Terberg Group, Supplier of Specialty Automotive Vehicles and Products, Selects Veeam

Veeam Software, Inc. announced that Terberg Group B.V., a supplier of specialty automotive vehicles and products, replaced Symantec Backup Exec its Veeam Backup and Replication, putting data protection back into the driver’s seat to safeguard intellectual property.

Terberg deployed Veeam Backup for Office 365, gaining total access and control of historical data to meet legal compliance requirements. The software company succeeded in simplifying IT, saving the equivalent of nearly one full-time employee (FTE) and shifting the IT team’s focus from data protection to predictive analytics.

“Everyone said Veeam is the best solution out there, and everyone was right,” said Marco de Hair, IT manager, Terberg Group. “Veeam takes care of data protection so we can focus on the business.“

The group has been in business for more than 150 years, beginning as a village forge in Benschop, Netherlands and developing into a holding company with 28 companies in 12 countries and nearly 3,000 employees. It is still based in Benschop, but it manufactures and exports automotive vehicles and products to 100 countries.

The automotive industry is changing, driven by developments in sustainability, digitalization, electrification and autonomous vehicles. Terberg responds to each development with high-quality, customized solutions derived from decades’ worth of intellectual property. Protecting intellectual property was its challenge. Backup was unreliable and recovery was slow because Symantec Backup Exec was incapable of scaling to accommodate business growth. Within one year, company acquisitions nearly tripled the number of employees from 1,110 to 3,000 and from 80TB to 200TB. Another challenge was protecting historical data in Office 365. Terberg didn’t want to lose access and control of emails and files required for legal purposes.

Veeam solved each challenge by mapping new routes for protecting intellectual property and Office 365 data. Veeam backups and replicates more than 200TB across nearly 450 VM from Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) 3PAR StoreServ storage snapshots. Recovery with is 4x faster because of a feature called Instant VM Recovery. Legacy backup couldn’t recover an entire VM instantly.

Instant VM Recovery is essential when a company’s most critical applications run on several VMs, including Terberg’s computer-aided design (CAD) applications. They fuel IP, enabling the customer to differentiate itself in the market. For example, its electric tractors eliminate carbon emissions, and also improve safety by restricting speed when they’re hauling two stacked containers rather than one. An autonomous vehicle called AutoTUG improves safety too, and it saves on personnel costs. It determines its position using transponders embedded in the ground, enabling it to operate alone or among vehicles with human drivers.

Instant VM Recovery is also essential when a company’s ERP system runs on several VMs. Terberg uses Microsoft Dynamics AX on-premises to automate and optimize business processes. Veeam backups the VMs that support Dynamics AX.

“It’s a relief knowing Veeam protects our intellectual property and our ERP,” de Hair said. “It’s also a relief knowing Veeam protects our data in Microsoft Office 365.“

Microsoft provides services in Office 365, but backup is not one of them. Veeam fills that void while also providing instant visibility into Office 365 backups, granular recovery of individual items and an eDiscovery option, so Terberg can meet legal compliance requirements.

“One of the biggest benefits of using Veeam is ease-of-use, and that saves time,” de Hair said. “One of our colleagues spent 90% of his time rerunning failed backups and recovering data before we deployed Veeam. Now he spends less than 10% of his time on backup, giving us the flexibility to work on projects that add value to the business like predictive maintenance.“

Predictive maintenance lets Terberg evaluate the condition of vehicles at customers’ work sites and proactively repair them before problems arise. Predictive maintenance is a product of predictive analytics. The customer extracts data from Microsoft Dynamics AX and places it in Azure for analysis.

“The more we use Veeam, the more we realize how reliable, robust and effective it is,” de Hair said. “If you’re not using Veeam, you should consider using it.“

Case study Terberg Group drives automotive innovation with help from Veeam