Britvic safeguards the AWS cloud and achieves 66% faster data recovery by deploying Veeam

Britvic is on a mission to quench thirst with delicious, satisfying and environmentally sustainable soft drinks. As one of the largest producers of beverages in the world, Britvic has perfected the recipe for running a thriving international company.

Data is a critical ingredient in Britvic’s success and drives almost every aspect of the business. For example, the company collects consumer preference data from Internet of Things (IoT) sensors installed on vending machines and soda fountain machines used by bars and restaurants. It then uses these insights to tailor how much flavor is added to drinks by adjusting tap container weights.

Britvic is also pioneering a ‘touchless’ drink experience where customers can scan a QR code on its unique flavor taps using their smartphone, allowing them to dispense their drink of choice at the touch of a button. To manage all this data and its operations seamlessly, the company harnesses a sophisticated stack of deeply integrated solutions, including manufacturing, data transfer, enterprise resource planning (ERP) and scheduling applications.

“If any of our core applications, systems or servers go oftine — either due to a technical issue or cyberattack — the negative impact would ripple across Britvic,” said Peter Brown, Director of IT Operations and Infrastructure, Britvic. “Keeping our core systems online is vital to ensure that we can continue to mix, bottle and deliver the drinks that our customers love.”

While Britvic’s existing fully managed, on-premises datacenter supported around-the-clock availability and excellent business continuity, the NetBackup software solution was unable to support Britvic’s pivot to hybrid cloud infrastructure. As a result, the company was being forced to choose between expensive hardware investments and reliable disaster recovery protocols.

“Over the past four years we’ve been gradually moving our technology stack into pay-as-you-use cloud services like Amazon Web Services (AWS) to reduce the total cost of ownership of our IT estate,” said Peter Brown. “We intend to move as much as possible to the cloud, except for a few manufacturing applications, so taking a hybrid cloud approach was the best option for us. Unfortunately, NetBackup couldn’t support this, so we decided that it was high time to look for a vendor that could.”

To unlock the agility of a hybrid cloud strategy, Britvic selected Veeam Data Platform and Veeam Backup for AWS. The company’s IT team evaluated a range of vendors with cloud-compatible solutions before making the decision.

“Veeam stood out because it offers a user-friendly, simple and flexible way to manage both on-premises and cloud backups from a single point of control,” said Peter Brown. “From the start, the Veeam technical team was very transparent and detailed when answering our questions, which assured us that Veeam would be a reliable, trustworthy partner.”

Britvic now uses Veeam to back up over 150 virtual servers hosted in the Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud as well as 30 physical servers spread across different manufacturing sites located around the world. Combined, these virtual and physical servers store all of Britvic’s data, including mission-critical systems such as its ERP, data integration pipelines, manufacturing systems, and consumer preference databases.

Moving to a hybrid cloud infrastructure has also enabled Britvic to back up many of its key applications to single servers in AWS. As well as reducing Britvic’s IT footprint, this has helped the company to achieve recovery times of less than 8 hours — 66% faster than with its on-premises datacenter.

With Veeam Backup for AWS, Britvic can now automatically schedule backups for its Amazon services and create immutable copies of all AWS data, too. “I can sleep soundly at night thanks to the immutable backup feature in Veeam,” said Peter Brown. “Knowing that we can quickly recover data from any given point in time using Veeam also lifts a weight of my shoulders.”

Impressed with the reliability of the solution, Britvic is currently exploring other Veeam capabilities. Peter Brown said: “Veeam makes my job easier, because I know that we can easily and quickly integrate additional Veeam products and features into our existing environment if we want to in the future. What’s more, Veeam helps us save time and effort by simplifying backup activities, which gives us more time to focus on driving innovation by exploring how we can adopt new technologies to support the business.”

To better manage cyber-security risk, Britvic uses the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) framework as its guide. Veeam is helping the company implement the framework effectively to strengthen its security posture.

“Learning more about great security features in Veeam such as password loss protection and robust encryption has also prompted us to be even more security focused as an organization,” said Peter Brown. “For instance, we now post regular updates on the Britvic intranet to educate all employees on how to identify and avoid common ransomware traps — boosting awareness and improving our cyber-resiliency.”

• Helps Britvic’s operations and infrastructure team achieve an 8-hour service level agreement for data recovery — 66% faster. 
  Moving to AWS cloud means that we can reduce the recovery surface from an entire datacenter to single servers,” said Peter Brown. “Veeam made this possible, and we expect to achieve a 1-hour recovery for some of our key systems in the months ahead.”
• Boosts cyber-resiliency, helping Britvic to conform with the NIST cyber-security framework and protect its business from interruption.
  "Ransomware attacks are now common in all industries,” said Peter Brown. “We know that it is a matter of when we are struck, not if. When an attack happens, Veeam will help us to prevent data loss and dramatically reduce the damage that criminals could cause.”
•  Saves time and effort with simplified point-in-time recovery capabilities, freeing IT teams to focus on technological innovation.
  Today, Britvic can manage cloud and on-premises backup processes all from Veeam and quickly recover data from any given point in time with just a few clicks. As a result, Britvic’s IT team now has more time to focus on product development.