Veeam secures Microsoft 365 data to protect against cyber threats

March 10^th, 2025

It's no secret that data breaches are costly and disruptive for businesses—averaging $4.88 million per breach in 2024. Recently, governments and utility companies have also been facing an ever-increasing threat from cybercriminals. These civic-centered bodies experience an added vulnerability: citizens rely on the security of their infrastructure for essential services like water access. When it comes to safeguarding data and securing operations, Gori, an Italian water services company, trusts Veeam to help keep their systems safe from cyber threats.

Founded in 2006 and headquartered in Seattle, WA, Veeam is a leader in data protection, backup, and disaster recovery solutions. As a Microsoft partner of 15 years, Veeam provides a comprehensive suite of services designed to ensure data resilience across on-premises deployments, remote sites, and cloud environments.

"Veeam is deeply integrated with Microsoft technologies, particularly Microsoft Azure, to provide secure, scalable, and cost-effective cloud storage for backups," said Jeanne Krull, Senior Director of Public Cloud Solutions at Veeam.

Veeam’s solutions are essential for organizations handling sensitive data, including those in the government and utility sectors like Gori.

Gori's data resilience challenge

Gori sought support to enhance their data backup and recovery strategy so they could quickly recover from potential cyber incidents and return to operations, and Veeam stood out as a top contender.

Veeam’s solution for protecting mission-critical data

Veeam’s flexibility and comprehensive capabilities were key reasons that Gori decided to partner with them.

“When we started our search for a solution, Veeam stood out straight away as a strong contender,” said Cataldo. “As well as meeting all our key technical requirements, Veeam offered us a great deal of flexibility when it came to deployment, allowing us to bring our on-premises and cloud environments onboard step by step. Crucially, the solution also supports legacy operating systems, which we use for our water analysis applications.”

Gori adopted the Veeam Data Platform, which integrated seamlessly with their existing IT infrastructure and cloud environments. The solution also incorporated Veeam Data Cloud Vault, a fully managed, secure cloud storage resource running on Microsoft Azure.

Veeam Data Cloud Vault is designed to meet incredibly high standards of security. By using best-practice security protocols and ensuring data is encrypted both in transit and at rest using AES 256-bit encryption, Veeam provides a solution that meets strict compliance requirements. Furthermore, the air gap feature––which isolates data from external networks, including the internet––helps ensure that, even in the event of a cyberattack, backup data remains protected.

“Veeam Data Cloud Vault exemplifies the pinnacle of secure cloud storage solutions,” said Sam Nicholls, Veeam Vault Product Marketing Manager. “It empowers organizations like Gori to safeguard critical data with confidence, offering rapid recovery in the face of evolving cyber threats.” Veeam Data Cloud Vault was also immediately available via Azure Marketplace, making it an accessible solution for Gori.

The results: Faster recovery and stronger protection

One of the standout benefits of the Veeam solution is its speed.

“We’ve significantly improved our data resilience with Veeam,” said Cataldo. “While our previous backup tools worked well, they required substantial time and effort to manage. Veeam Data Platform makes it much faster and easier to manage our data protection processes.”

Cataldo added, “Veeam Data Cloud Vault runs on the highest-performance tier of Azure Blob Storage, which means we can restore our systems very quickly. We can also restore that data in a granular way, which enables us to recover accidentally deleted files in a matter of minutes.”

By leveraging Veeam’s solutions alongside Azure technology, Gori has achieved stronger protection for their data and faster recovery, including proxies to accelerate restores. With Veeam, the organization adheres to the Zero Trust model, ensuring that no entity is trusted by default––even those inside the network.

With Veeam's support, Gori also follows the 3-2-1-1-0 rule for data protection, which means they have three copies of their data, stored on two different types of media, with one copy offsite and one copy offline or immutable. The result is a highly resilient system that supports business continuity.

"If the digital systems that control our water treatment infrastructure were hit by a cyberattack, the potential impact on service delivery could be massive,” said Cataldo. “With Veeam Data Cloud Vault, we have a fully managed and highly cost-effective solution to protect our mission-critical data and keep clean water flowing to the people we serve."

As cyber threats evolve, the need for robust data protection and disaster recovery solutions is critical. For Gori, Veeam’s solutions have provided the security and peace of mind needed to safeguard their data and help ensure the continued delivery of key services.

“Veeam is proud to support Gori in securing essential water services for 1.5 million Italians,” said Krull. “Our comprehensive data protection solutions are designed to help organizations like Gori quickly recover from cyber threats and ensure uninterrupted service delivery.”

Veeam says that they will continue to work with Microsoft "to build new AI-powered solutions that help customers protect, recover, and unlock more value from their data."

That's why with Veeam, Gori is well-equipped to face the challenges of the changing cybersecurity landscape and maintain the trust of the communities they serve.