Case study: London school saves time, slashes risk with advanced backup

I have a confession to make. Whenever I read about a large organization suffering catastrophic data loss due to a ransomware attack, I have … unkind thoughts about them. I wonder why on earth they hadn’t invested in a high-quality, modern backup system. Because that’s really all it takes to recover quickly and easily when data is encrypted, compromised, or destroyed by ransomware criminals.

Of course, I understand that in the real world it’s never all that simple. There are always other budget priorities, for both the organization as a whole and the IT department. As long as you’ve got a backup solution that works pretty well, it can be hard to justify investing in a more up-to-date replacement. Eventually, though, conditions change and the need becomes sufficiently acute that the decision is made.

Jewish Community Secondary School upgrades from tape-based backup

That’s what happened with the Jewish Community Secondary School (JCoSS) in London, England. Their tape-based backup system was becoming increasingly time-consuming to manage—and frustratingly prone to problems. As the school’s Network Manager put it:

“We always found every couple of weeks areas that we needed to address, like files that couldn’t be backed up. I had to be constantly on top of it or it would fall apart.”

On top of that, the school’s increasing use of Microsoft 365 meant that they needed a solution that could back up and restore the data they had stored in SharePoint and OneDrive. 

Finally, the UK was suffering an extraordinary wave of ransomware attacks targeting schools, creating a sense of urgency around the need for a strong, reliable backup solution that would be securely isolated from any attempts at encryption by ransomware.

Choosing Barracuda

After thorough evaluation, JCoSS chose a Barracuda Backup on-premises appliance with cloud replication for their on-site data backup, and Barracuda Cloud-to-Cloud Backup to protect data stored in Microsoft 365. 

The Network Manager for JCoSS cites simplicity as one of the key factors in the choice:

“Barracuda Backup is so simple, I didn’t have any training on it but didn’t need any. Everything you need is right there. …  Barracuda Cloud-to-Cloud Backup is even simpler. Both systems do exactly what we need them to do.”

And he especially appreciates how much time he and his team are saving with Barracuda Backup and Cloud-to-Cloud Backup compared to their previous backup system:

“I might have to spend 15 minutes maximum per month in Barracuda, which is nothing. Whereas before, I’d spend a couple of hours once every fortnight.”

Get the whole story

To learn more about JCoSS’ journey to advanced, easy-to-use data protection—and true peace of mind in the face of ransomware threats—get the full case study.