Nonprofit Moves from Hardware-centric Model to Sky Data Vault to Achieve Predictable Costs While Saving Time and IT Resources
The Customer
The Customer is a long-established performing arts nonprofit organization located in the Southeastern U.S. that is home to and supports several performing arts companies and art museums.
The Challenge
The Customer’s VMware licensing was set to expire in three months, and they were very concerned about future cost increases. They were looking for a predictable cost model and a managed solution to help augment and relieve some of the burden on their lean IT staff. To transition from a hardware-centric approach to a more efficient cloud infrastructure model, they turned to their trusted Technology Advisor, who brought in Sky Data Vault (SDV).
The Solution
The Technology Advisor worked with a Solutions Engineer from their Technology Service Distributor to provide SDV with the relevant background needed to address the Customer’s needs holistically and was confident in SDV’s ability to deliver an all-encompassing solution aligned with the budget and timeline.
At the initial discovery call, SDV assessed the Customer’s production environment and current data protection and recovery strategy. During the subsequent design meeting, SDV worked with the customer to optimize resources as part of a right-sized Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) solution, offering the Customer an opportunity to test the solution as part of a no-charge Proof of Concept.
Learning the customer utilized Veeam for backups, SDV, as a Veeam Service Provider, proposed a comprehensive managed DRaaS solution leveraging Veeam technology and worked with the customer to determine the appropriate recovery points.
As part of the overall solution, SDV included Microsoft O365 Backup to protect the customer’s email, OneDrive, SharePoint and Teams environment.
The Outcomes
Customer Outcomes
- Reduced management burden: By offloading infrastructure management and data protection responsibilities to SDV, we enabled the organization to concentrate on its core mission as a cultural nonprofit rather than IT complexities.
- Faster recovery processes: Reduced downtime with rapid recovery capabilities, allowing the organization to resume operations quickly following disruptions.
- Optimization of resources: The Customer paid for only what they needed for production resources and not future capacity.
- Predictable cost model: Customer did not have to worry about unexpected increased licensing costs and benefitted from a fully transparent monthly fee.
- No more expensive hardware purchases: By moving to fully managed cloud-based solutions, the Customer no longer had to deal with the hassle of end-of-life hardware or expensive capital investments.
Technology Advisor Outcomes
- Strengthened client relationship: The Technology Advisor reinforced their role as a trusted partner by effectively addressing the customer’s immediate concerns and recommending a unique solution provider to deliver a custom and comprehensive solution.
- Reputation enhancement: Elevated the Technology Advisor’s industry reputation as a go-to expert for complex data protection challenges.
- Expansion opportunities: Opened avenues for further engagement and services as the customer evolves and grows.