Like the dr. Schumacher Group protects itself against failures and data manipulation
2020 is the year of the pandemic: the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus has arrived in Europe. In Germany, the manufacturers of disinfectants have been classified as systemically important.One of these manufacturers is Dr. Schumacher GmbH – a German family business specializing in the development and production of disinfectants, hygiene and cleaning agents. The company currently employs more than 1,850 people at nine locations worldwide and sells its products in over 70 countries.
Location of Dr. Schumacher GmbH
The availability of its data and services around the clock and around the globe is business-critical for the global company. The decision to outsource certain services to the cloud was therefore an obvious one. The migration itself was relatively easy. Software manufacturers today offer many options to support the path to the cloud. However, there were also unexpected challenges. Klaus-Jürgen Beckmann, CIO of Dr. Schumacher Group was surprised “that the well-known manufacturers of backup solutions could not back up all objects from the various clouds. It is very important that, e.g. with MS teams, not only the data but also the structures (e.g. the teams) are backed up. With regard to the individual clouds from different manufacturers, the realization was that not all the usual cloud providers – e.g. SAP, Salesforce, Microsoft – are served by all backup providers in the same way.”
The availability of its data and services around the clock and around the globe is business-critical for the global company. The decision to outsource certain services to the cloud was therefore an obvious one. The migration itself was relatively easy. Software manufacturers today offer many options to support the path to the cloud. However, there were also unexpected challenges. Klaus-Jürgen Beckmann, CIO of Dr. Schumacher Group was surprised “that the well-known manufacturers of backup solutions could not back up all objects from the various clouds. It is very important that, e.g. with MS teams, not only the data but also the structures (e.g. the teams) are backed up. With regard to the individual clouds from different manufacturers, the realization was that not all the usual cloud providers – e.g. SAP, Salesforce, Microsoft – are served by all backup providers in the same way.”
Cloud and then?
The security and availability requirement for the newly created hybrid on-premises multi-cloud environment was simply to restore the state the company was used to from its on-premises systems. With the various clouds, all objects from the on-premise systems as well as from the clouds should be backed up in such a way that the in-house 24/7 operation can be restored at short notice if necessary. As a realist, Klaus-Jürgen Beckmann knows: “With the cloud services, hardware defects are no longer an issue, but statistically the probability that an attack, e.g. with an encryption Trojan, will be successful, doubles with every user in the cloud. Therefore, the system should also be immune to such attacks.
The probability that someone in self-service will accidentally break something that we didn’t take into account beforehand also increases significantly. So the bottom line is that we’re concerned that we’ll still need our backup occasionally in the future.”
The specialist in hygiene and care faced a major challenge. Technically, the backup of clouds is only possible via a backup in the cloud. However, the overall solution also had to cover all on-premise issues (SAP, DMS, other subsystems). Even without extensive specialist knowledge or the support of a service provider, restores should be possible quickly and easily. “Of course, the core issue of our IT is not to be a backup service provider. We are the business partner of the departments that digitally supports the core business of the company in terms of value creation,” affirms the CIO.
A hybrid on-premises multi-cloud environment requires an overall backup solution that backs up all objects in sufficient depth. Equally important is a high-performance and simple recovery of data and systems in the event of a disaster. For a 24/7 manufacturing company, every minute of downtime means major financial losses.
A hybrid on-premises multi-cloud environment requires an overall backup solution that backs up all objects in sufficient depth. Equally important is a high-performance and simple recovery of data and systems in the event of a disaster. For a 24/7 manufacturing company, every minute of downtime means major financial losses.
For the IT managers at Dr. In addition to being able to quickly restore data, protection against attacks was also important to the Schumacher Group. A modern and, above all, easy-to-use solution was a matter of course. Once again, those responsible were amazed at “how few established solutions can do all of this at the same time.”
Klaus-Jürgen Beckmann, CIO of Dr. Schumacher group
Modern structures require modern solutions
Cristie Data worked out an overall solution together with the experts from Dr. Schumacher IT. Two backup products and a storage solution form a holistic concept that fully meets the requirements. The Rubrik/AvePoint duo made an important contribution to the implementation. Even demanding SLAs with aggressive recovery point and time targets in hybrid on-premises and multi-cloud environments are no problem for the software manufacturers.
Klaus-Jürgen Beckmann is enthusiastic: “Plug it in and you’re done! Backup can be that easy.”
The initial uncertainty of those responsible for IT at Dr. Schumacher Group, the Cristie Data specialists were able to quickly clarify whether the overall solution made up of different products would work as an orchestra. In a proof of concept (PoC), the overall solution developed was put through its paces on site for a few weeks. At the end of the test phase, the system was already set up so well that the test position could be transferred to a new appliance with very little service effort.
Volker Wester, Managing Director of Cristie Data GmbH
Volker Wester, Managing Director of Cristie Data GmbH, welcomes the careful approach of Dr. Schumacher group. But he also knows that “unfortunately, very few companies still understand the importance of a comprehensive backup and disaster recovery strategy. Many IT managers are surprised when they learn that cloud and services such as B. Office 365 does not automatically mean high availability or invulnerability. Of course, the data in SharePoint, Exchange and OneDrive must also be backed up and protected against manipulation and ransomware attacks.” He is all the more pleased that “Dr. Schumacher Group understood that. It is not for nothing that it is one of the market leaders in its sector.”
You can find the complete message with all pictures in our Pressebox
