In today's digital landscape, effective data backup and recovery capabilities aren't just nice-to-have features – they're essential components of any robust business operation. The story of how Fujairah National Group (FNG), one of the United Arab Emirates' leading diversified business entities, transformed their backup infrastructure offers valuable insights for organizations facing similar challenges.

FNG's journey illustrates how the right technology partnership can turn a challenging situation into an opportunity for significant operational improvement. Operating across eight diverse divisions – including Construction, Real Estate, Healthcare, Education, Oil Storage, Aviation, Trading, Services, and Hotels – FNG needed a backup solution that could handle a complex, heterogeneous IT environment.

The Challenge

Despite following a decentralized business strategy, FNG maintains a centralized IT infrastructure with a single datacenter serving all its companies. This datacenter manages backups for various critical systems, including Exchange, SQL, Oracle, VMware, and SAP HANA environments, along with multiple file-sharing platforms.

Initially, FNG faced significant challenges with their backup processes. As Mirza Baig, IT Infrastructure and Team Lead at FNG, revealed, the team struggled with persistent backup errors that required regular manual intervention during nightly backup sessions. This situation was far from ideal, with IT staff literally losing sleep to ensure backup completion.

The Solution

The turning point came when OpenText took over the management of Data Protector. A solution consultant worked closely with FNG to demonstrate how Data Protector could not only address their current challenges but also provide additional capabilities they hadn't considered.

The transformation involved several key components:

• Upgrading to a newer version of Data Protector to enhance ransomware protection
• Implementing HPE StoreOnce to create a unified, high-performance backup architecture
• Transitioning from a purely tape-based system to a hybrid approach using disk backup with tape copies for off-site compliance
• Integrating automated VMware backup capabilities

Impressive Results

The modernization of FNG's backup infrastructure yielded remarkable results:

Comprehensive Coverage

The new solution now protects over 90% of FNG's business-critical systems, providing comprehensive coverage across their diverse IT environment. The system can handle up to 40 concurrent database backups, significantly improving efficiency compared to their previous isolated processes.

Cost-Effective Storage

One of the most impressive achievements was the implementation of data deduplication and compression, achieving rates of up to 25:1. This dramatic reduction in storage requirements has led to substantial cost savings and improved resource utilization.

Flexible Backup Policies

The new system allows FNG to implement varied backup policies based on specific application requirements. For instance, their SAP HANA environment, which contains sensitive healthcare data, receives continuous backup protection, while other less critical systems follow standard nightly backup schedules.

Enhanced Disaster Recovery

Perhaps most importantly, FNG significantly improved their disaster recovery capabilities. They can now restore data and rebuild systems within 1-2 hours of a disaster event – a dramatic improvement that provides peace of mind to the IT team and business stakeholders alike.

Improved Monitoring and Compliance

The solution provides comprehensive reporting capabilities, with automated email notifications after each backup session and detailed reports covering backup statistics, licenses, sessions, configurations, and schedules. This enhanced visibility has proven particularly valuable for FNG's annual ISO certification audits.

Looking Forward

Abdul Tabrayz, Group IT and SAP Manager at FNG, notes that this transformation went beyond just implementing new technology. It led to the development of comprehensive internal compliance standards and best practices. The partnership with OpenText has opened up new opportunities for continued improvement and innovation.

This customer study demonstrates how modernizing data backup and recovery infrastructure can deliver benefits beyond just data protection. When done right, it can lead to improved operational efficiency, cost savings, better compliance capabilities, and enhanced disaster recovery readiness.

For organizations still relying on legacy backup systems or struggling with manual intervention requirements, FNG's experience offers a compelling argument for modernization. The key lessons? Look for solutions that offer:

- Comprehensive coverage across diverse IT environments

- Strong data deduplication and compression capabilities

- Flexible backup policies to match different business needs

- Automated monitoring and reporting features

- Robust disaster recovery capabilities including protection from insider threats

In today's fast-paced business environment, having a reliable, efficient, and automated backup strategy isn't just about protecting data – it's about ensuring business continuity and maintaining competitive advantage.

Read the complete data backup and recovery customer story on the OpenText website.

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