INDUSTRY WATCH
IT IS A GREAT ADVANTAGE FOR US THAT WE DO NOT HAVE TO OPERATE DIFFERENT BACKUP SOLUTIONS FOR PHYSICAL AND VIRTUAL IT .
of our IT resources , but also to significantly reduce our operational expenses .”
Bene initially implemented Veeam Backup & Replication as a backup solution for its virtualised infrastructure based on VMware vSphere . Today , more than 200 virtual machines with a total volume of around 160 terabytes are delivered with high availability using this solution .
In addition to the systems in the two main data centres in Waidhofen , this includes data and applications from all other company locations . These are regularly transferred to Waidhofen and backed up there with Veeam Backup & Replication .
With this solution , Bene ensures that all employees always have access to their business applications . Should the planning software fail , for example , the IT organisation can restart the affected virtual machine directly from the backup . Veeam ’ s Instant VM Recovery technology reduces the recovery time from hours to minutes , ensuring that Bene employees can resume their work very quickly . Accidentally deleted files or folders on file servers can be made available again in no time .
The new solution also makes work easier for Bene ’ s IT experts . Many processes related to data backup have been automated with Veeam . For example , manual backup and recovery tests are no longer necessary – Veeam ’ s SureBackup technology continuously checks the recoverability of backed-up IT resources in the background . “ This alone saves us many hours of work every month ,” said Baumgartner . “ At the same time , the detailed reports give us the certainty that all backup jobs have really been successful .”
Bene therefore soon extended the Veeam solution to the remaining physical servers .
Today , the company ’ s central Oracle cluster is also backed up with Veeam technology . Depending on this system is , among other things , the technical configuration software that generates the digital parts , lists and work plans . A failure would quickly bring furniture production to a standstill . The Veeam solution , on the other hand , guarantees smooth , secure operation . The IT department is thus able to create transaction-consistent backups of the Oracle cluster and reset the database to a specific point in time , if necessary .
“ It is a great advantage for us that we do not have to operate different backup solutions for physical and virtual IT ,” said Baumgartner .
“ With Veeam , we now have a central solution to protect our digital business processes from planning , to production and logistics and to bring the availability of all applications to a higher level .”
Bene therefore also relied on the support of Veeam for the introduction of Microsoft Office 365 . Around 550 office users in the group now use services such as Exchange Online , OneDrive for Business and Microsoft Teams for their daily work .
Joerg Baumgartner , CIO at Bene
All data stored in the Microsoft cloud is automatically backed up with Veeam Backup for Microsoft Office 365 in Bene ’ s data centre . Should important emails or documents in the cloud be accidentally deleted , IT can restore them at any time using the familiar functions of Veeam .
“ Especially since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic , Microsoft ’ s cloud services have played an important role in virtual collaboration at Bene ,” said Baumgartner . “ Users can use them to communicate and exchange information with internal and external contacts very easily , even in the home office . But location-independent working must not be at the expense of data security . This is why we decided to use Veeam Backup for Microsoft Office 365 . It gives us full control over our data and allows us to decide where and for how long we want to keep it .”
The results
• Maximum IT availability for digital business processes : With Veeam , Bene ensures that data and applications for sales , development , production and logistics are always available . In the event of a failure , the affected systems can be restored within minutes . In this way , Bene prevents delays in delivery for its customers .
• Savings of around 20 % in IT operating costs : Many tasks relating to the backup and recovery of data have been automated with Veeam . The SureBackup technology eliminates the need for manual recovery tests , for example . Baumgartner estimates that this has reduced operating expenses by around 20 %.
• Future-proof platform – also for cloud-based workloads : Bene uses Veeam technology not only for physical and virtual IT resources in its own data centre , but also for securing cloud services . Veeam Backup for Microsoft Office 365 helps the company to reliably protect office data – no matter where users work . This made it easier to connect home office users during the COVID-19 pandemic . •
76 INTELLIGENTCIO www . intelligentcio . com