DPM Deployment at Northwind Traders

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Published : September 27, 2005

Northwind Traders is a business that has 50 sites in the United States, some of which have multiple file servers. All 50 sites and their associated file servers are being protected by three DPM servers located in a data center.

The DPM servers are configured to store 21 days worth of backup data. Tape backups for long-term retention and off-site backup are made from replicas on the DPM servers, completely freeing the branch offices from the expense of managing tapes locally. DPM automatically provides off-site storage protection because the DPM servers are located in centralized data centers.

Northwind Traders uses the Microsoft Operations Framework (MOF) to manage its IT operations. MOF is a collection of best practices, principles, and models that can improve IT service management processes at all stages of their life cycles. Figure 1.1 illustrates the four MOF quadrants, which correlate to the IT life cycle. The initial deployment of DPM at Northwind Traders relied on the service management functions in the “Changing” quadrant: change management, configuration management, and release management.

Figure 1.1   MOF Quadrants

Note

Microsoft has deployed DPM in its own environment. For details on the implementation of DPM at Microsoft, see “Case Study: Learn How Microsoft Saves US$2.7 Million with DPM” on the DPM product site. (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink?linkid=33686)

Relevant Documentation:

As a member of the team that planned the DPM structure for Northwind Traders, you used the guidance in the DPM 2006 Planning and Deployment Guide (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=46351).

To identify best practices that would improve the deployment process, you reviewed the Microsoft Operations Framework (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=51208).