Customer Success: Stage2Data Helps Multi-Office Organization Strengthen Resilience
Case Study: From Backup Coverage to Fast Failover Failback
A multi-office organization client needed a backup and disaster recovery strategy that could do more than store copies of data. It needed to protect critical systems at headquarters, extend reliable coverage to satellite offices, protect Microsoft 365, and support fast recovery if production was disrupted.
Rapid Response
Immediate workload restoration
Centralized Protection
One platform across all sites
Reduced Overhead
With high-performance local recovery
Just as important, the solution had to avoid the cost and operational burden of deploying and managing dedicated backup hardware at every location.
Stage2Data helped the client build a protection model designed around those outcomes. The environment combines local performance for critical workloads, centralized protection for remote offices, disaster recovery infrastructure built for fast failover, and lower-cost long-term retention.
The Challenges and Objectives
The customer required broader coverage with a more cost-efficient retention solution. Stage2Data implemented protection of the client’s Microsoft 365 environment using Cohesity, with Microsoft 365 data backed up to dedicated clusters in the Stage2Data environment. This extends protection to SaaS data without consuming on-premises resources.
For longer-term retention, backup and replication data is tiered to Stage2Data’s in-house S3-compatible object storage platform. That lowers the client’s reliance on higher-cost primary storage while supporting extended retention requirements in a more cost-conscious way.
Together, these elements gave the organization broader protection across its environment while keeping long-term storage more manageable.
Key Outcomes:
Faster recovery for critical systems.
Local backup infrastructure enables rapid restores where downtime matters most.
Simpler backup protection across satellite offices.
Centralized backup eliminates the need for site-by-site infrastructure.
Reduced infrastructure overhead at remote sites.
Remote offices are protected without deploying and managing local hardware.
Broader coverage across on-premises and Microsoft 365 data.
Unified protection extends across core systems and Microsoft 365 environments.
More cost-efficient long-term retention.
Tiered storage reduces costs while supporting extended data retention.
A disaster recovery model built for real failover.
Pre-configured failover enables recovery within minutes, not hours.
The Solution: Strong Protection at Headquarters, Without Added Complexity at Remote Sites
At the client’s head office and primary data facility, a local Cohesity backup solution now supports high-performance backup and recovery for core production systems. That gives the organization fast backup operations and immediate restore access where speed matters most.
For satellite offices, Stage2Data helped the client avoid a more expensive site-by-site hardware model. Using Cohesity with Hybrid Extender technology, backup data from remote locations is securely transmitted to a centralized Cohesity cluster hosted in Stage2Data’s data center.
“Stage2Data helped us move from a fragmented protection approach to a model that is far easier to manage, scale, and rely on when it matters. With Cohesity, Hybrid Extender, and their disaster recovery infrastructure, we now have a solution that’s built for real resilience, not just backup.”
— Director of IT Infrastructure
Results
The solution gave the client consistent enterprise-grade protection across locations while cutting infrastructure spend and reducing management complexity.
1. Enterprise-Grade Protection
Instead of maintaining separate backup hardware at every site, the organization gained a simpler and more scalable way to protect distributed operations.
2. Continuous Replication to Dedicated S2D Clusters
If production is interrupted, the organization can initiate failover within minutes, helping reduce downtime and keep operations moving.
3. High Speed Mirror
Fiber connection between the client and Stage2Data. This means failover can happen without manual network reconfiguration, removing another point of delay during a live incident.
4. Cost-Efficient Retention
For longer-term retention, backup and replication data is tiered to Stage2Data’s in-house S3-compatible object storage platform. That lowers the client’s reliance on higher-cost primary storage
Looking Ahead
With the hardware refresh complete, the focus moves to the final transfer of operations back to the client’s site. Stage2Data will confirm that replication flows correctly from the new primary data center to the recovery environment. This return to the original configuration marks the end of the emergency response. The client enters this next phase with verified protection and a disaster recovery strategy tested in a real-world scenario.
