Veeam helps Sun Chemical make the most out of their Microsoft 365 data

November 7, 2024

Customers expect data protection from companies of all sizes—from small, independent businesses to enterprise-level organizations. Gaining customer trust, ensuring security, and keeping operations running smoothly can make or break a business's reputation. That's why finding a trusted and experienced partner to navigate the data protection landscape is vital.

Founded in 2006, Veeam is a global market leader in data protection and ransomware recovery. Headquartered in Seattle and with offices in more than 30 countries, Veeam protects over 550,000 customers worldwide with technology like Veeam Data Cloud. With Veeam, IT and security leaders rest easy knowing that their apps and data are protected and available across their cloud, virtual, physical, software as a service (SaaS), and Kubernetes environments.

As a Microsoft partner of 17 years, Veeam helps organizations recover their data more quickly, safely, and reliably. Together, Microsoft and Veeam innovate to build simple, scalable, and powerful solutions for data retention.

Veeam believes every business should be able to bounce back after a disruption with confidence and control of their data whenever and wherever they need it. Jeanne Krull, Senior Director of Public Cloud Solutions at Veeam, said, "Veeam calls this radical resilience, and we're determined to create innovative ways to help our customers achieve it."

That's something Sun Chemical—a leading manufacturer of printing inks, coatings, adhesives, and more—liked the sound of.

"To bring winning products to market, Sun Chemical's global workforce depends on reliable access to Microsoft 365 applications and data," said Krull. "When their IT team realized this essential part of the company's environment was not adequately protected, they were determined to act fast." The Sun Chemical team targeted a resilient, high-performance solution that was easy to manage: the Veeam Data Cloud.

A historic reputation for innovation

With an organizational history that can be traced back to 1818, Sun Chemical is no stranger to moving with the times. Their scientists, business leaders, and manufacturing specialists need to be able to share information between teams quickly and easily. Microsoft 365 had already been used in Sun Chemical's facilities to achieve this for the last few years, but its use rose dramatically following a recent acquisition.

The home of data resilience

Sun Chemical selected Veeam Data Cloud for Microsoft 365 so their workers could have 24/7 access to critical data, empowering employees across locations to work even more productively. "Veeam Data Cloud offers robust protection for Microsoft 365 data, exemplifying the strong alliance between Microsoft and Veeam," Krull said.

Built on Microsoft Azure's infrastructure, this solution provides comprehensive backup and recovery for Microsoft 365 services including Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, and Microsoft Teams. By using Azure's global presence, Veeam Data Cloud offers scalable, secure, and efficient protection for Microsoft 365 workloads.

"Our solution addresses critical data protection needs by safeguarding against accidental deletion, security threats, and retention policy gaps," Krull said. "This helps organizations maintain control over their Microsoft 365 data, ensure compliance with data regulations, and enhance business continuity."

Though they compared several vendors, Sun Chemical felt Veeam's work rose to the top. Hudson said, "Veeam's solution delivers great functionality, cost efficiency, an intuitive user interface, and that all-important differentiator: a vendor who's willing to engage with us on an ongoing basis."

Now, Sun Chemical protects their Microsoft 365 data with Veeam.

"Veeam worked closely with the Sun Chemical team on architecture and implementation and ensured that the deployment and rollout was a white-glove service experience," said Krull. "Microsoft provided both Veeam and Sun Chemical with joint leadership engagements and provided additional clarity around the need for data protection specific to Sun Chemical's requirements. It's truly unique to have such a great collaboration across teams."

With Veeam Data Cloud, Sun Chemical can retain backups indefinitely, instead of only 93 days. "We're lucky that we became heavy users of Microsoft 365 just before we deployed Veeam Data Cloud, as we've been asked to restore files older than 93 days more than once," said Hudson.

Sun Chemical also benefits from Veeam support, which helps them make the most of Microsoft technology and provides feedback on product features. "Veeam is on-hand if we need help or to hear our views," said Hudson. "When we reported that it would make life easier for our local admins to be able to see a particular filter, they rolled out that change within a few days. It's rare to find this level of responsiveness in a vendor … and I'm happy to say that relationship continues to flourish."

Safeguarding the future

With Veeam safeguarding their business-critical Microsoft 365 data, Sun Chemical is better positioned to take on new opportunities. By ensuring they can quickly restore files, the company has improved their ability to recover from cyberattacks.

"Sun Chemical is a truly global business: each day employees spread across the globe rely on Microsoft 365 apps to exchange critical data," said Hudson. "Veeam Data Cloud for Microsoft 365 protects this essential part of our environment, helping our employees work more productively and giving us an extra layer of cyber resilience."

By using Veeam's solution, the company also minimized the administrative burden on their lean IT team. "Veeam Data Cloud for Microsoft 365 releases us from purchasing and managing our own infrastructure for backups, translating into significant cost savings," said Hudson. "If we had it in place when we made our last major acquisition, we estimate we could have purchased half the number of file servers."

Looking ahead, Sun Chemical expects the Veeam Data Cloud will lower the costs of future acquisitions significantly, removing potential limits on growth. They foresee potential infrastructure cost savings of 50% or more when making acquisitions and are using Veeam's 24/7 responsive support and development resources.

"It's been a huge relief to implement Veeam Data Cloud," said Hudson. "We're now confident that Microsoft 365 data is backed up and can be restored at the click of a button, which is a huge advantage."

For their part, Veeam is happy to be able to help organizations keep their data secure and support business growth. Krull said the organization is focused on expanding their services and further connecting Veeam's solutions with Azure services. "We aim to utilize more of Azure's advanced features—like AI—for customers to take advantage of more intelligent data management, predictive analytics, and automated optimization of backup and recovery processes. Plus, we'll be expanding on advanced security features."

Krull continued, "We will also continue to develop more robust ransomware detection and recovery features and iterate on tooling for highly regulated industries. The future is bright for Veeam and our customers."