Linamar Soars with Commvault: Cloud Backup Cuts Costs, Boosts Efficiency

The Challenge

Linamar recently shifted from Microsoft® Exchange on-premises to cloud-based Microsoft 365 for its 7,000+ users worldwide, and their current tape-based backup solution didn’t support it. With this shift also came the need for a more robust backup of their Microsoft 365 data, augmenting the existing M365 archiving features. The built-in M365 data protection was a start, but couldn’t handle the rapidly expanding demands imposed by the global network Linamar operated on. Until then, backup procedures were primarily done on-premises to tape at each individual site. Requests for restores required a chain of effort across teams and could easily take two weeks. On all levels of the corporation, there was strong motivation to minimize the costs and administrative time needed.

The Solution

Linamar was introduced to Commvault when Commvault® Cloud Backup for Microsoft 365 was in beta two years ago and decided to evaluate the production version for Microsoft 365 backup. They looked at other solutions, including Backup Exec and Backupify, but the scalability and enterprise expertise of Commvault Cloud won Linamar over.

They planned to set up Commvault Cloud while simultaneously migrating users to M365 from on premises. Commvault worked with Linamar to ensure all the users they just imported into M365 were imported into Commvault Cloud. “It wouldn’t have been possible without the Commvault support and development teams,” according to Kristian Smith, a Manager of Technical Services & Support at Linamar.

Kristian also liked the single view for all M365 backup activities: “We’re more efficient in all of our backups for M365 because it’s in a single pane of glass.”

The Results

Moving to Commvault Cloud helped the organization save cost and administrative time previously needed to manage tapes. And backup is no longer a full-time job – it’s more like “when you need it, set it up.” The team estimates they’re saving 32 hours a month on average in administrator time. Scalability and availability now adapt easily to accommodate up to 15,000 unique mailboxes, backing up those mailboxes at least three times a day. And top-of-the-line support ensured a smooth implementation. Per Kristian, “Their support is responsive and reliable. The entire Commvault team always goes above and beyond every time, for every interaction.”

Even more than the overall corporate savings and performance, users see a fast response to requests for restores. Restores can now be handled 100% within the team, and take hours to execute – a far cry from the weeks it could take before with a request flowing through multiple teams.

Bottom line: Linamar achieved the data protection they needed while gaining the operational efficiencies that come from Commvault Cloud.