Spector Group's Story with Data Resilience and Druva’s Immutable Backups

Spector Group is a global architecture, interior design, and master planning practice with over 50 years’ experience moving the built environment forward with innovative design solutions.

For years, Rob Verbanac, Senior Associate and Director of IT at Spector Group, maintained data security using tape-based backup solutions like Cheyenne (later Arcserve). This manual process became a massive burden and a major point of failure as the firm grew to multiple offices. 

Not to mention— the team’s reliance on manual processes meant backups required physically swapping tapes and taking them home for off-site protection, which Verbanac described as their "primitive answer to off-site backup." As data grew, nightly backups often failed to complete. Every change in tape format (from VHS to DAT to DSS) made restoring from older backups increasingly difficult and rendered historical data "useless." 

Additionally, the lack of scalability in a multi-office environment forced Verbanac to rely on others to manage the physical backup process, leading to a lack of control and potential failures. 

In search of a modern, cutting-edge solution capable of managing virtualization and ensuring reliable nightly backups, Verbanac decided to embrace the cloud.

Spector Group adopted Druva for hybrid workloads in 2013, initially for the backup of its on-premises and virtual servers, and later to migrate both its Long Island and New York City offices to the Druva Data Security Cloud. Druva's ability to simplify VMware and file server protection with air-gapped and immutable backups and to easily restore data at a file/folder level replaced the team’s physical tape system.

Today, the firm uses Druva to protect their environment, including:

• Data Center Workloads: VMware and Windows file servers across three locations: Long Island, New York City and Miami
• Cloud Workloads: Azure VMs
• SaaS Applications: Microsoft 365
• Endpoints: End-user devices protected and recoverable
• Accelerated Ransomware Recovery: To prevent system downtime in the event of a breach

Verbanac praises the Druva platform for its comprehensive capabilities and flexibility, stating, "Druva provides a solution for every system I manage. It has been an exceptional platform, and I truly appreciate everything it offers." Druva’s value became especially clear to Spector Group during a security incident that required immediate action.

The immediate response was crucial:

• Upon receiving an internal alert, all servers were immediately powered off within 20 minutes to contain the breach
• Druva was contacted, and a support ticket was raised.

Working closely with Druva’s technical support team, Verbanac successfully demonstrated the firm’s ability to move swiftly into action. From fast recovery to expert support, the Druva team ensured the incident was resolved quickly and painlessly.

Through Spector Group’s decade-long partnership with Druva, they’ve realized that a cloud-native, centralized data protection strategy is essential for modern IT environments.

• Rapid support assistance: Consistent, best-in-class support provided by the Druva team to assist with any issues that have arisen for Spector Group.
• Incident-ready resilience: Confidence in immutable backups eliminated pressure to pursue costly or risky alternatives during the incident response.
• Future-proof protection: Verbanac views Druva as a “one-stop solution” for securing the firm’s hybrid environment—including VMware, Windows, Microsoft 365, Azure, and endpoints—while supporting future cloud initiatives such as potential AWS-based disaster recovery.