Overview
Are you confident with your current disaster recovery systems?
Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery (BCDR) processes and solutions are vital to minimise the disruption and downtime to operations a business faces in the event of a disaster. 75% of businesses can’t answer the following questions:
1) How much downtime would result if your systems went down?
2) How much data would you be able to recover?
If you can’t confidently answer, it’s likely your disaster recovery system isn’t up to standard.
These are the questions that Ever Nimble’s client Perseus Mining asked themselves when they identified the need to replace their legacy DR system. The old systems were failing to replicate data, reporting wasn’t accurate and there were increasing management overheads trying to fix failing backups. A significant factor that indicated the need for a new system was the limited DR capacity available for use.
Client
Perseus Mining
Industry: Mining
Solution: BCDR
Challenge
- Deploying a BCDR system across multiple remote locations
- Implementing a solution that protected the ASX-listed business from cyber security threats
- Finding a solution that factored in poor internet conditions on site
Solution
- An easy-to-manage “traffic light” system for all backups
- Daily automated DR testing at all locations, providing peace of mind the system will do what is required in the event of a real disaster
- Accurate reporting
- A simple and scalable solution that can be easily replicated across new locations/acquisitions
- More time spent on business operations and less time spent on managing backups
Prior to this project rollout, Perseus Mining didn’t have a comprehensive BCDR solution in place. Stacey Squire, the Group Technology Manager, said, “We weren’t able to be confident we had consistent offsite backups or a centralised view of the world to know where we were at.”
A cost-effective and time-saving solution
Before working with Ever Nimble on this project, Perseus Mining worked with another partner who was unable to deliver a solution that met the organisation’s requirements. This resulted in Perseus Mining’s CFO and wider executive team spending a significant amount of time trying to resolve this challenge, which was solved almost immediately after partnering with Ever Nimble.
The BCDR solution designed with another MSP had an estimated cost of $250K and a six-month rollout. In collaboration with Datto, Ever Nimble was able to offer costs of less than $10K per month, complete the rollout in less than two months and provide better outcomes. Chris Morrissey, Ever Nimble’s CEO and MD says, “Ever Nimble worked closely with the internal IT department at Perseus Mining to understand the complex needs of the organisation and their current data landscape.”
Factoring in the pandemic and border closures that restricted international travel to mine sites, Ever Nimble was able to ship the Datto cloud-powered devices and configure them remotely, with the onsite teams only needing to connect a single cable.
A customised approach
After thoroughly assessing the multi-faceted requirements of the multi-location BCDR system, Ever Nimble was able to utilise their strong partnership with Datto to deploy a solution fit for Perseus Mining’s requirements.
This included syncing large amounts of data. Stacey says, “I was quite impressed with the attention to detail for ensuring we did pick up all the systems and data that we had in the field. We had multi terabytes of data in Ghana that wasn’t logistically feasible to replicate over poor data links. Having Ever Nimble manage that with Datto to recover the logistics with that link was very streamlined.”
The project rollout has given Perseus Mining confidence in the capabilities of the new system and resulted in reduced management overheads. As a result of implementing the easy-to-manage and reliable Datto system, Ever Nimble’s overhead was also significantly reduced by 20%.
Stacey says, “From a day-to-day operation of the backups, it’s significantly less overhead than I’ve experienced in the past. I don’t have to have those heart stopping moments to wonder if I’ve added a device to the backup queue, or if I’ve got something that’s not been backed up. Every recovery we’ve attempted has worked, everything we’ve asked it to back up has worked.
“I get a daily email telling me what the backup status is across the business. The system is very good at telling you if there’s a problem, and with Ever Nimble’s assistance, things are being done proactively.”
Testimonial
“Even to this day, I’m sceptical about how it works so well. It seems too good to be true. Having had so many other backup systems in place in previous roles, this is the first one that does what it says and has had the least amount of management overhead to achieve the required outcome.”
Stacey Squire, Group Technology Manager at Perseus Mining
