Case Studies
Forbes Shire Council – Backup & Resiliency
Client:
Forbes Shire Council
Industry:
Local Government
Services Rendered:
Design & Implementation (Data Centre)
About Forbes Shire Council
Discover how Forbes Shire Council partnered with S5 Technology Group to overhaul its backup and disaster recovery strategy, achieving ransomware resilience, faster recovery times, and simplified, cost-effective data protection after the 2022 floods.
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The Challenge
- Complicated to manage
- Operational and process failures
- Solution lacking strategy
Forbes Shire Council faced significant challenges with its backup and disaster recovery (DR) capabilities, especially as
the 2022 NSW floods highlighted the criticality of the existing system.
Their backup environment had grown in an ad-hoc manner, leading to a complex, difficult-to-manage infrastructure. Recovery tests were frequently failing, putting critical council services at risk. In addition to natural disaster risks, increasing ransomware threats meant the council needed a more resilient solution that could protect vital data while reducing administrative overhead.
With floods impacting council operations and infrastructure, Forbes Shire Council engaged S5 Technology Group to refresh and streamline their backup and DR strategy.
The Solution
S5 Technology Group worked closely with Forbes Shire Council’s internal IT team to design a streamlined, high-resilience backup and disaster recovery solution. Leveraging the council’s existing experience with Veeam, we crafted a system that provided flexibility, security, and operational efficiency.
Our Approach
Our approach involved implementing replication to a secondary data centre owned by the council, ensuring an offsite failover option in the event of a primary site failure. To address ransomware resilience and long-term data protection, we incorporated immutable snapshots stored in carefully selected cloud storage. These snapshots cannot be altered or deleted, providing a critical safeguard against cyber threats.
S5 prioritised simplicity and manageability, reducing the complexity of the previous ad-hoc system. The deployment was carefully planned to minimise disruption, integrating seamlessly with the council’s infrastructure. By aligning the new solution with industry best practices, S5 provided a backup and DR framework that allowed Forbes Shire Council to quickly restore services when needed.
The combination of local replication and immutable cloud backups significantly strengthened the council’s resilience to both
natural disasters and cyberattacks. With multiple recovery options, Forbes Shire Council can now confidently protect and restore data without excessive costs or administrative burden.
The Outcome
- Full data redundancy
- Reduced recovery times
- Simplified management
The backup and disaster recovery refresh provided Forbes Shire Council with a robust,
streamlined, and secure solution. With replication to a secondary data centre and immutable cloud backups, the council now has multiple recovery options, ensuring critical services remain available during both natural disasters and cyber incidents.
Recovery times have been significantly reduced, enabling faster restoration of essential systems. The solution also decreased operational costs by eliminating inefficiencies and reducing manual intervention. The simplified management structure eased the administrative burden on IT staff, allowing them to focus on broader strategic initiatives.
By partnering with S5, Forbes Shire Council not only mitigated flood-related risks but also bolstered its overall cybersecurity posture, ensuring long-term resilience and operational continuity.
