Cable Bahamas dials up disaster recovery for Bahamians

The business challenges

The Bahamas’ beautiful location also leaves it vulnerable to natural disasters, including tropical storms and hurricanes, which can wreak havoc on companies’ IT and communications infrastructure. Until recently, businesses in the Bahamas had fairly limited options when it came to replicating their data offsite for protection, due in part to the country’s rigorous data sovereignty laws.

“In the past, Bahamian businesses were subject to regulations that said they had to host all data within the Bahamas,” said Craig Pink, Director of Enterprise Solutions at Cable Bahamas. “If a significant event such as a hurricane hit, this was a challenge. Even if a company’s infrastructure remained online, their teams might be affected, putting their ability to provide a consistent service at risk.”

For Cable Bahamas, this challenge represented a business opportunity. By creating a reliable disaster recovery-as-a-service (DRaaS) offering it could capture new market share. The move represented a key stage in the service provider’s strategy to encourage cloud adoption in the Bahamas.

“For years, Cable Bahamas has been driving digital transformation in the Bahamian region,” said Ronald Brooks, Director of Information Technology at Cable Bahamas. “We saw a chance to take our clients on a journey to the cloud, starting with DR.”

Cable Bahamas decided to start by refreshing its own disaster recovery (DR) infrastructure. With data growing rapidly, exacerbated by the number of large video files the company must back up, Cable Bahamas had outgrown its onsite storage.

“It was never smooth sailing with Symantec and NetBackup, our previous backup solutions,” said Pink. “Backup processes were tedious and timeconsuming, and we struggled to access reliable support. Managing retention times using our legacy tools was another challenge — we knew that there must be a better option out there, and we wanted the very best for both us and our clients.

The Veeam solution

Rather than investing in additional technology and skills in-house, Cable Bahamas decided to team up with ThinkOn Inc., a Canadian cloud services provider, to use Veeam Cloud Connect for off-site backup and DRaaS.

“The combination of Cable Bahamas Business Solutions and Veeam technology was highly compelling for us,” said Brooks. “Canadian data laws are closely aligned with those of the Bahamas, so we got permission to store backups in Canada. Veeam Cloud Connect appealed to us because it’s a natural fit for companies using VMware, which represents at least 80 percent of our existing client base.”

Cable Bahamas migrated its DR environment to ThinkOn data centers in Canada and was immediately impressed by the speed of the implementation. The move simplified DR for the company significantly and replaced capital expenses (CAPEX) with operational expenses (OPEX).

“We were up and running with Veeam Cloud Connect and ThinkOn in less than a week,” said Brooks. “If we had procured and set up our own storage, it would have taken around six to eight weeks. Reducing CAPEX in favor of OPEX is a major advantage for us, as well as a key selling point for our clients.”

Today, Cable Bahamas provides DRaaS to companies in the Bahamas as a white-labeled offering supported by ThinkOn Inc. Using an intuitive portal, clients can set up secure off-site data replication via Veeam Cloud Connect with ease. Cable Bahamas is bringing new peace of mind to users, who want reassurance that their data is well-protected.

“Our robust DRaaS offering, based on Veeam and ThinkOn solutions, is a game-changer for Bahamian enterprises,” said Pink. “We’ve gone a step beyond dispersal of data across islands to backing it up to Canada securely, keeping it safe even in the event of a major region-level disaster. In just one year, we’ve succeeded in conceptualizing a new service and bringing it to market with help from ThinkOn and support from Veeam technology.”

The results

• Enables the launch of DR solutions in days not weeks, accelerating timeto- value:
  By opting for a cloud-based service, both Cable Bahamas and its clients can start enjoying the benefits of off-site replication via Veeam Cloud Connect sooner.
• Offers unprecedented data protection for clients, reducing business risk dramatically:
  “With Veeam and ThinkOn, we’ve built a DRaaS offering that enables superb data resilience for Bahamian companies,” said Brooks. “We help companies recover fast from disaster to preserve exceptional service continuity.”
• Helps Cable Bahamas access new market share, expanding its B2B presence:
  The company’s new DRaaS offering is gaining traction in the market, helping it extend its client base and reinforcing its position as a partner for digital transformation.