Retailer in Norway, Coop Norge Selects Proact

Proact IT Group AB has been selected by Coop Norge SA, a retailer in Norway, to deliver a backup solution for its cloud-based Microsoft Office 365 environment.

Delivered ‘as a service’ by Proact, the solution uses hybrid storage technology to ensure enterprise-grade data protection and restore capabilities for 4,000 users at Coop.

The solution offer an array of office support and productivity applications, including Exchange email, OneDrive file management, Skype conferencing and the Teams collaboration app.

To prepare for the Office 365 implementation, Proact was assigned to conduct a series of workshops with Coop’s IT team to define the requirements and organise the migration process.

During this process an external backup solution was advised to complement cloud-based Office 365 service. Using a hybrid cloud storage platform from NetApp, Proact was also selected to deliver this backup function as a service.

“From our longstanding partnership, we know Proact as a reliable supplier who understands our needs, and applies that knowledge to suggest effective, real-world solutions well suited for our environment,” says Tony Darup, IT infrastructure architect, Coop. “Our Office365 migration proect is greatly facilitated by Proact’s advice and contributions, and we trust their cloud backup service to provide the strong data protection we are looking for, without adding workload to our team.“

Coop also relies on Proact to supply and support its on-premise IT operations and infrastructure. A recent addition delivered by the company is a secondary storage solution based on Cohesity, Inc.‘s technology, which enables Coop to consolidate multiple backup platforms, reducing management overhead while improving performance of backup and recovery procedures.

“We are proud to be selected by Coop to assist them on their cloud journey,” says Lars Søderholm Hansen, MD, Proact Norway. “Proact was early to recognise the momentum towards Office 365 and we have developed our skill set and service offering accordingly to meet this market demand, which is projected to grow further.“

“There are several reasons why organisations using Office 365 elect to implement an external backup solution to complement this cloud-based service. One reason is to address user error or misconduct. Data retention policies offered with O365 are often too limited to meet enterprise customers business and regulatory requirements. Another reason is that the data recovery capabilities provided by O365 are geared towards individual users and items, which is inefficient and difficult to manage in an enterprise environment. That’s where our cloud based backup solutions come into play“, says Danny Duggal, head of strategic communications, Proact.