AGRICA deploys Veeam to ensure data resilience and compliance with EU regulatory requirements

Enabling exceptional member experiences is at the heart of the Groupe AGRICA mission. The organization is always looking for new ways to help members access its services swiftly and easily.

“We’re investing in new self-service options and tweaks to our user interfaces,” said Olivier Auschitzky, Head of System Infrastructure at Groupe AGRICA. “The goal is to help the millions of members we serve be more autonomous and in control of their accounts than ever before.”

In the background, the Groupe AGRICA IT team works tirelessly to ensure that despite the growing demand for its IT systems, the organization delivers services without interruption. In parallel, the team is grappling with the challenge of new regulations. 

“To process member records and respond promptly to requests, we must be able to access data 24/7,” said Auschitzky. “That makes our choice of data protection solution critical to the smooth running of Groupe AGRICA. To us, effective data protection is about more than backing up data — it also means being able to recover it quickly and comprehensively. With regulations such as the Network and Information Security Directive [NIS2] introduced recently, we regularly evaluate our protection measures to make sure we’re prepared for anything.”

Since 2014, Groupe AGRICA has trusted Veeam to protect data across its estate, supporting reliable services for its members. As the organization’s IT environment has evolved, so has its use of Veeam. Over the years, it has seamlessly extended its data protection capabilities to meet new demands.

“We’ve chosen Veeam again and again because of our confidence in the technology,” said Auschitzky. “Veeam regularly releases updates, which we always adopt right away, invariably without a hitch. The ease of administering and using Veeam is second to none. And whenever we’ve made changes to our IT environment — from moving to 100% virtualization to backing up our NAS — Veeam has met those new requirements flawlessly. With Veeam we know we can unchain our data, regardless of where it is, giving us the freedom and flexibility that we can always meet our IT needs in the future.”

Groupe AGRICA now protects 850 virtual servers and 1,500 VDI with Veeam, backing up just under 250 TB of data. 

“The close integration between Veeam and VMware makes setting up backups and recovering data a breeze,” said Auschitzky. “We test our capabilities twice a year from every angle: time, prioritization, quality of response — and we continue to get better with Veeam. As a result, we can deliver high continuity of service to the business.”

Recently, Groupe AGRICA decided to replace its on-premises implementation of Veeam Backup for Microsoft 365 with Veeam Data Cloud for Microsoft 365, a software-as-a-service (SaaS) offering. The move is unlocking greater performance and capacity for this part of the organization’s data protection landscape. 

“Since Veeam Data Cloud is hosted on Microsoft Azure, the backups are going across the high bandwidth Microsoft network,” said Auschitzky. “We have the peace of mind of guaranteed capacity for all our Microsoft 365 data, plus the benefits of predictable pricing. So far, we’ve tested recovery of individual mailboxes and it’s almost instant, which will speed up our response to user requests.”

Veeam is helping Groupe AGRICA cope with a fast-changing regulatory environment. For example, Veeam plays a role in compliance with the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) and will contribute to the organization’s adherence to the NIS2 directive.

“As a financial organization, we’re subject to a wide range of regulations that include DORA and NIS2,” said Auschitzky. “Veeam helps us demonstrate that we have cyber-resilience measures in place and that we can recover data effectively when required, simplifying compliance with these policies. With Veeam, we’re adapting to changing industry conditions to ensure we can always deliver a high level of service to our members.”

• Facilitates outstanding member experiences by enabling high business continuity
  “We have 100% confidence in Veeam, because it has proved itself within Groupe AGRICA again and again,” said Auschitzky. “Veeam never fails to back up our data effectively and, most importantly, to recover it at speed, helping us deliver a high quality of service to members each and every day.”
• Recovers Microsoft 365 mailboxes near-instantly, supporting high employee productivity
  By moving to Veeam Data Cloud for Microsoft 365, Groupe AGRICA improved data protection for this critical part of its IT environment, empowering its users to work to their full potential. 
• Contributes to easier compliance with regulations including NIS2 and DORA
  “As a financial organization, we’re subject to a wide range of regulations that include DORA and NIS2,” said Auschitzky. “Veeam helps us demonstrate that we have cyber-resilience measures in place and that we can recover data effectively when required, simplifying compliance with these policies.”