Leading Art College in the Northeast Modernises Backup Strategy and Saves Costs with Maple S3
Nestled in the heart of the Northeast, this prestigious art college is known for its commitment to creative excellence and innovation. With a thriving community of students and faculty, its IT team plays a critical role in maintaining smooth operations, ensuring the security of data, and safeguarding creative assets. However, the reliance on physical tape backups was creating challenges that impacted the institution’s ability to modernise its backup strategy.
The Problem
The college’s existing backup process revolved around physical tapes, which posed several operational and strategic challenges:
- Scalability: Physical tape storage lacked the flexibility to keep up with the college's growing data needs.
- Accessibility: Retrieving data from tapes was time-consuming and required physical handling.
- Durability and Security: Tapes were prone to physical degradation, making long-term data integrity a concern. The college also sought a more robust solution to mitigate ransomware risks.
- Cost-Efficiency: Managing and maintaining tape-based backups required significant time and resources, leading to higher operational costs.
- Management Overhead: Manual processes, such as handling and storing tapes offsite, placed unnecessary strain on the IT department.
Considering these challenges, the college sought a modern backup solution that was scalable, secure, cost-efficient, and futureproof.
The Solution
Maple’s vendor-agnostic, customer-centric approach made them a natural choice for advising on and implementing a modernised backup plan.
What Maple Delivered
To address the college's challenges, Maple introduced a robust cloud-based backup solution using Maple S3. Here’s how the solution was designed and implemented to meet the college's needs:
- Immutable Storage
Maple delivered 160 TB of immutable hot storage, allowing the college to securely store their Veritas backups. With immutability, the backups are protected from modification, deletion, or tampering—ensuring recovery points remain intact, even in the event of a ransomware attack.
- Enhanced Accessibility & Durability
By using an offsite S3 target, the college gained instant access to their backups from anywhere with an internet connection. Data replication across multiple facilities ensured durability, significantly reducing the risk of data loss.
- Cost Transparency
Maple’s solution was offered at a simple price-per-TB charge. Unlike other cloud solutions, it came with no hidden costs such as API call charges, egress fees, or ingress fees.
- Optimised Performance
The solution boasted quicker restore times compared to public cloud services, ensuring mission-critical data was always accessible when needed.
- Streamlined Deployment
Maple’s rapid deployment process meant the new backup solution was operational in less than a day, minimising disruptions to the college’s operations.
Results
The new backup solution delivered immediate and measurable benefits, exceeding the college's expectations:
- Stronger Security Posture
Immutable backups provided a much-needed safeguard against ransomware attacks, ensuring data integrity and recovery readiness.
- Improved Efficiency
The IT team reported faster restore times and enhanced data accessibility, which reduced downtime and improved workflow continuity.
- Cost Savings
The simplified pricing model eliminated unexpected costs, enabling better budget predictability and savings over traditional methods.
- Futureproof Backup Strategy
With scalable cloud storage, the college now has a backup solution that can grow with their needs while significantly reducing management overhead.
"We’ve been working with Maple for some time now, and what makes them stand out is their fresh, innovative approach to software and services. Their team is attentive, capable, and always willing to think differently to solve challenges. It’s this combination of expertise and dedication that makes them a valued partner for us".
Head of IT
By partnering with Maple, the institution successfully transitioned from an outdated, tape-based backup system to a futureproof, secure, and cost-effective cloud-based solution. Maple S3 provided peace of mind with immutable backups, faster restores, and long-term scalability.
This transformation highlights Maple's commitment to supporting organisations on their digital transformation journey. Thanks to the flexibility and durability of Maple S3, the college is now well-prepared to adapt its data strategy as its needs evolve.
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Book a free demo with Maple today to discover how we can help you future-proof your data solutions.