Ducks Unlimited Canada protects vital fundraising data in Salesforce and saves $1 million in IT costs with Veeam

DUC has been the nation’s premier conservation organization since 1938. To date, DUC has conserved, restored and influenced 234.3 million acres — from quiet prairie marshes to vast boreal forests and from coastal wetlands to rolling grasslands.

“We’re a conservation organization but we’re also a fundraising organization,” said Andrew Pratt, Director of IT at DUC. “Conservation and fundraising are linked, so one doesn’t happen without the other. Since fundraising is a key pillar of DUC, our fundraising data in Salesforce must be backed up, secure and operational. Important business decisions are based on that data, so we must have access to it all the time. Losing Salesforce data would be a major disrupter to the business.”

DUC seeks funding from diverse sources such as grassroots organizations, government agencies, foundations, corporations and individuals. Funding often includes match requirements that must be tracked and reported to the funding source.

“Salesforce is pivotal in helping us track those requirements and steward those relationships, which means Salesforce is pivotal to our success as a conservation organization,” Pratt said. “We deployed OwnBackup to protect it, but as soon as Veeam Backup for Salesforce became available, we switched. We have a proven track record with Veeam solutions and trust the brand.”

DUC uses several Veeam solutions: Veeam Data Platform – Advanced Edition for backup, replication, immutability, recovery and proactive monitoring and analytics; Veeam Recovery Orchestrator for 1-click mass recovery, automated disaster recovery (DR) testing and dynamic reporting for cyber insurance compliance and Veeam Backup for Microsoft 365 for complete protection of Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business and Teams.

“Prior to deploying Veeam nearly a decade ago, we used an alternative backup solution but found it overly complex,” Pratt said. “We spent too much time resolving problems caused by unreliable backup, so we considered hiring a full-time backup manager, but we were already spending money on third-party tech support consultants because nothing was easy. Everything is easy with Veeam. Veeam is our easy button for data protection and DR.”

DUC is active in every province and territory, working locally to conserve, restore and manage valuable and vulnerable natural habitats. DUC’s work leads to large, landscape-level impact that supports wildlife, advances sustainability and contributes to climate resiliency. Veeam protects the data that underpins all of DUC’s work.

“So much of our work depends on fundraising, so not only does Veeam Backup for Salesforce protect the data that raises money, our suite of Veeam solutions saves money — $1 million over six years,” Pratt said. “They provide simple, reliable and trusted data protection, so we didn’t have to hire a full-time person to manage backup. We also eliminated third-party consultancy services because Veeam requires no care or feeding. We’ve converted the IT Department from a cost center to a savings center.”

Veeam Backup for Salesforce is DUC’s newest solution. By securely backing up fundraising data and metadata, Veeam eliminates the risk of losing access and control of data due to human error and integration issues. Data control is crucial, so DUC controls where Veeam Backup for Salesforce is deployed (on premises or in the cloud), how often backups are made, where they are stored (Veeam is storage-agnostic) and what is recovered (records, hierarchies, fields, files and metadata).

“Our Salesforce data is indispensable, so Veeam’s fast, flexible recovery is critical,” Pratt said. “Rebuilding data and metadata would be challenging and time-consuming — and it could hurt fundraising. Veeam Backup for Salesforce actually helps fundraising because our fundraising partners know and trust the Veeam brand, so they’re confident their data is protected, safe and secure with us.”

Veeam Backup for Salesforce also supports DUC’s compliance with Canada’s Official Languages Act, which requires websites to offer bilingual content and services. DUC uses sandboxes to test plug-ins for Salesforce so bilingual speakers can make donations in French and English. Veeam protects sandboxes by letting DUC restore data from production or from another sandbox.

Veeam Backup for Microsoft 365 and Veeam Data Platform protect and restore critical data too, including collaborative emails and habitat data in DUC’s geographic information system (GIS).

“Habitation projects are defined by spatial context, so all habitats are mapped by GIS,” Pratt said. “I’ve been a GIS nerd for a long time even though I began my career as a biologist. I spent 15 years building our GIS system, so I understand the significance of GIS data — it touches every aspect of our organization, just like fundraising data. I also understand the significance of protecting GIS data, so I’ve been part of the Veeam journey from the start. It’s a trusted brand with a proven history. The only thing that changes is functionality. Veeam Recovery Orchestrator is a good example.”

Veeam Recovery Orchestrator increases DUC’s business resilience by automating recovery processes. It provides DR documentation to support DUC’s compliance with cyber insurance requirements and serves as a safety net during data center renovations.

“While we haven’t had to use Veeam Recovery Orchestrator in a disaster situation, it’s a great feeling knowing we’re minutes away from fast, easy, proven and secure recovery. Like I said, Veeam is our easy button.” 

• Ensures Salesforce data and metadata are securely backed up and accessible 
  Salesforce is our source of truth for all things fundraising-related, so knowing Veeam backs up our data and metadata securely provides tremendous comfort,” Pratt said.
•  Instills confidence in federal and corporate fundraising partners that their data is safe 
  Veeam Backup for Salesforce lets us recover data with speed and confidence,” Pratt said. “That same level of confidence extends to fundraising partners because they know we’re using best-of-breed backup to protect their data.”
•  Converts IT from a cost center to a savings center: $1 million saved in six years 
  In addition to saving substantial money, there’s another benefit to using Veeam,” Pratt said. “We rarely talk about backup and recovery during infrastructure meetings because there’s no need to — Veeam just works. We talk about challenges related to other solutions, but Veeam is never one of them.”