But Wright, a senior technology consultant at Swindon, England-based Nationwide, said as many as four full-time employees were still needed to manage data replication for disaster recovery at the US$10.4 billion bank.
To fix that problem, over the past six months Nationwide has been rolling out a network-based replication system that will eventually provide continuous data protection.
The latest system uses Cisco Systems Inc. switches and a replication appliance from Kashya Inc. that cost Nationwide more than $1 million, but "not millions" of dollars, Wright said. The replication capabilities have been implemented and have already cut Nationwide's administrative overhead to one full-time worker, Wright said.
"The network can see everything. You can use a single replication solution. It's been very simple to manage," he said.
The problem wasn't obvious two years ago when Nationwide installed an infrastructure based on Symmetrix arrays from EMC Corp.