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University of Illinois Chicago

University of Illinois Chicago: Building Resilience at Scale with Commvault

University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) is one of the nation’s leading public research universities, serving more than 34,000 students across a diverse range of academic and clinical programs. With a mission grounded in access, excellence, and impact, UIC’s Technology Solutions team plays a critical role in enabling that mission through secure, reliable, and innovative IT services.

Recovery times reduced by >80%

Scalable protection

Optimized storage costs

Industry

Higher Education

Employees

12,000 employees

Location

Chicago, Illinois, UA

Capabilities

Commvault Cloud AirGap Protectx Cleanroom recovery

Also read: Cyber Resilience for Cloud Native Apps

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Making Higher Ed Systems Ready for the Future

Challenge

Risk of Data Loss – Critical research and administrative servers were vulnerable to failure, deletion, or ransomware.
Slow Recoveries – Large restores could take weeks, far beyond acceptable recovery times.
Decentralized Management – With 20+ edge IT units, inconsistent policies created compliance and monitoring gaps.

Solution

Global deduplication, reducing storage by 95%+.
Air Gap Protect & immutable backups, shielding data from ransomware.
Cleanroom recovery, enabling secure, isolated testing.
Cloud-native protection, extending coverage to Azure, AWS, M365, SaaS, and modern workloads.

Results

Recovery Times Reduced by >80% – From potential 48+ hours of downtime to less than 8 hours, dramatically lowering expected annual losses.
Scalable Protection – UIC now backs up servers, research datasets, containers, SaaS applications, and cloud workloads.
Enhanced Cyber Resilience – Immutable storage, anomaly detection, and clean restore points give confidence in recovery after an incident.

34,000

Students

>80%

Recovery times reduced by

95%+

Reduced storage by

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Overview

University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) is one of the nation’s leading public research universities, serving more than 34,000 students across a diverse range of academic and clinical programs. With a mission grounded in access, excellence, and impact, UIC’s Technology Solutions team plays a critical role in enabling that mission through secure, reliable, and innovative IT services.
Faced with aging backup systems, growing cyber threats, and the need to protect sensitive research and student data, UIC chose Commvault to modernize its backup and recovery environment—delivering resilience, scalability, and peace of mind.

Legacy Systems and Rising Risks

Before Commvault, UIC’s backup infrastructure was built on aging ADSM/TSM/Spectrum Protect systems that had accumulated years of technical debt. The limitations were clear:

Risk of Data Loss – Critical research and administrative servers were vulnerable to failure, deletion, or ransomware.
Slow Recoveries – Large restores could take weeks, far beyond acceptable recovery times.
Decentralized Management – With 20+ edge IT units, inconsistent policies created compliance and monitoring gaps.
Inefficiency and Cost – Tape libraries and robotic storage systems drove up costs while limiting scalability.
Lack of Cloud Readiness – Offsite and cloud backup options were not supported, leaving the university exposed.

As Director of Enterprise Applications and Services, Dean Dang knew it was time for UIC needed a modern, centralized backup solution that could deliver speed, scalability, and resilience across a hybrid IT environment.

The Solution: Commvault as a Managed Service Provider (MSP)

UIC selected Commvault after a comprehensive review of cost, compatibility, and functionality. One standout factor: the ability for UIC’s central IT to deploy Commvault in a shared-services model, much like a MSP, giving departmental IT units autonomy while maintaining enterprise-grade control.

“Commvault let us balance local control with centralized oversight,” explained Dang. “Departments can schedule their own backups and restores while still benefitting from strong policies, encryption, and support.”

Key features adopted:

Nightly automated backups with incremental and synthetic fulls.
Global deduplication, reducing storage by 95%+.
Air Gap Protect & immutable backups, shielding data from ransomware.
Cleanroom recovery, enabling secure, isolated testing.
Cloud-native protection, extending coverage to Azure, AWS, M365, SaaS, and modern workloads.

The Results: Faster, Stronger, Smarter Resilience

By shifting to Commvault, UIC transformed its backup, recovery, and cyber resilience operations:

Recovery Times Reduced by >80% – From potential 48+ hours of downtime to less than 8 hours, dramatically lowering expected annual losses.
Scalable Protection – UIC now backs up servers, research datasets, containers, SaaS applications, and cloud workloads.
Enhanced Cyber Resilience – Immutable storage, anomaly detection, and clean restore points give confidence in recovery after an incident.
Optimized Storage Costs – Data is tiered between hot/on-prem, cloud, and archive, balancing speed with budget.
Leadership Buy-In – Clear financial models (downtime cost avoidance, reduced loss projections) helped secure support for ongoing resilience investments.

Looking Ahead: Modernized for Education and Innovation

UIC continues its mission; the tech team continues to expand its hybrid infrastructure. Commvault remains central to its strategy.

With automation, cloud recovery, and validated restore points, UIC is moving closer to its goal of hours—not days—of downtime in the event of a cyber attack or disaster.

“Commvault gives us the resilience to protect our mission—education, research, and healthcare—while preparing for whatever comes next.” – Dean Dang, Director of Enterprise Applications and Services, UIC.