How a Cloud-Based DR Solution Started this Customer on Their Cloud Journey

by | 18 Jun, 2021 | Case Study

Solution: Cloud | Disaster Recovery
Field: Entertainment

Normally, Disaster Recovery success stories detail how Advizex saved a company from going out of business after a disaster brings them to their knees. Not so, with this one. Advizex helped them avoid the pain of recovery altogether – which is just good business.

Success Story Snapshot:

  • Customer was planning for their 5-year IT refresh
  • Advizex explored pain points, evaluated solutions and guided them on choosing
  • Our solution drastically improved their recovery time should they experience a disaster, gave them back time, and saved them money.

The Advizex Team:

  • John McKeen, Account Executive
  • Joe Clarke, Director Cloud Architecture
  • Kevin Kirkpatrick, Presales Engineer

Established in 1895, this customer consists of four museums dedicated to preserving art and science. They host 100+ exhibitions, films, theater shows and live performances annually and have served 1.5 million people since its inception.

An Advizex customer since 2014, we’ve become a trusted partner. We’ve set up their Office 365, facilitated on-premises infrastructure purchases and participated in previous refreshes. When it was time for another refresh, we were there to help sort through current challenges and future goals.

An Opportunity to Enter the Cloud

The museum was ready to start their journey into the cloud, but they weren’t sure about how to proceed. They just knew they wanted to be prepared for future cloud-based initiatives. During our discovery session, we found an opportunity.

They were unhappy with their current disaster recovery solution, which was really just a backup solution. They were using a legacy tape backup system that relied on a third party who took the tapes to a second, physical location for storage. Their data was stored on two different sites requiring them to manage two different sets of infrastructure. Because there weren’t defined data retention limits, they were storing thousands of tapes.

This gave them a copy of the data, but it didn’t give them the ability to recover quickly. If they did experience a disaster, it would take weeks or months to get back up and running.

Advizex did the research, presented the results and guided them toward one solution that solved several challenges.

Backup, Recovery and Efficiency Savings All in One

Advizex introduced them to Rubrik, a virtual machine-focused backup product. Rubrik let the museum move to the cloud, beginning their digital transformation. As a non-profit organization, cost efficiency is a high priority. Moving their backup into the cloud removed the need for that second site, saving them from needing to manage it let alone upgrade it.

We were able to consolidate their IT operations in many ways in addition to removing the second site, Rubrik’s solution gave the museum one dashboard to manage the entire process. We automated where we could and gave them an actual recovery solution.

Leverage Advizex Value

Companies understandably don’t know how to start their cloud journey, because there is much to consider. At Advizex, we use our proven methodology to uncover pain points and challenges. We’re technology agnostic, which lets us present several solutions talking through the pros and cons to determine what best supports their business goals. We’re always asking the simple yet often-overlooked questions: What isn’t working? Where do you see your business going? And how we can deliver the most value to you?

“We often say the best place to start in the cloud is just to start, and this is a perfect example of how that works to a customer’s advantage.” – Joe Clarke, Director Cloud Architecture