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Smart Technologies

MSP offers immutable backups, zero-downtime upgrades and scalable performance with Scality ARTESCA

Trusted systems integrator and managed service provider now provides banks in Malta with the strongest form of data protection at deepest level of their storage infrastructure.

As a systems integrator and service provider, Smart Technologies offers a wide range of IT private-cloud solutions to a diverse set of clients. The company primarily serves medium-sized and enterprise businesses in the banking, infrastructure, manufacturing, insurance, and gaming sectors, with a strong focus on the local banking industry.

Safeguarding the financial vibrancy and banking system in Malta is a top priority for the Smart Technologies team. To achieve their goal, they implement the strongest form of data protection at the deepest level of their clients’ storage infrastructure. This approach ensures an essential last line of defense to thwart any potential threat.

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“To us one of the most important features is how you access ARTESCA. If there is a ransomware attack, the bad actor is not able to see the backend storage because the ARTESCA bucket is only visible in the backup application and not at VM level.

This segregation adds a critical layer of security — it’s a very important feature, especially for banking.”

Robert Azzopardi

CTO, Smart Technologies

The Challenge

Backup was complex and time-consuming, resulting in system shutdowns and frustration

“Before approaching Scality, we were backing up critical data on traditional storage, and we soon found out that there are limits to how much we could store in these legacy devices,” says Smart Technologies’ Head of Systems and Cloud Karl Fenech.

“Not only did those disks have storage limitations, but the update process was complex and time-consuming, and often resulted in system shutdowns,” adds Smart Technologies’ CTO Robert Azzopardi.

Smart Technologies, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise platinum partner, discovered Scality ARTESCA during one of HPE’s presentations. What they heard sparked immediate interest among the team.

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“We’re now using ARTESCA to manage our own backups. Our setup is unique; we’re cloud providers with our own datacenter, SmartCloud — a joint venture between STL and Melita — where we offer various cloud services, including secure backups.”

Robert Azzopardi

CTO, Smart Technologies

The Solution

Scality ARTESCA S3 object storage delivers data immutability, zero-downtime upgrades, and scalable performance for Smart Technologies and their customers

Smart Technologies has implemented a 200-terabyte Scality ARTESCA installation, addressing past challenges with update management. Previously, performing updates posed risks of downtime and other issues, making the process time-consuming and challenging.

With ARTESCA, the team now has the flexibility to perform updates during production hours without interruptions. ARTESCA’s systematic update process enhances this capability by upgrading one node at a time, maintaining high availability throughout. This sequential node-by-node approach has proven valuable to Robert and his colleagues, who appreciate the reliability and efficiency it brings.

ARTESCA’s CORE5 technology

ARTESCA’s CORE5 technology also fortifies data protection against ransomware attacks, ensuring that backup data remains inaccessible for exfiltration, deletion, or encryption by attackers. This guarantees that, even in the event of a ransomware attack that compromises access to primary data, Smart Technologies can still restore the backup data securely.

Scalability is another highlight of ARTESCA. According to Karl, “The ARTESCA protocol offers limitless S3 buckets, and it’s the perfect technology for our backup solution.” In contrast to other solutions Smart Technologies evaluated, ARTESCA’s scalability allows them to scale rapidly and meet diverse client demands, providing as much capacity as necessary.

Smart Technologies was so impressed with ARTESCA’s capabilities that they opted to deploy it internally for their own backup needs.

This internal setup allows Smart Technologies to provide secure, off-site backups for clients with ARTESCA. By following best practices, the recommended backup rules, and S3 object locking with ARTESCA’s immutability feature, Smart Technologies enhances their defense against ransomware attacks.

Unlike traditional 1:1 deployments, Smart Technologies hosts multiple customers on the same system, integrating ARTESCA into their infrastructure to deliver scalable cloud backup services. This shared deployment approach enables them to serve a variety of clients securely and efficiently within their cloud ecosystem.

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“We’re now using ARTESCA to manage our own backups. Our setup is unique; we’re cloud providers with our own datacenter, SmartCloud — a joint venture between STL and Melita — where we offer various cloud services, including secure backups.”

Robert Azzopardi

CTO, Smart Technologies

The Results

Faster customer onboarding

with seamless scalability

Peace of mind

that customer data is immutable and ransomware-proof

~30% TCO savings

and strong revenue growth in their data protection business

Worry-free restoration of customer data

19 servers in a single weekend

Delivering positive and resilient outcomes to customers

Veeam integration

Scality’s ongoing customer service and support have been a game-changer for Smart Technologies. For instance, when trying to integrate with Veeam solutions, Scality has been instrumental in assisting with any troubleshooting along the way.

Robert points out that Scality ARTESCA offers features and benefits that are very difficult to find elsewhere. Having an object store that is based on an S3 protocol and that can be installed on-premises is a huge plus because solutions that provide the advantages of a true ‘cloud-like’ service offering are scarce.

Ransomware protection

The organizations Smart Technologies serves are often subject to strict data protection requirements. In Europe, the financial sector must meet Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) requirements by January 2025, and NIS 2 requirements as of October 17, 2024. The upcoming DORA requirement will ensure that companies back up data and critical systems regularly and that backups be stored securely off-site. The goal is for an organization’s data to stay protected even in the event of a ransomware attack. Immutability comes in clutch here, helping Smart Technologies ensure this for their customers.

Data sovereignty

Another area of focus for many of Smart Technologies’ customers is data sovereignty, especially in banking institutions. It’s extremely important that they have control of their data. Again, with the kind of applications Smart Technologies has integrated with ARTESCA, they can provide that control. While Smart Technologies provides the storage service, the data remains under customer control. They have access to a portal to check on their data backups at any time and take action.

The most reassuring thing about Scality, Robert says, is how data is protected.

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“Ultimately, what I think made Scality a success story for us is the support we get from them. Scality support has provided white-glove level service. They go the extra mile at every interaction, leaning in to understand the challenges and how we can get through them. We’re pleased about that. The Scality solution makes things very easy for us now.”

Robert Azzopardi

CTO, Smart Technologies

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“Our customers can now decide to keep their backups immutable for whatever length of time suits them — two weeks, one year, whatever it is. Once a backup is made and the policy is set, the data cannot be modified. This is very important because it guarantees that even if a cybersecurity incident occurs or a third party gets into the system, they can’t change or delete the data.”

Karl Fenech

Head of Systems and Cloud, Smart Technologies

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It’s insurance nowadays. Our customers frequently ask us questions like: ‘How is your data secured? What kind of additional security updates do you provide?’

We have peace of mind that we now have a technology that addresses their security questions. We know from experience that even the underlying platform of ARTESCA is very reliable. It doesn’t break easily, and it’s also very secure from an operating point of view.
Not only is client data secure, but access to the Scality platform is also very secure.”

Robert Azzopardi

CTO, Smart Technologies