Business Need
Autodata initally engaged with Impellam Group’s cyber security operations team to help them successfully implement DMARC for all their active domains and users. Soon after, we began speaking with their Head of IT Infrastructure about their Data Centre requirements.
Impellam operated Veeam software with the traditional Enterprise Edition socket licences and ran a full on-premise backup schedule with additional off-site tape backups. Whilst their backup infrastructure was already performing a number of successful operations, the synthetic full-runs took too long, and their Veeam environment required constant ongoing administration to enable it to function. Their internal team was very capable of managing Veeam themselves on a daily basis, but knew it needed updating and wanted to review how efficiently they were operating against best-practice. They also wished to implement an off-site immutable storage repository to protect their critical data from ransomware.
Impellam planned to shut down one of their two UK data centres and move all their major line-of-business applications to SaaS and Azure IaaS, with the majority of their data kept in OneDrive. A UK cloud-storage DC was an essential requirement for data sovereignty. They wanted a backup service that would work across all platforms, to fully understand their restore options and to keep three copies of their data in line with the 3-2-1-1-0 principle.
“Autodata demonstrated their expertise of backup environments, particularly in line with Impellam’s cloud-first strategy, which led us to engage with them around this critical infrastructure project. We were highly impressed with the competence displayed by Autodata’s technical team. From start to finish, we felt completely reassured that they understood our specific needs and business risks and worked proactively in their approach to deliver a successful solution. We continue to engage with them as we roll out our wider strategy.”
Solution
As an accredited Platinum Veeam Cloud & Service Provider, Autodata was perfectly placed to conduct a one-day Veeam Workshop with the Impellam team. The output suggested several remediations: streamlining Impellam’s current Veeam environment including updating to the latest OS; upgrading their Windows servers; migrating their licences to an instance-based model; and building out and implementing a Scale Out Backup Repository (SOBR). We subsequently conducted a full review of their backup infrastructure, creating a risk register and assisting with the business case to transfer their cloud storage off Azure.
Autodata provided guidance on the continued work required to migrate Impellam’s Veeam environment to a state that could take full advantage of Veeam’s features and functionality. We assisted with transferring their legacy socket licences to the newer, more flexible and cost-effective VCSP instance licences, allowing them to scale up and down more accurately. Following a successful trial of our Cloudlake® powered by Wasabi cloud-storage service, we helped Impellam to implement Wasabi S3 Object Storage, creating Wasabi buckets and SOBRs within Wasabi’s UK data centre and providing knowledge transfer to the wider team.
Result
Impellam’s backup infrastructure is now stable and resilient, allowing them to take full advantage of cloud storage. Their updated Veeam Enterprise Plus licences are cheaper and more flexible than before thanks to the VCSP platform. At just £5.99 per TB per month, our Cloudlake® storage works out cheaper than their on-premise/tape solution and aligns with their cloud-first strategy. Impellam can manage their own copy, and move and migration operations, encrypting data using an AES256 bit key and storing it immutably with Wasabi.
Impellam are now exploring M365 Backup with Cloudlake®. Autodata’s Cloudlake platform enables you to choose different cloud products and services – from BaaS to Storage to Licensing to Support – in a disaggregated format. Only buy the elements you need, on a monthly contract with no vendor lock-in, adding others as and when you require them.
