Parul University ensures 100% data availability for students, faculty and staff with Veeam

The business challenge

Parul University aims to provide enriching university experiences to its students, drawing on the latest technology to set itself apart from other educational institutions. In recent years, the organization has introduced new digital resources to complement face-to-face teaching.

“At Parul University, learning is not limited to the classroom,” said Snehalkumar Darji, Chief Technology Officer, Parul University. “We use digital learning spaces, including Google classroom, Microsoft Teams, Jitsy and Zoom, to extend education to students wherever they are, whenever they want. We continue to invest in AI-based assessment to make the examination process more convenient to students and faculty.”

This put Parul University in a strong position to respond when the global pandemic prevented students, faculty and staff travelling to campus. However, the sudden switch to collective online learning sent data volumes soaring, placing unprecedented pressure on the institution’s data protection solution, just when it was needed the most.

“We saw our data double from 100PB to 200PB in 12 months,” said Snehalkumar Darji. “We cannot afford to lose or delay access to any data, as that would threaten the quality of education that we provide and our reputation for excellence. In particular, we wanted to ensure non-stop access to our examination portal, where 28,000 students take evaluations weekly, quarterly and annually. It was vital that we stepped up our data protection measures.”

The Veeam solution

Parul University selected Veeam Backup & Replication Enterprise Plus to transform its data protection strategy, helping to ensure continuity of service for the organization’s new online offerings. The university worked with Allot Systems Integration to evaluate and deploy the solution.

“We chose the Veeam solution because it combines simple management with advanced functionality,” said Snehalkumar Darji. “Working with Allot Systems Integration, we carried out a PoC with impressive results, before carrying out a full deployment in just two days with no impact to staff or students.”

Using Veeam Backup & Replication, Parul University was able to replicate data across its entire physical and virtual environment for the first time. The solution backs up data from essential applications, including the university’s learning management system, ERP and examination portal.

“We’ve introduced a new layer of protection for all the systems that enable day-to-day running of the university,” said Snehalkumar Darji. “Rather than prioritizing and classifying which data is truly essential, we can back up everything from a single, intuitive point of control. Before, we checked that backups had completed successfully manually. Now our backup success rate has increased from 80 or 90% to almost 100% and we get an automated daily report with that information.”

By restoring data faster with Veeam, Parul University is helping to ensure that students can access a high quality of education remotely, 24/7. The innovative institution is confident that the Veeam platform will evolve alongside its digital offerings.

“To stand out in the crowded education sector, you have to embrace innovation,” said Snehalkumar Darji. “With Veeam protecting our data, we have the solid foundations to continue developing digitally empowered learning for our students. Veeam Backup & Replication has so many great built-in features, we’re convinced that it will cover all eventualities as Parul University takes on the next challenge.”

The results

• Enables superb availability for the online examination portal, where 28,000 students take tests weekly
  Using Veeam technology, Parul University rose to the challenge posed by the global pandemic to enable seamless remote learning for tens of thousands of students.
• Cuts data restore times from up to two hours to as little as 15 minutes, increasing business resilience
  Parul University protects students, faculty and staff from interruptions to their work by providing non-stop access to essential data.
• Contributes to the university’s competitive edge by saving the backup administrator 20 hours per month, now diverted to IT innovation
  The university is applying spare IT resources to set up an on-premises hyperconverged infrastructure private cloud, enabling exciting new features for examinations, assessments and online learning.