Revolutionizing Backup Strategies: ATI's Successful Transition from Backupify and Avamar to Druva

Founded in 1989, ATI Restoration (ATI) is one of the largest restoration companies in the U.S. The company serves both residential and commercial customers, primarily in the wake of water, fire, or other environmental damage. With 70+ locations from coast to coast, its restoration offering spans everything from initial disaster mitigation to final reconstruction.

ATI is a dynamic restoration, environmental remediation and reconstruction company experiencing rapid growth through mergers and acquisitions. Anthony Pisciotto, IT Manager, manages daily tasks while overseeing the department's strategic direction. Pisciotto has been with ATI for a decade, rising from help desk to IT Manager. His experience has given him insights into the complexities of effectively scaling IT infrastructure.

The rapid expansion of ATI has led to a complicated IT environment. Pisciotto notes, "We didn't want an on-prem system and were sort of stuck. We could only really back up the workloads that we had in our HQ." 

The company previously relied on Backupify for Google Workspace backups but found it too costly for its limited functionality. Additionally, the on-prem Avamar system failed to provide the flexibility and scalability necessary for their growing needs. It significantly restricted their ability to back up servers outside the headquarters due to slow internet transfer speeds. As Pisciotto pointed out, "If we had a server that's four terabytes, it would take me weeks to back it up to HQ." The limitations of these backup solutions became increasingly apparent, prompting ATI to seek more effective alternatives.

Druva was selected to replace both Backupify and the Avamar system for several compelling reasons. Pisciotto spearheaded the transition, drawn to Druva's comprehensive cloud-based approach.

While the ATI team also evaluated Veeam, they ultimately chose Druva. Pisciotto mentioned, "Veeam was another top contender for us, but there was a particular use case where they weren’t the best fit. Druva was able to check all of the boxes."

One of the primary reasons Pisciotto advocated for Druva was its expansive suite of tools. He stated, "With Druva, I can get everything under one roof, one pane of glass, where I don't have to go to multiple systems, making my days easier.” This unified interface allows for managing backups for both on-premise and cloud environments, such as Azure, from a single platform, which was a game-changer for their operations.

Additionally, Druva's cost-effectiveness compared to other solutions, particularly VMware, significantly influenced the decision-making process. The ability to streamline backup management across on-prem and cloud platforms enhances efficiency and simplifies operations.

ATI has been using Druva for four years and is even looking at adding on new capabilities, recently adopting the Accelerated Ransomware Recovery feature. The feature further enhances ATI’s security strategy and allows for easier access to their data, should they have a cyber security incident.

The implementation of Druva has had a largely positive impact on Pisciotto's day-to-day operations. He recalls the previous experience with Avamar as requiring a lot of babysitting. Now, with Druva, he can easily deploy agents and manage backups efficiently. "It makes my life easier... I can quickly throw an agent on it and have a backup complete.”

File restores are described as super easy, and the flexibility to restore to different locations or download directly has streamlined workflows. He noted the ease of restoring specific file versions, which is beneficial for legal holds. With the previous systems, a full VM restore could take up to three days. With Druva, it’s taking a few hours, if that.

The ATI Team has been very satisfied with their partnership with Druva.  The consolidation of backup systems has simplified budgeting and management discussions. Additionally, Druva's Accelerated Ransomware Recovery feature provides valuable peace of mind, even though it has not yet been needed. Pisciotto added, "It's a small added cost for a lot of peace of mind with the Accelerated Ransomware Recovery feature from Druva.