Infrastructure automation using its LEAP platform has been key to SingleHop achieving the status of the USA’s #1 fastest growing IT Provider. Yet to maintain this growth rate all services and products it offers are subject to its internal automation requirements as well as to customer cost constraints and reliability concerns. R1Soft CDP’s ability to align with these specific requirements has resulted in it becoming a key technology that is foundational to SingleHop’s growth now and into the future.

1. Backup Software for
[Customer Success] SingleHop the Cloud from idera
Backup Automation Using R1Soft CDP
Company: SingleHop, Inc.
Website: http://www.rackaid.com
Contributes to SingleHop’s LEAP to
Location: 22621 W. Randolph Street, 3rd
Floor, Chicago, IL, 60661 USA’s #1 Fastest Growing IT Provider
Industry: Managed Hosting Services
Founded: 2006
Overview
Challenges:
Ongoing infrastructure automation demands
Infrastructure automation is a key to SingleHop achieving the status of the USA’s #1
due to three year 7,304% growth fastest growing IT Provider. To maintain that leading edge it only deploys services that
Backup services not exempt from
are cost-effective, reliable and can be automated using its LEAP platform. It is for these
automation requirements reasons that Single Hop chose R1Soft CDP as its backup and recovery platform and
why it remains a strategic technology for SingleHop as it seeks to continue its growth.
Backup services needed to be
cost-effective and reliable
SingleHop Profile
LEAP management platform needed
to manage backup software SingleHop provides cloud, dedicated, hybrid and managed hosting services. Using
its LEAP infrastructure-as-a-platform solution, its customers have the flexibility to pick
and choose the level of management they need. LEAP can manage infrastructure
and supporting services from one console with a single login using any device from
Solution:
anywhere in the world.
R1Soft Continuous Data Protection
Benefits:
LEAP platform could automate R1Soft
backups/recoveries using its APIs LEAP Platform Drives Single Hop’s Infrastructure Automation
Since its inception, SingleHop has sought to internally drive infrastructure automation
Average client monthly cost to use
R1Soft was about $30 wherever possible using its LEAP platform. Using LEAP SingleHop can present one
interface to its external clients and another to its in-house technicians that both access
Push button setup and configuration of
R1Soft backups through LEAP console
the same pool of backend pool of data. This architecture ensures a consistent, real-time
view into SingleHop’s infrastructure enabling SingleHop to deliver Infrastructure-as-a-
Granular backup and recovery of
Platform as a managed hosting offering to its customers.
MySQL database tables
Minimal to no server overhead when To ensure both its external and internal clients can log into LEAP and centrally manage
backups occur
the services that SingleHop makes available to them, services must be accessible and
Clients can do on demand full server manageable by LEAP. This dictates that any service that SingleHop offers to its
restores through LEAP console
customers meet a specific set of internal prerequisites.
“ Single Hop customers have full
control over R1Soft CDP backups
and restores through the LEAP
interface without requiring any
intervention from us”
- Andy Pace, Chief Operating Officer
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2. [Customer Success] rackAID Managed Hosting
Backup Prerequisites:
Manageability is Paramount
Backup is one such service that SingleHop makes available to its custom-
ers giving them the option to either do FTP data dumps or use backup
“R1Soft fits nicely in our space from software for faster file and server restores. However before Single Hop
a technical perspective though offers any services to its customers they are subject to Single Hop’s criteria
price is also an issue for a majority of being affordable, manageable and reliable. Of these three, the ability to
of our clients. As R1Soft CDP is so centrally manage the software through its LEAP platform is paramount.
cost-effective, Single Hop can
provide them with a feature rich yet This requirement was a major reason as to why SingleHop selected R1Soft
Continuous Data Protection (CDP) over competitive solutions to perform
affordable option to backup and
customer file and server backups. R1Soft CDP exposes its APIs so that
recover their data.”
SingleHop’s LEAP platform may use them to access and then manage
R1Soft’s feature. In this way, SingleHop can offer R1Soft CDP backups as
easily as any of its other services.
SingleHop’s Chief Operating Officer, Andy Pace, shares that R1Soft’s
decision to expose its CDP APIs made it a “pretty clear cut solution” for
Single Hop. While he recognizes that other managed service providers use
R1Soft, this feature alone made it a natural fit for Single Hop.
Pace says, “R1Soft fits nicely in our space from a technical perspective
though price is also an issue for a majority of our clients. As R1Soft CDP is
so cost-effective, SingleHop can provide them with a feature rich yet
affordable option to backup and recover their data.”
