Mizuno turns to Veeam for Data-Availability

The Business Challenge

Formed in Osaka, Japan, Mizuno has been manufacturing innovative sportswear globally since 1906 and to this day continues to apply its ‘unashamedly technical’ approach to advancing sporting goods.

Mizuno Corporation constantly pushes forward, striving for perfection — just like the athletes who use Mizuno products.

Athletes choose Mizuno for enduring quality. The company manufactures and distributes a wide range of sporting equipment, apparel and footwear. Nearly 5,300 employees in dozens of offices across the globe work hard to make sure hundreds of thousands of items are available to millions of athletes and customers worldwide.

The sporting-goods industry is a moneymaking behemoth. According to Statista, the industry is expected to grow from €141 billion in 2017 to €187 billion in 2024.

To compete in a landscape dominated by Nike and Adidas, Mizuno must maintain an extremely flexible and nimble supply chain. That meant upgrading the enterprise resource planning (ERP) suite in EMEA.

“Before we could even consider an upgrade, we needed to be absolutely confident the new ERP system would be available all the time”. said Ian Hewitt, EMEA IT Manager for Mizuno Corporation. “We needed an availability solution, but not just an ordinary availability solution. We needed a data-availability solution”.

Data-availability is the new norm for today’s enterprise. It means the enterprise is always on. Critical systems are always available. Business continuity is certain.

“If our ERP suite is unavailable, we can’t take and fulfill orders”. Hewitt said. “If we can’t take and fulfill orders, revenue will take a direct hit”.

Mizuno products are available in thousands of retail outlets and websites globally and are used by millions of people to help them better play their chosen sports. From Sunday morning joggers right up to Olympic & World champions, Mizuno is a brand trusted for its quality and performance.

The Veeam Solution

Mizuno deployed Veeam® Backup & Replication™ to recover critical business systems quickly and effectively in the event of any unplanned incident.

“Data-availability means our users have access to their applications when required, meaning we can continue to conduct business around the clock,” Hewitt said. “Veeam helps us protect our revenue and our reputation”.

The mastermind behind the deployment was Veeam Gold Partner and VCSP Covenco Recovery Services. Covenco provides reliable and dependable backup and disaster recovery (DR) solutions to organisations in the most demanding industries.

“Mizuno is a key player in an exceptionally competitive industry”, said Gurdip Sohal, Sales Director at Covenco. “Our job was to equip them for survival should the worst happen and Veeam was the best technology solution providing the ability to reduce the recovery time and point objectives (RTPO) to better meet the Mizuno business expectation”.

Veeam backs up Mizuno’s virtual environment on site for high-speed recovery and replicates it to Covenco’s data centres for DR. Hewitt said Mizuno’s previous availability solution couldn’t meet recovery objectives required by the business, but the combination of Veeam & Covenco solved that problem.

“Our recovery objectives improved by 84 percent, allowing us to deliver a far better response time to the business. Now we can recover critical systems in minutes rather than hours. That’s the key to business continuity”.

Hewitt said Veeam saves time during DR testing too.

“We test our DR strategy on an annual basis”, he explained. “Before we deployed Veeam, testing took nearly a week, but now it takes half a day, saving us an entire month over the course of a year. We’re a team of six people, so saving that much time is hugely beneficial. It allows us to focus on additional ways IT can accelerate innovation and move the business forward”.

The Results

• Ensures data-availability of the ERP system to power the business nonstop
  Mizuno has peace of mind that its supply chain is processing orders constantly to meet the demands of athletes, teams and consumers around the world.
• Protects Mizuno’s revenue and brand reputation in a highly competitive industry
  “A nimble and flexible supply chain sustains ongoing business growth”, Hewitt said. “We’re doing our part in IT to protect Mizuno’s revenue and reputation”.
• Improves the business continuity strategy, saving one month in DR testing
  “Thanks to Veeam and Covenco, we can recover critical systems in minutes rather than hours”, Hewitt said. “In a disaster situation, we can restore the business quickly”.