Maasstad Hospital chooses Barracuda Cloudback-up

Like many healthcare institutions, Rotterdam’s Maasstad Hospital is using digital investments to soften the blow of the pandemic and realize new efficiencies. For example, the large teaching hospital launched a Microsoft 365 migration project two years ago to modernize its IT environment. However, the ICT infrastructure team leader, John Verschoor, was also aware that this would also potentially expose the healthcare institution to greater risks in terms of data privacy, security and compliance.

It was therefore quickly decided to look for a reliable external party that could provide an easy-to-implement, easy-to-use and affordable cloud backup. That vendor was Barracuda.

Finding the right tools

The pandemic was undoubtedly the catalyst for the migration. With more and more administrative staff working from home, Maasstad had to make sure they had the right tools to stay productive. The hospital has now switched more than 6,000 users to the Microsoft platform and also uses Intune to manage mobile devices and applications. However, John was well aware of the shared responsibility that providers and customers have in the cloud. And that the hospital needed an external party to provide backups, in the absence of a suitable service from Microsoft.

This, he says, was a fairly simple decision. The data the hospital stores on Microsoft 365 is mission-critical, and the consequences would be significant if availability was interrupted for any reason. Given that healthcare is among the main sectors targeted by ransomware, this is not just a hypothetical threat. For example, in 2020, 34% of all healthcare facilities in the US were affected by ransomware.

From a Dutch perspective, John and his team were also aware that compliance with local healthcare regulations (NEN 7510) required cloud backup capabilities.

And so began the search for a no-nonsense, user-friendly and accessible cloud-to-cloud backup solution. It had to be easy to implement, affordable to run, and provide the flexibility that Maasstad needed.

Simple, powerful backup

Working with reseller Avensus, John and his team brought a long list back to Barracuda. System Engineer Jerfy Koedood was already familiar with the Barracuda Cloud-to- Cloud Backup product from a previous post and discovered that even more improvements had been made.

The solution offers the flexibility to restore data from Teams, Exchange, SharePoint and OneDrive in great detail. For example, there is the ability to restore to a specific time and both scheduled and on-demand backups.

A newly designed user interface makes it incredibly quick and easy to find and restore data via search and filter options, from anywhere with an internet connection. Comprehensive reports of backup status, status monitoring and storage statistics provide insight into the entire data protection environment. Audit logs and email notifications provide even more transparency for IT teams. There are also five levels of detailed role-based access control to enforce security in accordance with company policies.

“The implementation was a piece of cake. You can hardly even call it an implementation,” John explains. “The initial connection to Microsoft 365 was very smooth, and Barracuda guided us through the process – great!”

Building on secure foundations

In the intervening months, the solution has done exactly what it promised. Barracuda Cloud-to-Cloud Backup has consistently delivered powerful, easy-to-manage capabilities, giving John and his team peace of mind that the hospital’s mission-critical data is secure. Recovery requests, when they come in, are handled seamlessly.

“We’re a hospital that likes the no-nonsense approach, and Barracuda Cloud-to-Cloud Backup fits that bill perfectly,” said John. “We received incredible ease of implementation, access, and use.”

Going forward, the hospital will build on its data protection strategy with additional investments in cybersecurity to reduce the risk of breaches or leaks of sensitive information. It will also invest more money in additional IT staff as it continues its journey to the cloud. But most importantly, this new era of IT modernization will be built on secure foundations, thanks to Barracuda Cloud-to-Cloud Backup.

“We are a hospital that likes the no-nonsense approach, and Barracuda Cloud-to-Cloud Backup fits that picture perfectly.”

John Verschoor, ICT Infrastructure Team Leader, Maasstad Hospital

Learn more about Barracuda Cloud-to-Cloud Backup!