EAV drives down risk of data loss to near zero through immutable backups with Veeam

EAV operates an extensive network of rail, bus and cable car services in Regione Campania, Italy, carrying approximately 67 million passengers annually and hosting 3,600 trips daily. Serving both tourist travelers and local commuters, the organization orchestrates the timetables, staffing, rolling stock, and maintenance that support its integrated transport infrastructure.

From signaling systems to passenger information screens, EAV relies on data — and the growing frequency and severity of cyberattacks was a constant concern for the company. At 10pm on 22 February 2022, anti-malware software on two EAV workstations alerted the IT team to a possible incident. Soon afterwards, EAV discovered that data was being encrypted by ransomware on multiple machines, including servers in the data center.

“From that moment, our ability to ensure data integrity and recover quickly in the event of a disaster was under the spotlight,” said Gennaro Talamo, Cyber Security Manager. “It took us 15 days to restore our systems, and there was almost a delay to our payroll process, but we got there in the end. The incident was a wake-up call: we wanted to be ready if such an incident ever happened again.”

Specifically, EAV looked to consolidate its two data protection toolsets into one powerful solution. With both the organization and its data volumes growing fast, the search was on for a future-proof option that could scale seamlessly.

“Over the coming months, EAV will invest heavily in expanding our networks, resources and staff,” said Talamo. “Each day, huge numbers of Campania residents and visitors rely on us to get them to their destinations. To ensure that we never let them down, we wanted to take our data protection capabilities to the next level.”

EAV chose Veeam to transform its approach to backing up and restoring data, helping to ensure unprecedented business continuity for the expanding organization.

“We decided to standardize on Veeam for all our data protection needs because it offers all the capabilities we need now and for the future,” said Talamo. “It wasn’t necessary to shop around as it quickly became clear that Veeam was the ideal solution to cover our diverse IT environment.”

Using Veeam, EAV now protects around 1,000 employee accounts, dozens of servers in four data centers, and other digital systems in locations such as ticket offices. The organization stores backups on storage provided by a Veeam partner hosted at a separate location.

“We’re preparing to move the last few servers and systems to Veeam, after which we’ll retire our legacy backup solution,” said Talamo. “Thanks to Veeam, we’re establishing standard recovery times and recovery points across the entire organization even as we add new services and users to our environment.”

EAV relies on Veeam to enable incremental, immutable backups and orchestrate its recovery, enhancing its ability to recover fast and effectively from incidents such as cyber-attacks. With Veeam DataLabs, the organization tests and verifies the integrity of its backups, giving the organization’s IT team peace of mind that it can restore data as and when it requires.

“We’re now backing up data much more frequently and successfully with Veeam,” said Talamo. “I feel confident that our data is now better protected against cyber-criminals. We’ve also started using Veeam to automate the recovery process, accelerating our response and mitigating the potential impact of future attacks.”

When EAV rolled out Microsoft 365 to boost productivity and collaboration across the organization, it chose Veeam to protect this part of its IT environment too. Offering multiple recovery options, Veeam for Microsoft 365 enables the EAV IT team to respond to a wide range of user requests rapidly and efficiently.

“As the market leader for Microsoft 365 backup, Veeam was the obvious choice,” said Talamo. “It allows us to recover individual emails and files that have been accidentally deleted with just a few clicks, so our users can quickly get back to focusing on their work.”

Looking to the future, EAV expects data portability via Veeam to offer significant benefits. The organization is exploring the possibility of hybrid- and multi-cloud environments, and anticipates that Veeam will offer features that will enable it to protect data comprehensively regardless of its location.

“Veeam is always innovating and introducing new functionality,” said Talamo. “For an organization such as ours, which is poised on the edge of an exciting new phase of development, that’s a huge advantage. We look forward to continuing to connect the region of Campania, supported by exceptional business continuity from Veeam.”

• Enables exceptional availability for key systems, helping to ensure millions of passengers can get to their destinations without delay. 
  To provide information on journeys (via railway and road), we communicate with our customers constantly through our apps and information boards,” said Talamo. “Veeam helps us keep all these systems available 24/7, keeping our passengers happy and on time.”
• Drives down risk of data loss to near zero through immutable, isolated backups. 
  Using Veeam, EAV is bolstering its cyber-resiliency measures to ensure it is better prepared than ever to cope with an evolving threat landscape.
• Protects data in any location, laying the foundation for a future hybrid- and/or multi-cloud strategy. 
  EAV avoids vendor lock-in with Veeam, allowing it to make technology decisions without limitations, confident of comprehensive data protection.