McGrath Estate Agents sustain massive growth with secure, scalable data protection from Veeam and CT4

Real estate isn’t an industry known for early IT adoption. However, McGrath Estate Agents bucked that trend in the 1990s when they acquired innovative tools to support agents and boost productivity. McGrath was spot on about IT; productivity multiplied, sales soared and McGrath became a leading residential real estate group.

Still a powerhouse today, McGrath is experiencing another business growth challenge. New agents are joining in droves and competing real estate groups are queueing to join the McGrath brand. With each new entity comes an immense amount of data.

“We often don’t know how much data they’re bringing until they’re officially onboard, so our challenge was finding automated, scalable backup,” said Darren Warner, Head of Technology at McGrath Estate Agents. “We also wanted a solution that would grow with us, since we’re on a roadmap to double our office footprint in the next few years.”

McGrath had been using Commvault to protect their on-premises data, but the IT team was unsure of Commvault’s ability to protect their data in the cloud. The goal was to migrate 99% of on-premises data to cloud-based Microsoft 365 and Azure.

“We discovered that protecting data in the cloud was complex with Commvault, so we looked for a simple solution that would support our rapid business growth,” Warner said. “We partnered with CT4, a global technology services provider that uses Veeam to power its data protection offering, Cirrus. I’m familiar with the simplicity of Veeam because I’ve used it successfully in other jobs. Cirrus is simple to use too.”

"Protecting our fast-growing data is so easy and straightforward with Veeam and CT4,” Warner said. “It’s also affordable and predictable, enabling us to forecast IT costs as McGrath grows,” Warner said. “Our data protection expenses also decreased by 50%, saving $100,000 in backup and storage costs annually.”

A home is so much more than four walls and a roof. It’s where people make memories, raise a family and entertain friends. No one knows this better than McGrath Estate Agents — it’s the reason they provide clients with an unparalleled real estate experience. To ensure this superior experience, Veeam and CT4 must provide unparalleled data protection.

“Veeam and CT4 are a great fit for us because they deliver fully automated, secure, scalable and cost-effective backup and recovery that support and sustain our business growth,” Warner said. “They also provide immutability to protect us from ransomware attacks and data loss. One of our competitors didn’t pay ransom following an attack, so 125 gigabytes of finance and HR data went out the door and onto the dark web. They were in a world of pain — they struggled to operate and pay employees.”

Cirrus by CT4, powered by Veeam, ensures data can be restored whenever and wherever. For McGrath, this might include another Azure region, AWS or on-premises locations. In addition, Veeam and CT4 support legal and regulatory compliance so McGrath isn’t at risk of violating data protection and retention regulations. Violations lead to fines, and in even worse, realtors could lose their licenses and go to jail.

Cirrus by CT4, powered by Veeam, also encrypts the rapidly growing data behind McGrath’s 2,500 Microsoft 365 users and fast-growing property management and research data in Azure. This includes Microsoft Exchange emails among agents, buyers and sellers, property documents in SharePoint and financial information in OneDrive for Business.

Another important part of McGrath is research. The McGrath Report is unlike any other report in the real estate market. Based on years of research, The McGrath Report delves deeply into market performance and trends so clients can make informed decisions as they buy, sell or lease a home. For instance, the 2022 report explored why the real estate market in Australia performed so strongly, even in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting challenging economy. Based on McGrath’s research, the report offered insightful predictions to support their clients.

“We truly care about our clients — they’re the reason we become experts in our field and compile these reports,” Warner said. “Most estate agents tell you what has happened, but our estate agents tell you what’s going to happen as well. Research data is sacred at McGrath, so we’re grateful Cirrus by CT4, powered by Veeam is protecting it.”

• Supports legal compliance and saves $100,000 in data protection costs annually. 
  Data protection costs don’t have to increase as data increases,” Warner said. “Veeam is storage-neutral, which means we can choose storage based on our particular business needs. CT4 offers unlimited storage, so our costs decreased by half, saving $100,000 annually in backup and storage.”
• Offers immutability to protect data in any disaster scenario, including ransomware. 
  For us, secure data protection means immutability,” Warner said. “We’re prepared for any situation because backups are encrypted, secured and easily recoverable.”
•  Sustains continuing business growth with secure, scalable backup and recovery. 
  We never worry about provisioning backup and storage because it’s automated,” Warner said. “We never worry about recovery either because Veeam provides secure, granular role-based access and control. We restore data at least once a week, and with Veeam’s flexible restore capabilities, this couldn’t be easier. We have complete confidence we can restore exactly what we need exactly where it needs to be.”