FAAC embraces Veeam SaaS technologies to protect its critical systems

Founded in Italy and with manufacturing and distribution operations all over the world, FAAC Technologies is one of the global leaders in automated entry solutions. The company serves residential, commercial and industrial clients through 53 companies on five continents, and employs more than 3,600 people.

A pioneer in the security space, FAAC Technologies is committed to maintaining an IT infrastructure that is just as robust and resilient as its own products. The company operates a large number of virtual and physical machines across its business, requiring the protection of significant amounts of data.

Pierpaolo Antonucci, Worldwide Infrastructure Manager at FAAC Technologies, said, “Data is a key enabler of our business processes. Around the globe, our teams use on-premises applications and cloud solutions such as Microsoft 365 to support their day-to-day activities. It’s crucial for us to ensure that their data is always available.”

For many years, FAAC Technologies has relied on Veeam to help it protect mission-critical data and enable rapid recovery, using Veeam Data Platform for its on-premises systems and Veeam Backup for Microsoft 365 for its cloud data. As FAAC Technologies grew organically and through acquisition, the organization’s IT team faced the challenge of protecting a rising number of systems.

Adriano Allegretti, In-house Backup Management Consultant at FAAC Technologies, said: “Many of our acquired businesses were using their own individual data protection tools, which made it difficult to deliver a consistent level of data protection across the organization. We saw this as a significant risk, as threats like ransomware have never been more prevalent. At the same time, our data volumes were increasing steadily each year — increasing the cost of managing and scaling out our on-premises storage environments.”

To mitigate business risk, FAAC Technologies planned to enhance its approach to data protection by replacing multiple on-premises backup tools in use across its acquired businesses with Veeam. In parallel, the company aimed to reduce its storage expenditure by moving to Veeam Data Cloud for Microsoft 365.

“When we started exploring Veeam Data Cloud for Microsoft 365, the benefits of cloud-based data protection became obvious very quickly,” said Antonucci. “With Veeam taking care of our Microsoft 365 environment, we don’t have to worry about growing data volumes or storage capacity planning — all of those core functionalities are taken care of.”

To extend the benefits of data protection in the cloud, FAAC Technologies decided to go a step further. The company chose Veeam Data Cloud Vault: a fully managed cloud storage resource on Azure that’s always immutable, encrypted, and logically air-gapped from production.

Antonucci said: “To mitigate the risks of ransomware, it’s crucial to make immutable backups: copies of data that cannot be changed after they are written. Veeam Data Cloud Vault offered us a simple solution for immutable, long-term data retention at a price point that no other cloud vendor we considered could match.”

Working with Veeam, FAAC Technologies deployed Veeam Data Cloud for Microsoft 365 and Veeam Data Cloud Vault — enhancing the company’s ability to protect its cloud and on-premises platforms.

“Veeam helped us complete the implementation process on time and within budget, and we were very happy with how smoothly the work went,” said Antonucci. “Experts from Veeam were always on hand to help us when we needed, including migrating our on-premises data to the new cloud repositories.”

Today, FAAC Technologies uses Veeam Data Platform to store short-term copies of its production data on-premises and Veeam Data Cloud Vault to retain long-term copies on Azure. The company backs up all its Microsoft 365 accounts with Veeam Data Cloud for Microsoft 365, substantially reducing its on-premises storage requirements.

“By moving to Veeam Data Cloud for Microsoft 365 and Veeam Data Cloud Vault, we estimate that we’ve reduced our storage and maintenance costs by up to 40%,” said Allegretti. “In the future, we will bring all our acquired businesses into the Veeam ecosystem. The end goal is that all our global business units will use the same Veeam solutions and backup policies to protect their mission-critical data.”

In the present, partnering with Veeam enables FAAC Technologies to mitigate the risk of ransomware attacks impacting its production operations.

“There’s no question that immutable backups from Veeam are strengthening our protection against cyberattacks,” said Antonucci. “Veeam gives us the peace of mind that our global business can run 24/7.”

• Enables immutable, encrypted, and logically air-gapped data protection in the cloud
  By protecting, securing and managing critical data with Veeam Data Cloud, FAAC Technologies creates an additional layer of defense against ransomware.
• 40% reduction in on-premises storage and maintenance costs
  “With Veeam, we’ve eliminated the need for a large on-premises storage infrastructure — significantly reducing our operational spend,” said Antonucci.
• Helps ensure rapid recovery, minimizing the risk of cyberthreats
  FAAC Technologies can use immutable backups in Veeam Data Cloud to restore everything from individual mailboxes to entire systems at the touch of a button, strengthening its business resilience.