Manufacturing Company Takes BCDR to the next Level

Matthew Fex is the IT Systems Administrator at Johnson Level & Tool, a leading manufacturer of high quality measuring tools designed to help professional tradesmen do their work more accurately, more quickly and more reliably. It is Fex’s job to provide an enterprise-grade IT environment for the company utilizing both newly implemented technologies and legacy hardware and applications. While Johnson Level has been around for more than 68 years, Matthew Fex ensures this isn’t reflected in the company’s IT assets; he keeps everything related to the firm’s IT as simple, modern and efficient as possible.

Human Error Recovery Headaches
One major pain point for the IT professional was the process of recovering files when employees accidentally delete them, which was becoming a regular occurrence. Says Fex,“There was more than a couple times when someone would come up to me and say, ‘I accidentally deleted this file off the file server 2 weeks ago.’ I’d have to explain to them that, unfortunately, you’re not going to get that back.”

The company’s previous solution relied on an aging tape drive system, which made recoveries difficult at best. Not only did the correct tape have to be found and mounted, but a small amount of tapes meant that, after 7 days, you were out of luck. “This coupled with the fact that our only off site storage was a lunchbox taken home nightly with yesterday’s tape led me to look at more modern solutions,” says Fex.