10x Faster Backups and 50% Time Saved: Ellegaard Göttingen Minipigs' Journey from Acronis to Druva

Ellegaard Göttingen Minipigs A/S provides the biomedical industry with high-quality, microbiologically defined Göttingen Minipigs. The high health status, genetic management, size, and physiological similarity to humans make Göttingen Minipigs very suitable as the non-rodent model in all fields of biomedical research.

As the sole IT professional at Minipigs, Kent Pedersen faced a critical challenge with the company's legacy backup solution, Acronis. Upon joining Minipigs, Pedersen quickly identified significant inefficiencies and reliability gaps in their data protection strategy. The existing system was slow, prone to errors, and lacked the robust security features necessary to protect critical data against modern threats like ransomware.

"The backup wasn't good enough," Pedersen recalls. "With Acronis, it was only one data center, and I could go in and delete the backups. That's not good enough for me. I need the tools to secure the backup when ransomware attacks." This lack of immutability and adequate protection created a constant state of concern, especially given the escalating threat landscape. 

Restore times were also a major pain point, impacting productivity and adding to Pedersen's already demanding workload. With compliance standards like ISO 27001 on the horizon, Minipigs needed a solution that offered not just reliable backups, but also enhanced security and simplified management.

Minipigs' search for a modern, efficient, and secure backup solution led them to Druva, through a recommendation from their trusted technology partner, Loop Partners. Pedersen was instantly impressed. “After the initial demo of Druva, I was completely won over. It’s an outstanding setup—absolutely ideal for our company."

Druva’s cloud-native platform offered comprehensive data protection for Minipigs’ end-users and Microsoft environment, including Microsoft 365 workloads (Teams, SharePoint, Mail) and endpoints.The implementation was remarkably swift, taking just three weeks to migrate from Acronis to Druva. To ensure a seamless transition and build confidence, Minipigs ran both solutions in parallel for six months.

One of Druva's most compelling advantages was its sophisticated ransomware recovery capabilities—a feature Pedersen championed with enthusiasm to the company’s leadership. Recognizing the urgency of proactive protection, he made a compelling case: "I reached out to the top decision-maker and said, 'We need to implement this now, before it’s too late. Acronis won’t be able to save us like Druva can when ransomware hits—and I said when, not if.'" This strategic move significantly strengthened Minipigs' security posture, ensuring they were prepared for potential threats.

Druva’s seamless integration with Entra ID has streamlined user management while significantly enhancing security. Pedersen also praised Dru Assist, the AI-powered support tool, for its effectiveness and convenience. "When I’m trying to implement or resolve something, instead of opening a support case, I can simply ask the Dru AI. It’s truly impressive—what Druva has achieved is really, really remarkable."

With Druva, Minipigs transformed its data security strategy, achieving exceptional efficiency, reliability, and peace of mind. A six-month side-by-side comparison revealed Druva’s remarkable performance, with a 10x faster backup speed compared to Acronis. According to Pedersen, this significant improvement ensures that Minipigs’ critical data is backed up more frequently and efficiently.

As the sole IT resource, Pedersen values his time highly, and Druva’s intuitive interface has dramatically reduced the time spent managing backups by at least 50%. He notes that in just 10 to 20 seconds, he can get a perfectly organized system overview.

In addition to speed and ease of use, Druva has delivered flawless backup performance, eliminating the recurring errors experienced with Acronis. Pedersen confirms he has never encountered a backup error with Druva, removing a major operational concern.

Security and compliance are also enhanced through Druva's Advanced Ransomware Recovery and immutability features, which ensure secure, tamper-proof backups. This level of protection is crucial for defending against cyber threats and meeting future compliance standards such as ISO 27001.

Furthermore, Druva provides unmatched reliability with consistent uptime; Pedersen states he has never found the system down when attempting access. Pederson also shared “An additional bonus with Druva is that I’m notified of any abnormal traffic to or from our Microsoft tenant. It's truly an amazing tool because it helps me monitor what's happening.”

Minipigs is progressing towards a full transition to a cloud-based infrastructure and plans to decommission its remaining on-premises VM servers in Azure. With Druva’s scalability and robust protection capabilities, Minipigs is well-positioned for secure, long-term growth in a digital-first world.