One of the biggest challenges facing financial services organisations that are embarking on digital transformation initiatives, is to integrate data while still ensuring business continuity. For Namibian-based Capricorn Group, Veeam® Software provided the assistance it required for this journey.
Working with its partner Complete Enterprise Solutions, Veeam rolled out its availability solutions encompassing backup and replication functionality to the three banks in the group; Bank Windhoek, Bank Gaborone and Cavmont Bank in Zambia. This move saw the group benefit from significant cost-savings as it streamlined operations with the new Veeam system.
Previously, the entities functioned separately, but after their merger into a single holding company, the business required a different approach. This saw the need to consolidate its systems as it identified more digitally-focused business prospects as a group and unlocked strategic opportunities at its other operations in Zambia and Botswana.
“While the initial requirements focused on backup and some replication, our evolution into a more mature financial services group meant we needed more measurement elements around our data availability. After all, you can only manage what you can measure,” says Johan Maritz, Lead Technical Platform Specialist at Capricorn Group.
Analysing data trends
Claude Schuck, Regional Manager for Africa at Veeam, says the project has been an ongoing process during the past two years as the group started migrating portions of its systems to Veeam.
“This culminated in a decision by Capricorn Group early last year to migrate all their availability requirements to Veeam. The project itself took approximately four months to complete and has provided the group with significant guidance in terms of their systems, data and opportunities for streamlining internal processes,” he says.
Maritz says that with Veeam, Capricorn Group can now conduct trend analysis based on its backups, virtual machines, capacity and usage to proactively manage its storage requirements as it evolves into a forward-looking trends organisation.
“Veeam enabled us to identify the over provisioning of our virtual machines. By downscaling from a resources perspective, we were able to significantly reduce costs. As the Veeam system allows for dynamic resource allocation, we can assign the required resources where it is needed most during busy month-end periods,” says Maritz.
Data management
Additionally, Veeam availability reporting provided Capricorn Group with information on its usage trends to help it manage its data centre infrastructure more cost effectively.
“While we do not yet fully automate all our resource pools, business intelligence can help us make more informed decisions based on the analysis we are able to do through Veeam.”
Furthermore, Maritz says, “Veeam is enabling it to manage its digitalisation projects in Zambia and Botswana as it becomes a more digital-centric organisation.
“The business benefits of being digital first includes availability, risk mitigation and financial control over the growth of our environment. Already, we have saved at least 25% in costs by reducing our virtual machine resource allocation thanks to Veeam and are looking at more reductions in the future,” he concludes.
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