Cloud provider UCloud restored client systems at its own site in Warsaw a little more than a day after the need arose to move infrastructure operations from Kyiv. Previously, the company created backup copies of the entire Kyiv site — not just client systems that separately used Backup as a Service.
Cloud provider UCloud restored client systems at its own site in Warsaw a little more than a day after the need arose to move infrastructure operations from Kyiv. Previously, the company created backup copies of the entire Kyiv site — not just client systems that separately used Backup as a Service.
For UCloud, backup and Disaster Recovery are part of the infrastructure architecture. The company has previously backed up the data of all customers whose systems were hosted at the Kyiv site.
"We consciously made the decision to backup the entire site, not just those systems for which customers separately ordered a backup service. For us, it was a matter of responsibility for the infrastructure entrusted to us. At a critical moment, this decision made it possible to move from backups to real recovery without losing time," said Serhiy Kolesnichenko, COO of UCloud, to dev.ua.
When it became necessary to move the infrastructure to another location, the UCloud team began restoring from backups at its own site in Warsaw.
In a little over 24 hours, the backups were transferred and deployed in Warsaw, after which the client systems were restored on the new infrastructure.
The company calls this case a full-fledged Disaster Recovery scenario in real conditions — with a different data center, a significant amount of infrastructure, and limited recovery time.
UCloud uses Veeam technologies for backup and recovery. The company uses them in Backup as a Service and Disaster Recovery as a Service. This year, UCloud also received Platinum status in the Veeam Cloud & Service Provider (VCSP) program — the highest level of partnership in this program.
In this particular scenario, according to the company, what was important was not so much the partner’s status as the practical experience of the team that regularly works with the relevant technologies.
During recovery, it was not only necessary to access backups. The team had to prepare the necessary resources, migrate data, deploy virtual infrastructure, test its performance, and sequentially restore client services.
Thus, Disaster Recovery in this case covered not only backup files, but also geographic redundancy, available computing resources, recovery technology, and a trained team that can quickly go through the entire process.
UCloud notes that this case has become a practical confirmation of the company’s approach: a backup scenario must be prepared before the need to use it arises.
