From Unprotected to Resilient: How a Life Sciences Research Organization Modernized Data Protection with Sky Data Vault
The Customer
A growing life sciences and therapeutics research organization operating in a highly regulated environment. The organization relies on cloud collaboration tools, specialized scientific workstations, and a complex on-premises infrastructure to support critical research operations. Its IT environment spans virtual machines, physical servers, and a Microsoft 365 deployment covering hundreds of users.
The Challenge
As the organization grew, its IT leadership recognized a significant gap in data protection. The environment had evolved organically over time, leaving virtual machines, physical servers, and cloud-based collaboration tools without any formal, managed backup strategy. Network bandwidth at the primary location was constrained – backup operations were limited to a single connection that was already saturated during normal operations. Compliance and regulatory requirements demanded extended data retention, but no retention policies had been configured. Budget realities added another layer of complexity: the team needed to prioritize the most critical workloads immediately while planning for expanded coverage in future budget cycles. The combination of regulatory exposure, operational risk, and limited IT bandwidth made the status quo unsustainable.
The Solution
Sky Data Vault, working alongside the channel partner, designed and deployed a phased, fully managed data protection solution tailored to the organization’s infrastructure, budget, and compliance requirements.
For virtual machine protection, SDV deployed a managed Backup as a Service solution covering the customer’s primary VM environment. SDV’s engineering team worked directly with the customer’s IT team to scope backup tiers appropriately – protecting the highest-priority systems within current budget constraints while building a clear expansion path for the colocation site and additional storage systems in future cycles.
For Microsoft 365 and Entra ID protection, SDV implemented cloud-based backup covering Exchange, SharePoint, and Teams for the organization’s active user base. Entra ID backup was activated under a seven-year retention policy aligned to statutory compliance requirements. Onboarding was conducted via a live, guided implementation session in which SDV’s team walked the customer’s IT administrator through tenant activation, policy creation, and user selection, ensuring a smooth, fully managed go-live with no disruption to the research team.
SDV also designed the solution with the organization’s planned infrastructure evolution in mind. With production workloads moving to a colocation site featuring multiple 10Gb circuits, SDV confirmed that its cloud infrastructure supports unrestricted high-throughput ingest, positioning the customer for seamless backup expansion as the new connectivity comes online. The solution architecture also accounts for future Salesforce backup coverage and protection of additional storage appliances as budget cycles permit.
The Outcomes
- Full backup coverage achieved: virtual machines, Microsoft 365 workloads (Exchange, SharePoint, Teams), and Entra ID all protected under a managed, monitored solution.
- Seven-year retention policy activated: meeting statutory compliance requirements for Entra ID data from day one.
- Smooth, guided onboarding: the customer’s IT team was walked through tenant activation and policy configuration by SDV’s implementation team with minimal disruption to operations.
- Budget-right deployment: flexible, tiered pricing allowed the highest-priority workloads to be protected immediately, with a clear and documented roadmap for expanded coverage in future budget cycles.
- Hands-off managed operations: SDV assumed ongoing responsibility for policy management, user additions, and backup monitoring, freeing IT leadership to focus on supporting the research mission.
- No egress fees, no surprises: predictable flat-rate pricing with 24x7x365 U.S.-based support included as part of the managed service.
Why Sky Data Vault Won
When the customer communicated that the full scope could not be funded in the current budget cycle, SDV worked collaboratively to right-size the solution rather than walk away. That flexibility, combined with technical depth, hands-on implementation, and a fully managed service model, sets SDV apart from alternatives that require the customer to manage operations themselves. SDV’s compliance-forward design addressed the organization’s regulatory retention requirements from the outset, and the partner-led engagement gave the customer both a trusted advisor and a managed service provider with the capability to grow with them as the organization expanded.