To comply with Swiss data rules, many smaller enterprises manage data protection in-house due to a lack of cost-effective choices within Switzerland. bloosite set out to change that.

Transformation

bloosite developed a Backup-as-a-Service offering based on IBM Spectrum Protect and Cloutility from Auwau, providing cost-effective, compliant data security with a high degree of customization.

Results

Business challenge story

Identifying an opportunity

Data sovereignty is a big deal in Switzerland. Companies must keep all personal data within the country’s borders unless they encrypt it. For purely Swiss businesses, with no international presence, this rule extends to all data.

These regulations are especially taxing for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) with fewer resources than large corporations. Until recently, the choice of cloud services providers with data centers in Switzerland was limited, preventing many SMEs from accessing the cost-efficiency and flexibility benefits of the cloud.

When Swiss cloud solutions provider bloosite AG implemented a solution to back up its own data, it spotted a gap in the market. Patrick Roth, Founder and CEO of bloosite, explains: “We were working on expanding our portfolio of cloud solutions, and realized that data protection was an under-served area. Today, data is every company’s biggest asset, so, regardless of their size, they must ensure they can retrieve it at any time.”

bloosite began looking for the right technology to underpin its new Backup-as-a-Service (BaaS) offering. Roth adds: “Finding a data backup solution is easy – there are tons to choose from. What’s challenging is securing the suite of functionality required to offer this capability as a cost-effective, reliable service.”

Transformation story

Building “Fort Knox” for clients’ data

bloosite created blooSafe, a backup, recovery and business continuity cloud solution based on IBM Spectrum Protect™ technology. The company also deployed Cloutility from Auwau, a plug-and-play business extension for IBM Spectrum Protect, available for purchase via IBM, to automate the operation and management of blooSafe.

“IBM Spectrum Protect was ahead of the game in terms of deduplication and encryption of data,” recalls Roth. “We’ve used backup solutions from other vendors in the past, but Spectrum Protect appealed to us because of its modular design, which makes it better suited to designing service offerings. Cloutility provides the overview of our clients and their environments that we need for effective management, alongside a ready-to-go billing mechanism.”

All data is backed up to bloosite’s two data centers in Switzerland. Customers can choose between data protection by bloosite through an internet service, a dedicated VPN link or, for high-security environments, a private connection to dedicated storage. Via the blooSafe portal, users can access information about backup operations, alerts and tasks delegated by administrators. Through the bloosite backup agent, authorized users can restore deleted files, retrieve historic data and bring defective servers back into service quickly, enabling companies to recover fast from physical disaster or malware attacks.

“With IBM Spectrum Protect, we can provide solutions closely tailored to individual clients’ needs,” says Roth. “For example, we can use the control that the IBM solution gives us over how and when we encrypt data to align with clients’ security strategies. By activating deduplication, we can drive up the utilization of storage resources and pass on savings to our customers.”

Results story

Standing out from the crowd

By tapping into an unaddressed part of the Swiss market, bloosite is growing its client base and its revenues. The company simplifies compliance with data regulations by combining the high security capabilities of the IBM and Auwau technology with its skills and purpose-built architecture.

Roth comments: “We’ve built a robust, cost-effective BaaS offering based on IBM Spectrum Protect and Cloutility solutions that gives smaller businesses in Switzerland access to enterprise-class, compliant data protection.”

One of bloosite’s clients is Tomppa Internet Consulting, a web design and programming company. Thomas Papp, Founder, explains why Tomppa chose bloosite services: “My clients often store personal and medical information within apps, so we require high security, which bloosite provides. The apps must be available 24/7, so it’s an advantage to have blooSafe protecting my customers data. It allows me to focus on serving them with web design and programming, confident that data protection, retention and disaster recovery is all covered.”

To differentiate its offering further, bloosite is working with Auwau to introduce new features to Cloutility. The company is also developing a new service built on IBM Spectrum Protect integration with tape storage, helping to bolster its competitive edge.

“A client asked us if we could provide compliance reports, giving technical and C-level stakeholders insight into their data protection status,” says Roth. “We passed this onto Auwau and they’re working on it right now – showing their level of commitment to us as a customer.

“Next on the agenda, we’re launching a backup to tape service, which is only possible because Spectrum Protect is one of the few solutions to offer this capability. That means that even if a disaster were to affect both our data centers and a customer’s infrastructure, they’d still have a full copy of their data, enabling true business continuity.”

Within a year, bloosite is expecting the data it backs up for customers to double. With a flexible data protection environment that’s ready to scale, the company is poised for expansion.

Roth concludes: “We’ve got no doubts that we’ll be able to manage the growth of our BaaS environment with IBM Spectrum Protect and Cloutility. We’re excited to see where IBM and Auwau take their solutions next, as we’re sure that’ll provide more opportunities for us to broaden our portfolio and make Swiss companies’ lives easier.”