BackgroundThe client was formed aer its parent company split, selling off part of the operaon to another organisaon (‘Company B’). It provides financial markets and post-trade services to instuons.

Inially sharing many systems, infrastructure and premises with CCompany B, the two firms began the process of separang. The client opted to look for a new backup soluon to replace the NetBackup and Backup Exec environments designated to remain with Company B. Rather than design, deploy and manage in-house, the decision was taken to adopt services where possible.

TThe client operates in three primary locaons – New York, London and Singapore – and the service would need to be deployed in local datacentres in each region. Alongside a significant on-premise estate, coverage was also needed to support the adopon of Microso Office365, specifically Exchange, Onedrive and Sharepoint.

Steps to a Decision The client has a progressive vision for IT, recognising that owning and managing certain IT funcons like backup does not add a great deal of value but it is nevertheless a must-have. Given the urgent need to separate from Company B, cloud was very much part of the technology roadmap as it allowed services to be provisioned far quicker than a typical on premise, deploy-and-manage approach. Backup as a Service therefore sat naturally within the broader IT strategy.

TThe client’s on premise environment consisted of around 300 physical and virtual servers across the three regions with a combinaon of operang systems, primarily Windows and Linux, and Oracle and SQL databases. The requirement not only to back up the on premise estate but also Office365 quickly demonstrated the 4sl service to be one of few opons that were fit for purpose. The client wanted a unified global service operang 24x7 to replace pre-exisng point soluons in each region, which we were also able to provide.

IIn line with the cloud strategy, the client wished to take advantage of public cloud storage for long term backup retenon and specified a service that could integrate with AWS S3, holding data in the local AWS region, in order to comply with data residency laws.

The client issued a number of quesonnaires to verify that the 4sl service met their IT standards for managed service providers, parcularly Informaon Security, thanks in part to our ISO9001, 27001 and 27018 accreditaons

Client Sector: Financial ServicecsClient Size: S&P500 constuent

Case Study: Backup as a service

Providing assurance through a complex de-merger

The OutcomeBackup as a Service has fulfilled all of the client’s requirements, facilitang a key component of the separaon programme and eliminang the dependency on Company B for backup.

Ulity pricing avoided a major capex outlay, the me and effort of selecng and implemenng a new soluon, as well as the opeoperaonal overhead of ongoing management.

The service is managed 24x7 and connues to achieve high performance against SLA.

With the ongoing physical separaon from Company B, a datacentre move in the US has been completed with no interrupon to service. Further moves in the UK and Singapore are planned.

Recent technical enhancements have enabled long-term cloud sstorage costs to be reduced by adopng AWS Glacier for the oldest backups whilst ensuring that more recent data can sll be accessed in a mely manner that meets business needs.

Deployment

WWorking closely with the client’s project manager, networks, server and storage teams, the service went through a comprehensive series of tests to meet the requirements of a Proof of Concept phase. Once the PoC was signed off, the rollout connued into live service. Pairs of 4sl appliances were deployed in each region with data replicated between local datacentres to provide resilience in case of disaster with long-term backups securely replicated into AWAWS using the client’s Direct Connects. Management and control is provided centrally via site-to-site VPN connecons.

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