City of Vincent in Australia Chooses Veeam and Focus Network

Veeam Software, Inc. announced that the City of Vincent, a vibrant and diverse community of nearly 40,000 residents in Perth, Australia, has entrusted its Backup & Replication and Focus Network, a Media Corp Group Pty Ltd company and a Perth-based IT service provider and Silver Veeam Cloud & Service Provider (VCSP) partner, with protecting and safeguarding government data.

At the heart of every local government is an IT infrastructure comprised of systems that deliver critical services to residents including record keeping, financial management and online bill payment. Many of these IT infrastructures are under attack as local governments are besieged by a barrage of cybercrimes that put their data at risk. If ransomware is involved, their financial solvency is at risk too.

The City of Vincent is aware of these risks, so when a state government audit identified limitations that could potentially compromise the confidentiality, integrity and availability of their data, the City acted fast.

“Resolving those limitations became a top priority,” said Peter Ferguson, executive manager, ICT for the City of Vincent. “The limitations were directly related to off-premises backup and DR, so our compliance with the State Records Act was at risk too.“

Veeam and Focus Networks helped the city resolve each limitation cited in the state government audit report by delivering data protection and SLAs for backup, recovery and retention. They also facilitate compliance with the State Records Act and the 3-2-1-1-0 Rule (3 different copies of data on 2 different media with 1 copy offsite and 1 copy that is air-gapped, immutable or offline and 0 backup recovery errors).

“By shifting the risk and responsibility of data security to Veeam and Focus Networks, we gain an extraordinary level of confidence knowing our IT infrastructure is protected and resilient, and we have more time to focus on providing residents with additional digital services that optimize City services,” Ferguson said.

Veeam backups and replicates nearly 15TB across 37 VMs on-premises and off-premises. Veeam Cloud Connect, which links the city to Focus Networks’ secure, private cloud in a tier-3 government-approved data center located 10km away, delivers encrypted backup copies that can be restored quickly if there’s a disaster or a cyberattack.

Ferguson said Backup for Microsoft Office 365 will be deployed next – before the city transitions to the cloud. Why? It eliminates the risk of losing access and control of historical data and protects Office 365 data from accidental deletion, security threats and retention-policy gaps.

“Most local governments use Office 365, which increases their security risk,” Ferguson said. “Why not ensure Office 365 data is always protected and accessible? It’s an easy fix with Veeam and Focus Networks.”

He said Veeam and Focus Networks work in combination and provide data protection and security: “We have peace of mind knowing our IT environment is strong and healthy. Veeam’s roadmap for the future fuels this confidence. We appreciate their approach to continuous enhancements.“

Case study: City of Vincent complies with Western Australia’s State Records Act and protects against ransomware with Veeam