THE CHALLENGE
- Manual processes were error-prone and required excessive human intervention
- Obsolete backup systems susceptible to ransomware attacks
- Current solution did not provide off site data protection or Disaster Recovery capabilities
THE SOLUTION
- Efficient system recovery solution + advanced security
- Professional data security systems + management
- Remote monitoring & management
THE RESULTS
- A system tailored to the firm’s specific needs
- Rigorous protection for data and backups
- A professional and efficient team managing data
Bartlett Cocke is a 60-year-old, $750 million general contracting firm based in Texas. The company focuses on building and construction projects in selected vertical markets including education, industrial plants, healthcare facilities, multi-family housing and commercial ventures. The company prides itself on building things that last and add value to the communities they serve.
The IT department supports the internal company tech infrastructure across five office locations in Texas from the central San Antonio data center. The department also builds and manages temporary IT centers located at each construction site to support those project leaders. It is not uncommon for more than 50 such sites to operate at any one time, performing needed IT functions throughout the construction life cycle. From accounting functions to project management tools, the smooth operation of these centers ensures on-time and on-budget construction delivery.
THE IT SITUATION
As recently as eight years ago, the Company did not back up the data on any of its systems. Steve Billingsley was brought in as the new IT manager to not only address this requirement, but to take the IT operation to the next level in cloud, data management and enterprise resource planning tools and software. The Company was committed to enhancing its automation through advanced digital tools that would add value throughout a project lifecycle, streamline collaboration and increase efficiency in its rapidly growing business.
Among the top priorities for Steve involved subscribing to a third-party software vendor platform, Axcient for its cloud-based data backup and disaster recovery functions. “We needed to put a tool in place quickly and the software-as-a- service approach suited our requirement for speed at the time,” he explained. The next major IT initiative involved the license and deployment of a construction-industry focused ERP system to run the entire business – the CMIC platform.
THE IT CHALLENGE
The Company quickly outgrew the Axcient solution. Booming construction projects meant burgeoning information to manage, backup and maintain. The software simply required too much staff time to support and sustain. “The old system required one and a half full-time staff – we simply needed those people in value-added roles to support our business and our construction project leaders rather than handle daily data management functions.”
Steve recognized the need for a new approach. “Data growth was exponential and would continue on that trajectory into the foreseeable future,” he said. “Not only did we need a robust platform, but we knew needed an outside team to help us handle the workload associated with it.”
He and the team examined the Rubrik software and gave it the highest marks for data backup and business continuity features. But the IT staff, already stretched, lacked the bandwidth to add Rubrik to their plate. “We simply did not have the resources to do it alone,” he commented.
THE SOLUTION
The Rubrik team introduced Steve to Assured Data Protection to handle the installation and to manage its daily data backup operation on an outsourced basis. Steve was impressed by the technical acuity of the Assured staff and the years of combined experience they had in all facets of data backup and disaster recovery. “The combination was ideal – great Rubrik technology with top outsourced data experts to make it happen,” he added.
Today, the Assured team manages the day to day Rubrik-based data backup operation onsite in San Antonio, particularly involving the data from the CMIC ERP system. “The math worked out to keep it all on our premises,” Steve explained. Assured provides daily updates to IT management and engages in quarterly update meetings to discuss new system updates or software features worth considering.
“Outsourcing data backup to Assured enables us to spend more time engaging with our people in the field to make them ever more efficient and effective,” Steve elaborated. “While data protection is not sexy, it’s critical and we’re completely confident that we’re in good hands with Assured.”