Cyber Resilience Means a Safer Scotland
Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) trusts Commvault® for cyber resilience for its hybrid, multi-cloud infrastructure – supporting uninterrupted fire and rescue services for the people of Scotland.
Air-gapped backup for faster recovery
Single-pane-of-glass management
Hybrid, multi-cloud cyber resilience
2
data centers7,500
employees356
fire stationsCHALLENGE
- With the safety of the public at stake, a cyber attack is their #1 corporate risk.
- A behind-the-scenes crew works to prevent IT fires that could impact front line responses.
- Cloud-native storage alone would not be sufficient for recovery in the event of an attack.
- The public entity must demonstrate their readiness to auditors.
SOLUTION
- For more than a decade, SFRS has partnered with Commvault to protect its data and build operational and cyber resilience.
- Commvault Cloud protects data broadly across its hybrid, multi-cloud infrastructure.
- They isolate data from tampering or deletion and speed recovery with encrypted, air-gapped backup.
- For regular audits, Commvault products support their ability to demonstrate a commitment to cyber resilience and readiness.
RESULTS
- Expanding with Commvault, SFRS moves closer to single-pane-of-glass management and saves considerable team time.
- Gone are the days of traveling cross-country to manage tapes and the associated costs.
- Cyber resilience brings peace of mind that frontline responders can protect Scotland.
From actual fires to IT fires, keeping the public safe
Just as critical, a behind-the-scenes crew works to prevent IT fires that could impact front line responses.
For the ICT Operations team, a cyber event that might bring down front and back operations is the kind of worst-case scenario that keeps them vigilant.
“A cyber attack is our #1 corporate risk. Our ability to respond to the demands of the public relies on technology that’s vulnerable to disruption. The safety of the public is ultimately what’s at stake.”
Cyber resilience for hybrid, multi-cloud workloads
For more than a decade, SFRS has partnered with Commvault to protect its data, and increasingly, build operational resilience against new threats. Since then, the organization has evolved its long-term and offsite data storage from mostly tape to mostly cloud.
As threats become more sophisticated, SFRS has continued to trust and expand its Commvault partnership.
“Commvault has grown with us from data protection to cloud migration through the adoption of more robust cyber assurance,” Dundas says. “We are truly protecting the organization’s datasets no matter where they exist.”
SFRS runs its business primarily on Microsoft 365. The organization stores data in data centers on both coasts and in the cloud with Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services.
Air-gapped backup for faster recovery
In the move to cloud, SFRS recognized that cloud-native storage alone would not be sufficient for recovery in the event of a cyber attack. That’s why Commvault Cloud has been an essential piece of their resilience strategy.
“Our cloud partners are not going to protect us from malicious intent like ransomware attacks. The ability to protect those workloads with immutable copies in Commvault is very much part of our response plan.”
Immutable protection and the associated peace of mind come via Commvault’s Air Gap Protect. SFRS keeps backup data copies encrypted and in air-gapped locations – isolating them from tampering or deletion. That means quicker recovery in a cyber event.
Cleanroom Recovery
Next, Dundas looks forward to trying Commvault Cleanroom Recovery™ to truly test their recovery readiness. The service would let them continuously and affordably test data recovery in a controlled environment, collect forensic analysis, and demonstrate their readiness to auditors.
“Cleanroom could potentially open up opportunity for us to do more full-scale cyber recovery rehearsals,” he says. “As you can probably imagine, being an operations manager, it’s music to my ears.”
