Respond! Housing Association Chooses Irish Datapac

Datapac Ltd, an Irish ICT solutions provider, has implemented a backup and BC solution for Respond! Housing Association.

The system provides Respond! with increased backup capacity, and BC in face of any potential downtime.

Founded in 1982, Respond! Housing Association designs and builds houses for people who otherwise might not be in a position to provide safe, secure, long-term housing for themselves. Having built over 5,500 homes in Ireland, the association’s 250–staff is responsible for the ongoing management of 4,100 properties around the country.

Respond!’s continued expansion meant that it needed an even more powerful backup and BC solution to manage the burgeoning levels of sensitive tenant data that it was tasked with storing.

Having looked at a number of solutions and providers, Respond! opted for a Datto, Inc.‘s backup and BC platform, and chose Datapac, the only Datto Elite Partner in Ireland, to design, implement and support the solution. The provider conducted an audit of Respond!’s requirements and installed a Datto Siris SE10000 backup, all while minimising disruption to the association’s ongoing work.

Respond! has experienced a range of benefits from the Datto solution. First of all, the system has eased any concerns regarding available backup space. The new 10TB Datto appliance doubled Respond!’s backup capacity, giving them room for future expansion, as well as confidence in face of potential downtime.

What’s more, the solution backups all of Respond!’s critical servers offsite, giving the association BC. In case of a hardware failure, malware, or a natural disaster Datto permits Respond! to restore accounts and operate as usual, while providing the IT team with the time to fix any issues without compromising any data, or incurring downtime. In a recent BC exercise, the association was able to restore its critical systems, including its housing system, file servers, and financial systems in a number of hours. This functionality means that even in the event of an outage Respond! can continue to serve all of their tenants, and pay particular time and personal attention to those who need them most.

“Our old backup solution was close to capacity since it had been running for a number of years. We needed an even more powerful and scalable alternative which offered increased capacity and the ability to easily restore backups,” said Greg Poland, IT manager, Respond! “We were looking for a solution which would backup our entire virtual server infrastructure both locally and off site, offering us true protection from downtime, even if our physical hardware has been destroyed. Datapac understood this, and took the time to research exactly which technology would be the right fit for us. They have provided us with a fantastic solution for our evolving needs, as well as world-class levels of service and support.“

Lorraine Coleman, account manager, Datapac, said: “By increasing the amount of backup space this new solution provides Respond! with increased peace of mind. Their team can be satisfied that the data is safely backed up at any given time, both on premise and into the cloud. We are delighted to have been able to help Respond! to find the right solution for their business needs. We will continue to offer them service and support so that they can focus on the great work they are doing around Ireland.“