Unisys moves AMI Insurance’s storage to virtual tape library

Unisys New Zealand has been awarded a three-year extension by Christchurch-based AMI Insurance to design, install and support a virtual tape library environment used to back-up critical business data.

The extension builds on a relationship of more than 20 years where Unisys has provided mainframe and data centre services to AMI Insurance.

The virtual tape library will replace a traditional physical tape cartridge back-up system for core business applications. Because it involves fewer moving parts, the virtual environment provides a more robust and faster back-up system to increase reliability and reduce back-up failure rates.

AMI Insurance is the largest wholly New Zealand owned fire and general insurer with a network of 73 branches, two call centres and 22 agencies across the nation. A virtual environment removes the need to transport physical tapes enabling data to be recovered more quickly when needed.

Back-up data will be mirrored between two Unisys data centres in Auckland and Kapiti.

Brett Hodgson, Managing Director, Unisys New Zealand said: ”In moving to a virtual tape environment AMI is embracing a forward-looking storage strategy to transform its corporate data centre to respond quickly to continually evolving customer requirements.”