Operix

Business Challenge

Operix’s customers are in the field every day, providing critical services to homes and businesses. The data these customers input into the Operix platform is business-critical and time-sensitive, powering service quotes, diagnostics, parts ordering, billing and scheduling. To keep customers up and running, Operix has SLAs of 24 hour RPO and RTO, so they need to be sure all data is backed up daily, and is recoverable within the promised 24-hour window.

Technology Challenge

Operix was designed and built in the cloud, primarily AWS. They run workloads in EC2, EBS, RDS, MySQL and S3, and are working toward an infrastructure-as-code strategy as part of their modernization effort.

Their first priority was to protect S3 buckets containing customer data covered by the above-mentioned SLAs. Operix had previously been using another data protection solution, but felt the protection it provided wasn’t optimal. They sought an even more robust data protection solution to ensure customer data would be easily recoverable in the case of any potential data mishaps or cyber incidents. The team wanted to strengthen their ability to meet or exceed the SLAs promised to customers.

Finding Clumio

Upon initially meeting with Clumio at AWS re:Invent, the Operix team decided to test the Clumio solution. Spoiler alert: Operix ultimately chose Clumio for its ease of use, complete protection, reliability, and competitive cost.

The Operix team invested more than 4 months evaluating multiple backup solutions, including Clumio. While they initially considered Veeam, they ultimately deemed it too expensive. Operix tested AWS Backup extensively, preferring the idea of an AWS-provided solution. However, their testing revealed some important drawbacks, chiefly they felt the permissions and roles settings left too much potential for human error.

“We were experiencing multiple restore failures due to issues with roles, permissions configurations or other issues,” said Merrill. “Ultimately we spent too much time troubleshooting, and then we realized that we wouldn’t hit the 24 hour RTO requirement.”

Outcome

Operix chose Clumio because it fit their business and technology needs, while being incredibly easy to set up and manage.

• Operix’s data is protected against ransomware and insider threats with air-gapped, immutable backups.
• Operix tested Clumio’s backup and restore processes thoroughly, and found both to be simple and reliable. They especially appreciated that Clumio felt very “plug and play,” with simple automation of the backup process.
• Operix’s testing concluded that with Clumio’s automated backups and fast, flexible and simple restore operation, they would be able to easily meet their RPO and RTO SLAs.
• Operix determined that Clumio will help them reach these upcoming business goals:
  • Clumio can be deployed as code through its Terraform provider, helping Operix reach their infrastructure-as-code goals.
  • With a Devops revamp in the works that will involve major AWS account structure modifications, Operix will be able to easily deploy Clumio data protection as they roll out the new accounts.
• Operix found that Clumio was by far their best option in terms of cost, with a TCO that is an estimated 48% lower than the next best option.

Merrill likes how things are looking with Clumio on board.
At the end of the day, it was an easy decision. Clumio had the best solution at the lowest cost. I feel confident that our customers’ data is protected and Operix is well-positioned to continue modernizing our tech stack.