Eco Pioneer Protects Critical Data With Arcserve Appliances

The Pauly Group, based in Germany, is a market leader in eco-technology. The company specializes in organic sewage and water treatment, soil enrichment, and sustainable waste management. The Pauly Group’s IT department has been a vital component of its success by providing research, development, and operational support.

A recognized industry innovator, the company adopted internet of things (IoT) technologies early on—a market that is projected to grow 18 percent, to 14.4 billion active connections in 2022 and 27 billion connected IoT devices by 2025. These devices are constantly generating new data that must be kept secure and retained for long periods.

One example of how the company’s sewage and water treatment plants saw immediate benefits from IoT technologies is in the reed beds that lie at the heart of the company’s sewage systems. Running 24/7, the data these systems generate grows exponentially. The reed beds are cleared every ten years, so that’s how long the data must be retained and protected. The company’s IT department must also ensure that the data is always available while cost-effectively scaling its systems.

“For us, a standard solution that simply backed up the data and shifted it from A to B wasn’t enough. Our long retention requirements and continuous increase in data demand a smarter solution,” said Christian Langer, CEO of The Pauly Group. “We have strict SLAs but also need to be cost-effective. Due to the nature of our business, we must protect ourselves against cyberattacks, and data protection plays a vital role in this, alongside cybersecurity. Our customers expect continuous services, and we need to be able to deliver on their expectations.”

Challenge: Ensure Easy Integration and Contain Data Storage Costs

Login-IT, an Arcserve technology partner, presented The Pauly Group with a complete backup recovery concept that met all its requirements based on Arcserve solutions. Login-IT pointed out how the Arcserve solution offered integrated appliances that simplified administration, optimized backup capabilities, and offered a single point of contact for support.

Login-IT also demonstrated how the Arcserve solution would work seamlessly across The Pauly Group’s existing infrastructure—a mixed Windows and Linux environment—without any significant reconfiguration required. Login-IT also explained how Arcserve offered integrated and efficient deduplication to cope with its ever-growing data volumes while remaining cost-effective to purchase and operate.

A Complete Data Protection, Backup, and Disaster Recovery Solution

The Pauly Group’s IT team planned and implemented the Arcserve backup solution with help from Login-IT. The solution comprises several Arcserve appliances powered by Arcserve UDP unified data protection at the company’s in-house data center. It also features cybersecurity protections and includes a dedicated appliance in a separate data center for added protection.

The Arcserve solution delivers fail-safe backup and recovery across The Pauly Group’s two data centers. The backup system includes an added layer of protection against failure with redundant backups on different devices, following the 3-2-1-1 rule: keep at least three different copies of your data on two different storage mediums, plus one copy offsite and one copy on a completely separate system as a last line of defense against cyberattacks and ransomware. The last “1” in the rule stands for immutable storage, a key ransomware prevention technology.

The Arcserve appliances replicate data across sites at regular intervals, ensuring data recovery points are consistent in both locations. If one site is impacted by technical issues, a natural disaster, or a cyberattack, essential services automatically become available online from the alternative site, ensuring fast recovery.

Backup data is also stored off-site in tape libraries. The Pauly Group’s external tape libraries are integrated with the Arcserve appliances to simplify administration and streamline IT processes. The Arcserve appliances also replicate backup data to a ‘dark’ data center, offering an even higher level of data protection against cyberattacks, relying on automation instead of human intervention.

Arcserve Continuous Availability software ensures nonstop protection for business-critical data on systems that run 24/7. The appliances’ recovery point servers deliver continuous replication to safeguard data availability.

By following the 3-2-1-1 rule, The Pauly Group now has a one-to-one copy of Active Directory, domain controller, Exchange, and other apps in its remote data center. That means the company can run those apps remotely if needed. With continuous data protection, the IT team can also roll back virtual machines and data to any selected recovery point.

“Thanks to the Arcserve appliances and Arcserve Continuous Availability, our group’s data can be backed up efficiently throughout our 24/7 operations,” said Olaf Silkenbäumer, IT Team Leader at The Pauly Group. “The 3-2-1-1 implementation gives us data protection that also offers future flexibility and scalability. We will be able to build on this in a dynamic and fast-growing market.”

Get expert help in putting the right data protection, backup, and disaster recovery solutions in place for your organization by working with an Arcserve technology partner. To learn more about Arcserve products, contact us.