The Dutch Ichtus College implemented backup for Microsoft 365 and chose an on-premises solution with Active Backup from Synology.

This post was submitted by Synology, an ITdaily partner. For the sake of relevant perspective, the editorial team publishes it in full on ITdaily.

Ichthus College was facing a critical situation with its existing equipment as these devices were nearing the end of their warranty and becoming obsolete. Therefore, the risk of hardware failure became more worrying and the need for storage and backup increased.

The college, based in Veenendaal, is a leading educational institution in the Netherlands that emphasizes Christian values ​​and principles as part of its educational philosophy. The school has 2,100 students and 230 staff for whom data security is critical.

“We face potential challenges in obtaining replacement hardware or technical support in the event of failures. This could result in extended downtime and impact access to important data and services for students, faculty and staff,” said Milovan Milic, IT director at Ichthus College.

Risk of interruptions

Such disruptions could jeopardize access to critical data and services for its 2,100 students, 230 employees and the entire educational community. Critical academic and administrative processes could be seriously disrupted, undermining their ability to provide a stable and reliable educational environment.

Additionally, the legacy backup infrastructure was not robust enough to adequately mitigate these risks. Inadequate backups increase the risk of irreversible data loss, which can have catastrophic consequences for the school. This vulnerability highlights the need to improve your backup strategies so that data can be quickly restored in the event of a hardware failure or other unforeseen incident.

To address these urgent risks, it was essential for Ichthus College to purchase additional equipment with a comprehensive support plan. Improving backup infrastructure further protects data, ensures rapid recovery efforts, and minimizes business interruptions.

These proactive measures will enable Ichthus College to protect its valuable data, strengthen the resilience and efficiency of its IT infrastructure, and continue to provide uninterrupted services and support to its educational community. Ensuring the continuity and reliability of data systems is not just a technical necessity; This is a critical step in maintaining the confidence of students, teachers and staff in the robustness of the educational environment.

The solution: the Synology SA3400D

To address these pressing risks, Ichthus College decided to invest in modern NAS storage devices that come with comprehensive support plans. This proactive approach would help the university reduce the risks associated with hardware aging and ensure timely assistance in emergencies. Improving your backup infrastructure would further protect your data, ensure rapid recovery efforts and minimize business interruptions.

The first step in finding a solution was a thorough assessment of the existing infrastructure. The IT team, led by Milovan Milic, identified specific bottlenecks and vulnerabilities in its current setup. This included assessing the performance and capacity of the existing NAS units, the reliability of the backup system, and general support and maintenance requirements. Based on this assessment, Ichthus College’s main requirement in the search was that the new infrastructure must be a Synology solution.

“Based on our familiarity with Synology systems, the new storage solution will be based on Synology NAS units. This ensures seamless integration into our current environment and minimizes the learning curve for IT staff,” added Milovan Milic.

Once the operating system was determined, the search was based on the technical requirements that the new infrastructure had to meet. The Synology SA3400D was the best choice for Ichthus to upgrade its infrastructure. This decision was based on several important factors:

• Robust and scalable infrastructure: The SA3400D provided the robust and scalable storage solution that Ichthus College needed. “We needed something that could grow with us, and the SA3400D was a perfect fit,” noted Milic.
• Redundant hardware for continuous operation: With dual controllers and RAID configurations, the SA3400D ensured continuous operation even in the event of hardware failures. This was critical to maintaining uninterrupted access to the data.
• High-speed network connectivity: The new system’s high-speed connectivity enabled efficient processing of the large amounts of data generated daily. It also supports fast data recovery, which is essential for real-time applications.
• Native backup solution for Office 365: As the university increasingly relied on cloud-based platforms such as Office 365, integrating a native backup solution was essential. This secured emails, documents and other important data stored in the cloud.
• Comprehensive support plan: The solution included a five-year support plan that ensures timely support and firmware updates. “Knowing we have support for the next five years gives us peace of mind,” Milic said.

After deploying the SA3400, Ichthus College implemented several solutions to maximize the performance of its new infrastructure:

• To back up all Microsoft 365 data, including emails, documents and other important information, the school uses Synology’s license-free and centralized solution, Active Backup for Microsoft 365: “With Active Backup for Microsoft 365 we can ensure that “Our cloud data is backed up securely and can be quickly restored if necessary,” explained Milic.
• To ensure comprehensive backup of the university’s entire IT environment, including physical servers, virtual machines and personal computers, it uses the license-free Active Backup for Business: “Active Backup for Business ensures that all of our critical systems are protected and fast “can be restored in the event of a failure.”

Additionally, the SA3400D itself acted as a repository for Veeam Backup, providing a reliable storage solution for the college’s Veeam backup files. This integration ensured that all Veeam backups were stored securely and were easily accessible for restore.

Finally, the SA3400D also acted as an SMB share, enabling seamless backups for various other systems and applications within the university. This feature makes backup data easier to access and manage and streamlines the backup process.

The Benefits: Improvements for school activities and expanded storage

By implementing this infrastructure upgrade, the school can not only address the immediate challenges presented by aging hardware, but also future-proof the storage infrastructure to meet changing needs and technological advances.

“This strategic investment will improve data reliability, increase operational efficiency and enable our education community to thrive in a digitalized environment. We now have a cost-effective enterprise solution with a dual controller configuration, giving us peace of mind during the school holidays that our data is secure with a fully redundant system. This includes not only a RAID solution, but also a dual controller solution,” says Milovan Milic.

This upgrade brought numerous benefits and combined the strengths of the device and the supported solutions.

• Improved data security and reliability. The SA3400D’s robust RAID configurations and dual controllers ensure continuous operation even in the event of hardware failure. This redundancy is critical to maintaining uninterrupted access to critical data.
• Comprehensive data backup and recovery. With Active Backup for Microsoft 365, the school ensures that all of its Office 365 data, including emails and documents, is securely backed up. Active Backup for Business extends this protection to the entire IT environment, including physical servers, virtual machines and personal computers. “Our backup process is now seamless and reliable, protecting us from data loss,” explains Milic.
• Improved performance and scalability.Fast network connectivity and the ability to integrate NVMe SSDs in the future can significantly improve school system performance and enable rapid data recovery and efficient processing of large amounts of data.
• Seamless integration. Leveraging their existing knowledge of Synology systems, the new infrastructure was smoothly integrated into the current environment, minimizing the learning curve for IT staff. This ensured that applications and services that relied on the storage infrastructure continued to function optimally. “It was like filling in a missing puzzle piece,” Milic says.
• Improved SaaS data protection. Given the reliance on SaaS services like Office 365, integrating a native backup solution like Active Backup for Office 365 ensures comprehensive data protection. This protects emails, documents and other critical data stored in the cloud and reduces the risk of data loss or damage.
• Extensive support and maintenance. The five-year support plan included with Synology’s solution ensures timely support and firmware updates, ensuring the longevity and reliability of your storage infrastructure. “Access to professional help and updates for the next five years gives us confidence in the sustainability of our system,” confirms Milic.

“By adopting this comprehensive solution, our school can not only address the immediate challenges presented by aging hardware, but also future-proof our storage infrastructure to meet changing needs and technology developments.”

This is a commercial submission from Synology.