YTL PowerSeraya has replaced its time-consuming, tape-based backups with Veeam Availability Suite to protect against a new generation of cyber threats and ransomware attacks.
The Singapore-based utility company and energy producer and its subsidiaries provide a wide range of services to consumers and businesses, including fuel management and storage tank leasing, value-added energy solutions, and energy retail.
To deliver online account management services to energy customers and provide key business systems to the back office, YTL PowerSeraya relies on a hybrid-cloud environment.
With the rise of well-financed and well-equipped cyber attackers targeting critical national infrastructure, the organisation decided to replace time-consuming, tape-based backups with a modern data protection solution.
“Keeping our power-generating assets running smoothly around the clock is our top priority. If our IT systems went offline unexpectedly, we’d feel the impact immediately,” said Fu Xiao Hua, head of technology group at YTL PowerSeraya.
“For example, customers would be unable to manage their accounts online, and employees in key functions such as finance and human capital would be unable to carry out their roles,” she said. “Prolonged downtime could expose the business to significant financial and reputational risks, so we take data protection very seriously.”
To meet its disaster recovery objectives and ensure its IT systems operate and are online around the clock, YTL PowerSeraya selected Veeam Availability Suite.
In collaboration with Veeam and a Veeam technology partner, YTL PowerSeraya designed the architecture for its new data protection solution. The new environment exceeds the 3-2-1-1-0 rule, with three copies of data at the company’s on-premises data centre and one at a secondary site, and additional backups to Microsoft Azure.
YTL PowerSeraya now performs daily incremental backups, which eliminates the risk of backup jobs overrunning into production.
Furthermore, the company has reduced the recovery time objective (RTO) for a typical 300GB tier-1 server from six hours to two hours — a 67% reduction that helps minimise the risk of prolonged downtime for critical internal- and customer-facing systems.
Also, YTL PowerSeraya is now exploring new ways it can use Veeam to enhance its data protection strategy.
For example, the company is considering Veeam Backup for Microsoft Azure to back up virtual machines (VMs) running in the cloud, bringing all of its IT backup jobs into a single environment.
