Intelligent CIO Africa Issue 54 | Page 42

COUNTRY FOCUS : SOUTH AFRICA

Barloworld Automotive crui availability with Veeam

A view of Cape Town

tThe Business Challenge

Barloworld Automotive ’ s business units target very different markets , yet all customers have one thing in common : Barloworld Automotive meets their transportation needs , from renting cars to fleet management to vehicle sales .
“ Our three business units rely on a shared IT infrastructure to support their operations ,” said Brian Smith , Operations Manager , IT Shared Services , Barloworld Automotive . “ If key business systems aren ’ t available 24 by 7 , we risk not meeting customer delivery expectations .”
Smith provided three examples to clarify the enterprise ’ s need for 24 by 7 availability . “ If your plane arrives at the airport at 2am and you need to rent a car , our booking engine must be up and running or you ’ ll rent from another company . If your business wants control of its fleet ’ s toll spend , including the E-Toll system , our systems have to be available around the clock . And if you go to our website to request an accident repair estimate and see an error page rather than a submission form , you might take your car to a different motor shop ,” he explained . Rather than risk these scenarios , Barloworld Automotive chose a proactive route . “ We knew we had to replace our legacy backup tool as it didn ’ t meet our business needs ,” said Smith . “ We operate 24 by 7 , so our 7,000 internal clients need access to critical systems on the same basis . It ’ s difficult to provide 24 by 7 availability and meet service level agreements ( SLAs ) when your backup no longer completes within the provided backup window . The legacy backup tool no longer met the demands of the
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