Using disparate and legacy solutions to back up business-critical data at its myriad properties was the old way of protecting data at Kerry Properties. Before centralizing backups on Druva for VMware virtual machines running key applications and its Microsoft 365 environment, the company used a variety of legacy backup methods, including tape and on-premises solutions like Veeam and Veritas NetBackup and Backup Exec. This made backups inconsistent, claimed Max Yip, head of infrastructure, security, and operations at Kerry Properties.
“Veeam required so much underlying infrastructure to facilitate backups, and since we were looking to drive huge changes internally within a short timeframe, we needed a solution that we could get up and running quickly,” he said.
For example, Veeam was used to backup data from its MegaBox project — a 1.1 million square foot shopping, dining, and entertainment complex in Hong Kong. But Veeam didn’t support the company’s digital transformation journey, which includes moving workloads to a multi-cloud environment on Alibaba, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and Microsoft Azure, to centralize IT, including backups, as well as move backups off-site.
Druva enables Kerry Properties’ digital transformation journey
“We wanted something we could turn on and start using instantly,” Max said. “That was absolutely Druva. And since it was so simple to use, we knew people would adopt it quickly.”
For Kerry Properties, Druva has been a key enabler of its digital transformation journey. In just a few months, it replaced Veeam at the Megabox property and Veritas NetBackup at its Hong Kong data center, with plans to soon replace legacy solutions at its Shanghai data center.
Druva also protects Microsoft 365 data (Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, OneDrive, and Teams) for Kerry Properties’ hundreds of users, and Max plans to begin backing up data from its remote and branch office (ROBO) locations soon.
As Max and team move on-premises workloads to the cloud as part of their digital transformation journey, the Druva Cloud Platform will enable them to apply the same policies and procedures for data protection, delivering the consistency they demand.
Moving backups offsite, centralizing backups, and IT
A core part of its digital transformation strategy is centralizing IT and backups and moving backups offsite, all of which have been facilitated by Druva. “The Druva Cloud Platform has given us the centralized visibility we needed to see all backup job statuses in a matter of minutes,” said Max.
The team now has a single pane of glass through which it can manage backups of VMs, Windows and Linux servers, and Microsoft 365 data.
Additionally, Druva has helped Max and team ensure they apply standard backup policies and procedures across locations, and its ease of use has greatly facilitated the goal of IT centralization.
Before Druva, Max’s IT team was split into different districts that applied their own on-premises backup solutions, procedures, and policies, and required dedicated backup admins to manage. Now, they don’t need specialists. Max has one subject matter expert (SME) for backups, meaning he has been able to free up IT resources to work on other strategic digital transformation projects.
Druva facilitates Kerry Properties’ business continuity strategy
Max said it is a relief to have a unified backup strategy that facilitates business continuity (BC). “For the first time, thanks to Druva, we know exactly what is backed up because of the platform’s centralized visibility. We know the backups are stored in the cloud and isolated in case anything goes wrong. That’s priceless.”
Business continuity is the next step beyond disaster recovery (DR), and refers to restoring other elements of business operations that can be affected by catastrophic data loss. For example, if a flood or hurricane knocked out power to the data center and IT operations were down, IT infrastructure and applications would need to be restored, and employees would need to continue doing their jobs even if they were unable to report to work.
“Druva facilitates our business continuity strategy and provides the ransomware protection we needed, but didn’t have in place before,” said Max.
What’s next?
Read the new Kerry Properties case study to learn more about how Druva is enabling its cloud-first strategy, helping it save US$3 million in infrastructure costs over the next five years, and improving IT workforce productivity.