Case study: the Palacký University
Seamless backup to the cloud helps with risk management at one of the oldest Czech universities.
Barracuda Cloud-to-Cloud Backup optimizes the use of Microsoft 365 at Palacký University in Olomouc.
Customer:
Palacký University in Olomouc was founded in 1573 and is the second oldest university in the Czech Republic. It is located in the historic city of Olomouc and currently has more than 30,000 students.
Challenges:
The need to back up the Microsoft 365 environment and ensure
recovery of data that is accidentally deleted by users or
encrypted by ransomware.
Expensive and inflexible existing backup solutions.
Solution:
Barracuda Cloud-to-Cloud Backup
Barracuda’s Cloud-to-Cloud Backup is a unique solution that offers fully granular backup of all M365 application data.
Benefits:
Quick and easy to use – saves the IT team about
hour per week.
Backing up to the cloud gives you the assurance that your
Microsoft 365 data will remain safe from ransomware
attacks.
Great scalability – currently
backs up more than 100 TB of data faster than before.
The road to the cloud
Like many other organisations, Palacký University initially switched to Microsoft 365 in an effort to save money and resources spent on maintaining its insufficiently flexible local infrastructure. But when it became apparent that everything from student work to course materials and personal files were being stored in OneDrive and Exchange Online. Peter Volák understood that he couldn’t do without a third-party backup solution that offered more than Microsoft’s. His decision was confirmed when users began to regularly delete
content accidentally and unintentionally, but especially during historical ransomware data breaches when some of the university’s stored files were encrypted.
The education sector remains the most frequent target of ransomware attacks globally, as cybercriminals often find
institutions an easy target. Last year alone, hackers attacked an estimated 44 universities and colleges and 45 school
districts operating 1,981 schools in the U.S. – but the actual number is likely much higher.
IBM’s previous backup solution failed in two ways. It was prohibitively expensive and required
a local server for backups, which only added more administrative work and overhead for the IT team.
The University has been a satisfied Barracuda customer since 2006 and
requested a demo of Barracuda Cloud-to-Cloud Backup and was very pleased with the result.
“The demo showed that the product was very easy to manage,” says Petr Volák. “We still use Barracuda’s solution for our
email gateway, so it made sense for us to approach our partner. The winning team never changes.”
“Before, we had to maintain a local storage solution. Now all it takes is a quick monthly check, with further intervention only necessary when someone needs to recover their files.”
Head of IT Infrastructure
Start of operation
Barracuda Cloud-to-Cloud Backup offers unlimited storage for Exchange Online, SharePoint Online
and OneDrive for Business data, and supports any customer retention policy for ultimate
flexibility. It can be easily monitored and configured from a centralized cloud portal, while offering
both scheduled and on-demand backups, as well as point-in-time restore options.
Data is reduplicated and compressed to maximize storage efficiency and minimize the backup window,
while features such as role-based access control, multi-factor
authentication support, and end-to-end encryption take care of enhanced security. Multiple external copies of the backup files also increase redundancy and security.
The deployment went smoothly at Palacký University. “After the first complete backup, the
solution was ready for use in just two days and went live in August 2022,” says Petr Volák.
Shoot and forget
Backups are set up for the university on a daily basis and are always completed within that day – with
exception of the beginning of the semester when more data needs to be managed. The restore goes smoothly and Peter’s team of three
saves approximately one hour of time per week compared to the previous solution.
“It’s a weapon that you can just fire and forget about. The whole solution is very simple and always
just two or three mouse clicks, which is exactly what the IT team expects from an effective solution,” he explains. “Before, we had to maintain a local storage solution. Now all it takes is a quick monthly check, with further intervention only necessary when someone needs to restore their files.” Although no further ransomware attacks have occurred to date, with Barracuda Cloud-to-Cloud Backup, the university can be confident that if a similar incident does occur, it will have comprehensive up-to-date backups from which to perform a restore that attackers cannot access. The solution also works faster than the university’s previous product, although it stores much more data – currently estimated at around 100 TB, says Petr Volák.
Palacký University is so impressed with the project that it is considering expanding its cooperation with Barracuda to include a next-generation firewall product.
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