Introduction
Data security concerns were at the top of the list when this major electric and gas firm approach Accutech seeking a holistic solution that allows for prompt recovery and comprehensive data monitoring.
The client’s existing distributed environment was particularly complex, with legacy software including popular enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer relationship management (CRM) and active directory (AD) applications all generating data. The existing backup system needed to be migrated with minimal issues and minimal loss of data.
Moreover, the utilities sector, in which the client occupies a leading position, calls for strict IT policies and hardened architecture, with parts of the system demanding 24/7 availability, 365 days a year. As the client handles the private data of thousands of members of the public, special attention is vital for the privacy element, with compliance to legislation being key to avoid sizeable fines and protect the company’s public image.
Challenge
Preliminary consultation with the client involved mapping their exact requirements and expectations.
The solution Accutech was tasked to design and implement had the following brief:
- Strong protection of data at rest using state-of-the-art backup technology
- The solution ought to be all-encompassing and include cloud, containers, existing backup and recovery, virtualization, I/O optimization, deduplication and snapshot management
- The enterprise backup solution should protect all workloads and integrate with all the different operating systems, databases, applications and storage systems in use
- The solution should be cloud-ready and fully compatible
- Backup automation and orchestration for current workloads that can confidently migrate to future workloads
- Data backed up using existing legacy system to be seamlessly migrated to the new solution with minimal loss
- Data center to be improved and hardened
- Disaster recovery site to be enhanced and optimized
- Restore procedure policies to be created and automated
- Entire backup infrastructure to be managed via a single pane of glass console with graphical interface for ease of use
In addition, this exacting client stressed their total cost of ownership expectations and the regulations and mandates they sought to comply with.
Solution
To respond to this brief and ensure every point is addressed, Accutech chose advanced data protection and backup tools afforded by its close collaboration with industry-leading vendors, proceeding to fully adapt them to the client’s needs and circumstances.
The centralized backup and data protection solution also took into account the wide range of workloads and application owners in the client’s infrastructure, each of which comes with differing requirements and needs. To address this, the backup policy was also updated.
Additionally, we planned for data generated by remote workloads and remote users to be backed up seamlessly to the same system, and paid special attention to the hybrid cloud environments the client already had in place.
The delicate balance of choosing the right mix of deployment modes to support the full breadth of workloads, users and environments was successfully achieved, while the data center footprint was reduced, per the client’s wishes, and the total cost of ownership curbed.
Outcome
Within less than four months, Accutech’s enterprise backup solution met and exceeded the client’s expectations. The new, modernized backup and data protection architecture reduced the total cost of ownership for the client by 52%.
All the requirements previously discussed were met, including:
- Cost-efficiency: Reduced costs and complexity via the use of a single, unified solution that protects all data assets
- Enhanced resiliency: Business risks at the core of the data protection environment are now efficiently managed, with the backup solution strengthening the organization’s resiliency in the face of the unknown and the unexpected by affording rapid recovery from any and all incidents
- Ransomware protection: Introduced ransomware protection failsafes, so that the increasingly common ransomware attacks cannot encrypt the client’s backup data
- Compliance achieved: The client was able to fully satisfy a number of internal, industry and state regulations related to protecting access to data for reasons of privacy and of security
