc., to help manage the migration.

An opportunity also existed for RDA Systems to expand and improve its Disaster Recovery (DR) capabilities.

The company’s existing DR solutions included encrypted backups maintained off and on site, with an emphasis on security and agility in restoring customer data. Improvements in these areas were critical for the success of this project.

As David Cummings, RDA Systems Technical Team Lead, explains, “While our existing homegrown solution met our needs, we sought improvements including streamlining and simplifying our processes while retaining, and even improving the quality of service our customers expect. Our existing solution has met our needs and our customers’ needs; however, there are many moving parts which can be cumbersome to maintain.”

Solution:

With help from Redapt, Inc., a Google Cloud Partner, RDA Systems was able to explore options that would improve DR performance for the new, Google Cloud-based infrastructure. The RDA team evaluated several solutions, including a third-party application offered by Redapt, as well as HYCU.

One of the solutions proved more complex than desired. Another was on-premises, which reflected a step backwards for maintaining the benefits of a cloud-based solution. In testing the HYCU solution, RDA Systems found an unparalleled ability to test numerous use-cases specific to their environment and needs including both full system, and individual file restoration. For RDA Systems, the native Google Cloud support, reduction in complexity and improved performance along with an attractive price were deciding factors in choosing HYCU. As Nick Sutherland, Senior Director, Strategic Alliances at Redapt, notes, “The HYCU team is very knowledgeable about how to deploy the solution RDA needed. One that was easy to use but worked as a service and was easy to deploy.”

Benefits:

Simple deployment

‍Deploying HYCU for Google Cloud is quick and easy, thanks to its native integration. “Compared to our existing solution, the time to get a system setup was reduced significantly, a major benefit for our customers,” Cummings says. “And further, we are monitoring and maintaining less with improvements in many areas” HYCU simplifies configuration, enabling the RDA Systems team to quickly assign daily, weekly, 10-day, or 24-day backups to specific VMs.

Fast Backups and Restores

‍“Backups and restores for RDA’s more than 23TB of data is significantly quicker and easier with HYCU,” Cummings says. “With HYCU, we can offer multiple levels of guaranteed services to our clients. HYCU’s automated processes give us confidence that, when needed, we will deliver the restored VM on time,” he says. “By contrast, the nature of our legacy system, the turnaround time could be indeterminate necessitating longer hours to get a customer back on their feet.”

Reliability and Scalability

‍“Thanks to HYCU’s reliable performance, flexibility, and scalability, RDA Systems is able to offer its own DR service to its customers—guaranteeing rapid system restoration. The company offered its DR service free for 90 days, garnering enthusiastic customer response. “With HYCU, our sales reps are able to offer DR services to our customers with confidence,” Cummings says.

“With HYCU, we were able to develop a DR offering that is expanded beyond what we could have done with our old backup solution.” David Cummings, Technical Team Lead, RDA Systems