Home > Sky plc Relies on Bacula Backup and Data Recovery

Sky plc Relies on Bacula Backup and Data Recovery

Jonathan Kernan
DevOps System Engineer at Sky
«With Bacula Enterprise, I get a great virtual and physical backup solution in one, plus fast restore ability in an environment where uptime is paramount. The modularity of this solution is highly appreciated for the flexibility it brings us.»

The Challenge

Sky needed a more modern and more comprehensive backup and restore solution than its existing approach, in order to sustain its data volume growth and meet operational requirements. It was especially important that data restore could happen very quickly as, for example, loss of a single virtual machine could immediately prevent between 300 – 400 people from working effectively – or even at all. Therefore, there was a clear need for a solution that was able to do a full restore within a very restricted time frame.

The search for a suitable solution began. Jonathan Kernan, DevOps System Engineer at Sky, had been aware of Bacula for around ten years, having used it in a previous job and been very happy with it. At the same time, Sky decided that a backup solution that was able to safeguard both its virtual and physical environments would be advantageous. “We are a small team in a massive company. We support technical developments and projects. Our approach is very agile, with a fast response – we have to deliver things very quickly. We tested some different solutions such as Veeam, but we found that Bacula Enterprise had the sheer breadth of features we needed. Overall, we were especially attracted to all the things Bacula Systems could bring to us”, said Jonathan.

The Solution

Sky uses two 2-node HP ProLiant DL360p Gen8 Servers, with fiber-attached HP MSA storage. Data volume is currently around 45 TB.

“For us, the safety of the data is critical, but at the same time, the infrastructure itself is just as critical. Here, uptime is paramount. A key part of our decision to go with Bacula Systems was the possibility to back up our vm hosts, connecting to the storage by fiber. It is really fast, with no scripts needed either. It just works out of the box!” said Jonathan.

The Result

“With Bacula Enterprise, I get two solutions in one”, said Jonathan, referring to the fact that Bacula can back up both physical and virtual environments within the same technical framework. “In addition, Bacula’s other, included plugins allow us room for growth, giving us further flexibility and options to work with.”

Jonathan also recognizes Bacula’s contribution to the open-source world: “I think it is good that Bacula respects and supports open source – and gives newly developed technologies back to the open source community.”

“An important area where Bacula Systems saved us resources was in not having to spend time checking scripts, or maintaining the environment with custom code. I am pleased with the overall modularity of the product, and the ease of use we experience with Bacula Enterprise is great. The support we receive is good, and we are really satisfied”, said Jonathan.

About Sky plc

Sky is Europe’s leading entertainment company. The group serves 21 million customers across five countries: Italy, Germany, Austria, the UK and Ireland. It offers the best and broadest range of content, deliver market-leading customer service and uses innovative new technology to give customers a better TV experience, whenever and wherever they choose.

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