“No Touch” Backups
Once the decision was made to use R1Soft CDP, the first task in front of
Pace was to bring R1Soft under the management of Single Hop’s LEAP
infrastructure automation platform. Like the rest of the services that Single
Hop offers, Pace wanted to ensure that Single Hop customers only needed
to log into LEAP.
By taking advantage of R1Soft’s APIs, Single Hop did exactly that. Now if
any Single Hop customer wants to use R1Soft CDP to do backups, all it has
to do is install the R1Soft agent on its server and...
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3. [Customer Success] rackAID Managed Hosting
begin backing up. The only cost they incur is a monthly The number of
backup charge of $1.50 per GB per month which works customer servers that each SingleHop R1Soft CDP
out to about $30 per month for most of its customers. server protects varies. Some R1Soft CDP servers protect
as many as 400 servers. Others protect as few as 100.
More importantly, the decision to use R1Soft CDP is as
Due to these variations, SingleHop has the flexibility to
easy as clicking a button in the LEAP interface.
configure each R1Soft CDP with varying amounts of
Once a user clicks the “R1Soft Backup” button, LEAP internal capacity and performance so Single Hop may
installs the software needed to backup the server and meet different backup and recovery requirements while
begins to back it up. still keeping its internal costs under control.
Once under R1Soft’s protection, SingleHop clients may Red Hat
Linux is the primary operating system used at Single Hop
then manage backup and restores through the LEAP
but it also has some instances of Microsoft Windows and
interface. They only need to log into LEAP to view the
Linux KVM. Using R1Soft CDP, SingleHop customers
status of a backup, verify a backup job has completed or can backup any OS.
schedule a new backup job.
MySQL is a database used by many Single-
They may also go through LEAP to restore specific files Hop customers. Using R1Soft’s MySQL add-on module,
or even an entire server. Pace observes, “Single Hop customers can do both granular backups and restores of
MySQL databases. Pace says, “A lot of SingleHop’s large
customers have full control over R1Soft CDP backups
enterprise customers need granular, hourly snapshots of
and restores through the LEAP interface without requiring
their databases so if a table gets corrupted, they can use
any intervention from us.” R1Soft to recover just that table.”
. SingleHop has two data centers – one in
Chicago’s South Loop and the other in Elk Grove. By
R1Soft CDP Protects putting R1Soft CDP servers in these sites and then using
Nearly 1600 Servers and LEAP to manage them, they can all be easily and
centrally managed.
80 TBs of Data
R1Soft agents incur almost
R1Soft CDP’s affordability, manageability and reliability
no impact on customer servers so up to 100 multiple
have led to nearly 1600 servers and 80 TBs of data being
backups can be concurrently scheduled.
protected by R1Soft at Single Hop. SingleHop’s COO
Pace attributes this high level of adoption of R1Soft CDP
As soon as a R1Soft CDP server hits its
to a number of R1Soft CDP features including:
pre-established capacity thresholds, SingleHop adds a
new R1Soft CDP server and brings it under LEAP’s
. Using the R1Soft Bare Metal
central management.
Restore feature, customers can roll back a server and
restore it as it existed yesterday, the day before or even a
week ago. Used by many SingleHop customers, Pace
says, “SingleHop’s clients leverage LEAP to access R1Soft’s
Bare Metal Restore so they can do on demand restores on
whatever server they want whenever they want.”
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4. [Customer Success] rackAID Managed Hosting
R1Soft CDP Aligns with SingleHop’s Infrastructure
Automation Mantra
Automation is a key reason why SingleHop is rated the USA’s #1 fastest growing IT Provider and its #25 rated fastest
growing company. However if SingleHop wants to continue to grow, it needs to automate all parts of its infrastructure to
include backup and recovery.
Using R1Soft CDP, SingleHop’s LEAP does more than give its customers the option to easily manage server backup
and recovery. R1Soft also matches the cost constraints and reliability concerns of Single Hop’s customers. It is because
R1Soft CDP so well aligns with SingleHop’s infrastructure automation mantra that R1Soft has become a technology that
is key to ensuring SingleHop’s ability to grow and meet its customers’ expectations now and into the future.
About R1Soft
R1Soft is the developer of Continuous Data Protection® (CDP) software. Their products offer scalable and
high-performance backup software for Windows, Linux, and virtualization. CDP is recognized as the leading commercial
backup software in hosted
1 (800) 956-6198 | www.r1soft.com 2012 © Copyright Idera, Inc. All rights reserved. R1Soft is a division of Idera, Inc