San Diego Country Estates Saves 97% of Time Through Transformation With Druva

San Diego Country Estates, commonly referred to as The Estates, is a master-planned community with a wide-variety of amenities to promote family and fun including semi-private facilities for golf, pickleball, equestrian, hiking and lodging within the unincorporated community of Ramona, California. The Estates is a census-designated place in North County, a region of San Diego County.

Kelly Rickard, IT Director at San Diego Country Estates, oversees the design, implementation, and maintenance of IT infrastructure, including hardware, software, and networks. She faced significant IT challenges and data security issues. Employees initially used AOL for business email and lacked backups. The organization relied on outdated tape backups, which were unreliable due to infrequent changes and outdated software. "The software was out of date. It would error and not complete the backups," she explained.

Various solutions were attempted to remedy these issues, including Carbonite, a Cox solution partnered with Carbonite, and MozyPro for desktops. However, these solutions lacked consistency, requiring Rickard to manually check each computer for updates and backup status. A process she estimated took 30 hours per month. "Nothing was consistent," she stated.

Data loss was a concern due to employees' accidental file deletions. "Some of my staff weren’t very tech-savvy and often made mistakes, like accidentally dragging and dropping items or unintentionally moving things off the screen," she explained. This lack of centralized control made it difficult to track and recover data. The absence of robust data security measures significantly impacted efficiency and opened the team to risks. With weak security measures and concerns about ransomware, Rickard lacked confidence in the organization's ability to recover data. The absence of a solid security posture was a significant concern.

Rickard discovered Druva through colleagues at a conference who recommended the solution. After researching, her organization adopted Druva in September 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, when remote work was on the rise. 

The entire setup process, including onboarding, took only two and a half days. Druva reduced backup management time from 30 hours per month to just 10 minutes per week. "I used to spend two days a week, 16 hours, touching computers and visiting sites to ensure things were working," she noted, contrasting this with her streamlined current workflow.

Druva provided a centralized portal for managing backups across all devices. "I can log into one portal, see what version everybody's running, push out updates, initiate backups, and restore files," she explained. This streamlined approach eliminated manual checks on individual computers. "If I visit computers, it's because I want to, not because I have to," Rickard added.

Data recovery has never been easier. "I can simply say, ‘Okay, you lost it on this date? No problem, I’ll restore it from that date.’ It’s quick and effortless," she explained. The solution seamlessly supported both endpoints and servers, including two physical machines hosting seven virtual machines.

Thanks to Druva’s intuitive setup process and comprehensive documentation, Rickard was able to independently deploy and manage the solution across all servers, endpoints, and instances. "The support from Druva, along with the resources available on their website and knowledge base, is incredibly clear and helpful," she noted.

By adopting Druva, the company consolidated multiple vendors previously used for hardware and tapes, streamlining their backup processes. Druva delivered a consistent and reliable backup solution for both servers and desktops, simplifying data security across the board.

"With Druva, I finally have peace of mind knowing our data is safe and secure. The reliable backups and easy recovery process have eliminated the constant worry of data loss. It's more than just a backup solution; it's a security investment."

Before Druva, Rickard needed to manually manage multiple backup solutions and check systems, including visiting individual computers. After switching to Druva, the time spent managing data security dropped 97.78%, from 450 minutes a week to only 10 minutes. The centralized console streamlined updates, backups, and file restoration, drastically reducing administrative work.

Setting up Druva accounts took only 5 minutes, and the on-prem backup setup was completed within 10 minutes. Where previous solutions (Carbonite, Cox, MozyPro) were unreliable and lacked a comprehensive view of backup statuses, Druva resolved issues with a centralized platform that provided clear overviews and easy file recovery. Since adopting Druva, the organization has avoided security incidents, unlike some of Rickard's colleagues who faced ransomware attacks, highlighting Druva's strong data security features.

Rickard called out, “The cost of Druva is absolutely worth every single dollar. I can cite significant time savings and improved security since we became a customer.” She described Druva as reliable, scalable, and secure, and is willing to recommend it to peers at other organizations. She recommends Druva to peers when she joins IT forums. Rickard finally shared, “With Druva’s ease of robust support, and powerful features, it’s transformed our organization's IT processes and data security posture.”