Ensuring Business Continuity: ERGOS's Customer-First Data Protection Strategy with ConnectWise Cloud Backup and ConnectWise x360Recover

ERGOS

Founded in Houston, TX, in 1997, ERGOS is a Managed IT Service and Cloud Solution Provider offering Managed IT Services, Cloud IT Solutions, Outsourced IT Solutions, and Application Solutions designed to support business growth. The company has been included on the Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing companies in the USA nine times since 2008, demonstrating its consistent growth and commitment to excellence. With operations in both the US and the UK, ERGOS has established itself as a reliable partner for businesses seeking robust IT solutions.

Challenge

ERGOS faced challenges with corporate data sprawl across on-premises and cloud platforms like Microsoft 365, where retention policies often failed to meet stringent recovery needs. Compliance and cyber liability standards required full control over RPOs and RTOs. All with reliable vendor support and scalable, fast-resolution solutions.

Solution

To address these challenges, ERGOS integrated ConnectWise Cloud Backup and ConnectWise x360Recover, establishing a Customer-First Data Protection strategy. This integration allowed ERGOS to provide comprehensive data protection for their customers' entire corporate data estate, covering scenarios ranging from on-premises server disaster recovery to malicious data loss in the cloud.

Results

ERGOS recovered over 100GB of accounting data within hours after malicious deletion, restoring business operations by the end of the day. This swift recovery limited downtime to approximately one day, averting significant operational disruptions and reputational damage. The seamless process ensured data was restored with all permissions intact.

The entire process was completed within a few hours, allowing business operations to fully resume by the end of the day. This swift recovery limited downtime to approximately one day, averting significant operational disruptions and reputational damage.

"The files deleted represented 98% of the company’s data. ConnectWise Cloud Backup restored 100GB of data to its original state in SharePoint, fully reinstating permissions exactly as they were. For the customer, it was as if nothing had happened."

Addressing Data Sprawl and Compliance Challenges

ERGOS, a Managed IT Service and Cloud Solution Provider based in Houston, TX, faced significant challenges with corporate data sprawl and compliance standards. Chris Amalfi, Vice President of Operations, and Justin Dupont, Professional Services Consultant, revealed how integrating ConnectWise Cloud Backup and ConnectWise x360Recover addressed their issues effectively.

Challenges of Data Management and Compliance

ERGOS faced significant challenges related to corporate data sprawl and compliance with cyber liability standards. Business data now spans both on-premises systems and, increasingly, cloud platforms like Microsoft 365. However, the retention policies in these environments often fall short of meeting the stringent recovery needs of businesses, particularly in regulated industries. This data sprawl made it difficult to ensure that all critical information was adequately protected and recoverable in the event of data loss.

Compliance and cyber liability were also major concerns. Backup is critical not only for recovery but also for addressing new compliance and cyber liability standards. Customers need full control over Recovery Point Objectives (RPO) and Recovery Time Objectives (RTO) to comply with regulations, ensuring that data is secure, backed up, and quickly recoverable. This is especially important in industries with stringent regulatory requirements, where failure to comply can result in severe penalties and reputational damage.

Additionally, MSPs (Managed Service Providers) like ERGOS need vendors who understand their business model, provide reliable support under high-pressure situations, and offer a product roadmap that scales and delivers fast time to resolution. This need for dependable vendor support and scalable solutions was a critical factor in ERGOS's decision-making process.

Powerful and Flexible Data Protection Solutions

Leveraging ConnectWise Cloud Backup and ConnectWise x360Recover enabled ERGOS to offer powerful data protection capabilities. This provided optimal RPOs and RTOs, ensuring swift data restoration or the deployment of temporary cloud environments during extended outages. Further, this capability was crucial for minimizing downtime and ensuring compliance with stringent industry-specific recovery requirements. By leveraging these powerful tools, ERGOS could guarantee that their customers' data was always secure and recoverable, regardless of the circumstances.

Flexibility was another key advantage of the capability of ConnectWise Cloud Backup and ConnectWise x360Recover. ERGOS could deliver seamless data protection across on-premises, appliance-based, and direct-to-cloud environments. This allowed ERGOS to meet customers where they were, accommodating diverse needs and supporting a wide range of infrastructure and deployment models----and the adaptability was essential for providing tailored solutions that met the unique requirements of each customer.

Demonstrating Effective Data Recovery

The effectiveness of ERGOS's data protection strategy was demonstrated in a real-world scenario involving a customer in the tax and accounting industry. The customer experienced a malicious deletion of over 100GB of accounting data by a departing employee. The data was deleted from a SharePoint site and purged from the recycle bin, making manual recovery impossible. This operational data included essential spreadsheets, PDF copies of returns, and other documents required by federal law.

Fortunately, the [tax and accounting industry] customer had implemented ConnectWise Cloud Backup. This SaaS protection for Microsoft 365 seamlessly recovered the 100GB+ of SharePoint Online data, restoring it to its original location with all permissions intact.

The entire process was completed within a few hours, allowing business operations to fully resume by the end of the day. This swift recovery limited downtime to approximately one day, averting significant operational disruptions and reputational damage.

Chris Amalfi, Vice President of Operations at ERGOS Technology Partners, Inc., emphasized the importance of rapid data recovery in such situations: "When data loss occurs, the clock is ticking, operations are disrupted, and the spotlight is on you to restore functionality. The ability to spin up servers or restore Microsoft 365 data with ConnectWise Cloud Backup is crucial for helping customers get back to business quickly."

Seamless Recovery and Remote Work Enablement

Justin Dupont, Professional Services Consultant and Microsoft 365 Expert at ERGOS, highlighted the seamless recovery process:

"The files deleted represented 98% of the company’s data. ConnectWise Cloud Backup restored 100GB of data to its original state in SharePoint, fully reinstating permissions exactly as they were. For the customer, it was as if nothing had happened."

Maintaining Business Continuity

In another instance, ERGOS demonstrated their ability to maintain business continuity during a natural disaster leveraging ConnectWise x360Recover. After a hurricane caused severe flooding and made parts of the city inaccessible for weeks, ERGOS ensured that their customer's entire company could continue working remotely within days, thanks to ConnectWise’s capabilities.

ERGOS's integration of ConnectWise Cloud Backup and ConnectWise x360Recover has enabled them to provide complete, powerful, and flexible data protection for their customers. This Customer-First Data Protection strategy ensures that businesses can quickly resume operations after data loss incidents, minimizing downtime and maintaining compliance with industry regulations. By leveraging these advanced solutions, ERGOS continues to support business growth and resilience in an increasingly complex IT landscape.