GTR IT manage critical application infrastructure at over 250 locations, supporting around 1 million passenger journeys a day.
It selected Databarracks for Backup as a Service for a scalable managed service.
Gordon Rampling is GTR’s IT Operations Manager, responsible for IT operations, data centres and data protection.
“GTR IT manage critical application infrastructure at over 250 locations, supporting around 1 million passenger journeys a day prior to the Covid-19 pandemic.
“When we took over the franchise, our IT systems were an amalgamation of two previous incumbents, each with its own data infrastructure.
“As part of a major overhaul of IT we looked to consolidate several inherited legacy data backup solutions and engaged with Databarracks as our preferred supplier for BaaS.
“Databarracks have proven themselves as a much-valued partner over a number of years and I view them as an extension of our IT department.”
For us to implement a similar solution internally would mean a significant commitment and outlay just to get started... With Databarracks we gained access to everything we needed but could start small and scale-up as we needed.
GTR selected Backup as a Service from Databarracks. There were two key factors in its decision to choose a managed service.
“Firstly, it was a very scalable model. To implement a similar solution internally would mean a significant outlay just to get started. We would need to invest in software, hardware, and the team at the offset. With Databarracks, we gained access to everything we needed but could start small and scale-up as we needed.
“Secondly, by working with an MSP, we get a real partner, supplementing the skills of our team. The engineers are experts at what they do. We get to embed that expertise into our out help desk.”
By using a managed service, GTR was able to benefit from improvements in functionality without additional cost.
“We get to stay up-to-date with the best technologies as part of the service. Databarracks evaluates new technologies and migrated us to new backup software when a better option became available.
“We added more functionality and the ability to protect our Office 365 state of over 10,000 users. If we had purchased the technology ourselves, it would have been a major project to upgrade. With Databarracks, that transition was managed for us in the background without disruption and it actually reduced our costs overall.”
As a technology function, GTR’s IT team needs to support the strategic objectives of the business around modernisation and reliability.
“IT, data and security are critical to run the organisation efficiently. We need to meet our responsibilities to passengers, colleagues and our stakeholders. Our services are responsible for millions of people getting to work and accessing key services and leisure activities across our network. We take that responsibility very seriously and everyone plays a part in delivering a modern, reliable service.
“Backup as a Service from Databarracks helps our team be more efficient because it takes away the repetitive manual work needed to maintain backup systems. When we need recoveries, we have a team we can call upon to handle them quickly.
“Whether we’re recovering a deleted file, migrating servers from remote sites into the data centre or recovering entire systems, the team are fast, professional and reliable.”