Naxoo protects 10TB of critical data with Veeam

Over the years, Naxoo has built its reputation on reliability and service, cementing its status as one of  the leading telecommunications brands in Geneva. A recent partnership with UPC CableCom has significantly extended Naxoo’s product range, helping it reach more businesses and consumers.

“If we can’t recover data or systems, it’s a critical issue,” said Thibaut Govin, IT Manager, Naxoo. “For example, we have our CRM system and wide range of apps developed in house that are essential — our technicians rely on them to manage client issues. Naturally, backup is of prime importance. We need a tool that we can rely on and that we can restore from very easily.”

Previously, Naxoo ran a mix of VMware and Nutanix solutions. “When we first deployed our Nutanix infrastructure four years ago,” Thibaut said, “our existing backup solution was not compatible. At the time, we switched to Veeam, as it was the only backup solution compatible with both VMware and Nutanix.”

To support its business, Naxoo runs a mix of operating systems, including several generations of Windows and multiple distributions of Linux. As part of infrastructure simplification, the company chose to standardize on Nutanix solutions to manage its datacenter operations. It now uses the Nutanix Acropolis Hypervisor (AHV) to provision Nutanix virtual machines (VMs).

“When we decided to migrate fully to Nutanix AHV, we took the opportunity to re-evaluate our backup processes and solutions,” said Thibaut. 

After standardizing on Nutanix AHV, Naxoo had multiple options for backup and recovery. Based on its experience with the existing environment, Naxoo chose to use Veeam Backup & Replication to protect its core digital systems.

Veeam protects two Nutanix clusters, copying data to a Dell EMC Data Domain storage array and retaining it on premises to comply with Swiss law specifying data location. Overnight incremental backups enable roll-back to the previous night’s data at any time, with a full backup each weekend.

“We like having in-house control, especially for critical, sensitive data,” said Thibaut. “The full backup of approximately 10TB takes three hours, held on two sites about 10 kilometers apart with a dark-fiber connection. We run one Nutanix cluster at each location and the VMs are shared evenly between the sites. If a problem arises with a VM at one site, Nutanix AHV enables automated failover. It is vital that Veeam offers full compatibility with Nutanix AHV, so we can continue without interruption, unnoticed by users and without manual intervention.”

Naxoo runs all its infrastructure on site with an internal IT team responsible for every aspect of operations. To keep administration to a minimum and ensure high reliability, Naxoo always seeks industry-leading solutions.

“Veeam provides great support and regularly proposes new, more effective ways to work,” said Thibaut. “For example, Veeam provided full training so that we could manage integration with Microsoft 365 in the cloud. Tasks such as restoring a user’s mailbox or recovering an accidentally deleted file are easy and take almost no time — which is essential for a company of our size.”

During the re-evaluation of its backup solution, Naxoo reviewed the software licensing model and discovered that Veeam Universal License (VUL) offered the best value for the company’s user numbers and data volumes. VUL is a simple and flexible per-workload license that protects all workloads across on-premises, hybrid and multi-cloud environments.

“Veeam is very simple to operate,” said Thibaut. “There are no hidden complexities involved in the backup or restore processes and it’s fully compatible with our Nutanix AHV and Dell EMC Data Domain. Beyond that, Naxoo’s relationship with Veeam is perfect and we are very happy with our choice.” 

• Enables automated incremental and full backup for 10TB critical data
  Thanks to Veeam, in the case of accidental deletion of data, Naxoo can recover to the previous night’s version, helping to reduce business risk and maintain high levels of customer service.
• Enables backup in three hours to ensure minimal business impact
  With Veeam, the full weekend backup completes rapidly, minimizing downtime for critical systems.
• Integrates with automation services provided by Nutanix AHV
  Enables greater ease of operation for a lean IT team, as Veeam provides simple and streamlined processes for backup and recovery.