Vertrax replaces Veeam to achieve ransomware protection for Microsoft 365 and endpoint data

Vertrax is a leading provider of supply chain management solutions for the bulk oil and gas distribution market. With built-in blockchain, Internet of Things (IoT), and Amazon Web Services (AWS) integration, Vertrax stands out against the competition in terms of breadth of solutions and cloud-native benefits.

Connecticut-based Vertrax gives companies the smart tools they need to manage supply chain transportation.

Last year, the software company was using Veeam to back up its Microsoft 365 data (Exchange, OneDrive, SharePoint, and Teams) for key staff members. It worked well until Vertrax was hit with ransomware – encrypting its OneDrive files. The ransomware even corrupted its on-premises backup files. “We couldn’t recover most of the files,” said Rob Ljunggren, Director of IT at Vertrax.

That wasn’t the only issue. Rob had a contract with a data center to manage Vertrax’s backups, but it didn’t include support. This meant when Rob needed to make changes or retrieve backups, he had to contact a data center tech – costing the company additional time and money. Plus, Rob had little visibility of what was being backed up. “With Veeam, there were four different consoles I had to use to manage my Microsoft 365 data alone,” Rob said. “Even then, I was never confident it was successfully backed up.”

When the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic hit and the Vertrax staff began working remotely, it only intensified the need to reduce cost, complexity, and improve resilience. Rob started evaluating different providers. “My criteria was clear,” Rob said. “We needed our Microsoft 365 data to be backed up offsite, plus endpoint protection, robust disaster recovery (DR) capability, and ransomware protection – preferably all in the same place.”

Rob considered keeping Veeam and tacking on endpoint data protection, but ruled it out as this functionality took place on-premises. That’s when he did a proof of concept (POC) with cloud-native Druva.

“Druva was the obvious choice,” Rob said. “I couldn’t believe we were paying so much before for things we can automate in Druva.” It didn’t take long to recoup that time. “With Veeam, it took 30 minutes to restore a file,” Rob said. “With Druva, we can restore a lost file in three minutes.”

Rob also has the granular visibility he needs. “Before Druva, I had no insight into what was being backed up,” Rob said. “Now, I have everything in one management console. I even get automated email status updates so I always know where we stand.” All functions in a single pane of glass make it simple and cost efficient to manage. “If I’m ever away, I have a counterpart who can step in; and since Druva is so easy and self-explanatory, I don’t have to worry at all about his ability to recover a file,” Rob said.

Druva delivers single sign-on (SSO), multi-factor authentication (MFA), and role based access (RBAC) isolates, and controls data access to guard against infection and encryption.

Even Vertrax’s transition to Druva was easy. “The service from Druva was spot on,” Rob said. “We got in there, configured it, installed it. Done.”

With Druva, Vertrax gets the Microsoft 365, endpoint, and ransomware protection it needs – for half than what it was paying Veeam for Microsoft 365 backups alone.

The cost savings are important, but even more important is ransomware recovery. Two months after migrating to Druva, Vertrax was hit with ransomware again, which encrypted affected emails, changed extensions, and corrupted OneDrive folders and files. Leveraging Druva, recovery was a completely different experience when compared to Veeam, Rob explained. “With Druva, and the counsel it provided, it was easy to just log in and do the restore. After we wiped the affected endpoint, we fully restored the affected data from the Druva backup in a couple of minutes.”

Demonstrable success with Druva has earned Rob even greater trust from senior leaders, and he continues to prove the value of investing in cloud backups and endpoint security. For example, Vertrax recently completed a Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) audit. “I spent a whole week with an auditor going through everything on the backend,” Rob said. “Having the backups easily accessible made such a difference. I showed the auditor how I can log in to the console, see the instant status updates on whether the backups have been successful or failed, and demonstrate any remedy that I need to take.”

Rob has also managed to ease staff concerns. “Our lead developer was worried any backup software would slow his machine down and drain system resources, interrupting his work,” Rob said. “But he doesn’t even notice Druva running in the background.”

Choosing Druva helped Rob achieve his goals of reducing costs, complexity, and improving resilience. “I finally have the transparency I need to protect our data,” Rob said. “With Druva, there are no surprises or hidden fees.”