Veeam provides modern data protection for Lembaga Lebuhraya Malaysia to meet government compliance requirements for business continuity

The business challenges

Lembaga Lebuhraya Malaysia (LLM) plays an important role in the lives of many Malaysians. LLM constructs, manages and maintains highways and expressways that connect families and friends to each other and to employment opportunities, educational institutions, healthcare services, retail stores and more. By building, monitoring and renovating roadways, LLM contributes to the country’s wellbeing.

Millions of people travel on Malaysia’s highways, but they’re probably not aware that LLM assesses every kilometer to improve safety, reduce traffic congestion and integrate automation. Several IT applications assist in this process, including an expressway performance indicator system, a highway construction monitoring process and a toll-road evaluation system.

While travelers may not be familiar with these applications, many of them are familiar with LLM’s website because it provides helpful maps, construction updates, traffic status and toll-rate information. Protecting this website and the IT applications supporting highway management, maintenance and customer service is critical, so when the backup solution became more of a challenge than an asset, the IT Division searched for a replacement.

“Our backup solution was becoming outdated,” said Mohd Sukri bin Shuib, Assistant Director of Technology at LLM. “There were times when backup was slow and recovery was unreliable, making it more difficult to meet recovery objectives in the business continuity standards required by our government.”

To strengthen its backup and disaster recovery (DR) strategy, LLM’s IT Division contacted Infinity Consulting Technology (ICT), a Platinum Veeam Cloud & Service Provider (VCSP) partner in Malaysia. ICT is widely recognized as a cloud backup and DR service provider in Malaysia, providing Aegis, the in-house brand of ICT, which focuses on delivering cloud disaster recovery services. Aegis manages and monitors customers’ daily backup operations, maintenance and support of customers’ backup and DR operations. Aegis also offers complimentary and unlimited DR resources, including dedicated drill personnel who assist customers when performing drills, so they complete successfully. Aegis obtained Disaster Recovery Certified Expert (DRCE) certification in 2012, giving it more than a decade of cloud backup and DR expertise.

“Aegis is well respected among government agencies, and ICT is well known for matching organizations with the technology that best meets their needs, so that’s how we learned about Veeam Availability Suite,” Mr. Sukri bin Shuib said. We quickly realized that Veeam and Aegis offer the most comprehensive backup and DR solution.”

The Veeam and Aegis solution

Veeam and Aegis modernized data protection so LLM can easily meet recovery objectives in the business continuity standards required by the Malaysian government. Veeam and Aegis also extend backups and replicas to a secure private cloud to increase ransomware protection. Moreover, they support compliance with the ISO/IEC 27001 Information Security Management System (ISMS) standard and reduce annual IT costs by 50%.

“Our goal is to improve the country’s highways,” Mr. Sukri bin Shuib said. “Veeam and Aegis protect the IT applications that support highway management and maintenance, so travel can be safer, faster and easier.”

Veeam backs up and replicates 10 TB across more than 20 physical and virtual machines (VMs) on premises and off premises to Aegis. Veeam Cloud Connect links LLM to Aegis, enabling the agency to extend data protection to the cloud without the cost and complexity of managing a second infrastructure. Backups and replicas are encrypted and secure, which increases ransomware protection.

Mr. Sukri bin Shuib said Veeam offers several features legacy backup did not offer such as reliable backup and high-speed recovery that enables the IT division to meet recovery objectives more easily. Additional features in Veeam ONE include monitoring and reporting for resolving issues proactively and Veeam DataLabs for verifying the recoverability of backups and replicas. Scalability is another key feature because LLM’s data grows quickly due to a CCTV video that monitors traffic. Veeam is also hardware, software and storage neutral.

“Veeam backs up any workload on any hardware to any storage, so we don’t have to invest in new resources,” Mr. Sukri bin Shuib said. “Veeam is also more affordable than our previous solution, which reduces annual IT costs by 50%.”

Aegis helps LLM save money too. Instead of a costly capital expenditure to build and maintain a separate DR structure, LLM opted for an affordable operating expenditure for DR as a Service (DRaaS) from Aegis. In addition, ICT is ISMS-certified, enabling LLM to attain ISO/IEC 27001 compliance.

“Veeam and Aegis make data protection easy and efficient,” said Mr. Sukri bin Shuib.

The results

• Modernizes Data Protection to meet recovery objectives in government policy
  “Veeam and Aegis protect the IT applications that support highway management and help us meet recovery objectives in the business continuity standards required by our government more easily,” Mr. Sukri bin Shuib said.
• Extends backups to a secure private cloud to boost ransomware protection
  Veeam Cloud Connect offers a seamless and secure way to send backups and replicas off premises for DRaaS, so organizations like LLM can avoid the cost of managing a second infrastructure.
• Supports compliance with ISO 27001 and reduces annual IT costs by 50%
  “Veeam is more affordable than legacy backup, saving us a significant amount each year,” Mr. Sukri bin Shuib said.