101 What do Game of Thrones, data protection, and Smart Technologies have in common? You guessed it: The country of Malta! If you’re a Game of Thrones fan, you might think of Malta’s iconic Mdina Gate or the Azure Window, which served as backdrops for the first season. You may also know that Malta is nestled in the heart of the Mediterranean and has historically been at the crossroads of trade and cultural exchange, attracting commerce and influence from Europe, North Africa and the Middle East.What you may not realize is that today, this tradition continues as Malta’s growth rate in the past several years has been three times the average European rate, establishing itself as an emerging hub for digital industries like blockchain and fintech services. This is where our partner Smart Technologies, LTD of Malta enters the scene. As a systems integrator and service provider, Smart Technologies offers a wide range of IT private-cloud solutions to a diverse set of clients. The company primarily serves medium-sized and enterprise businesses in the banking, infrastructure, manufacturing, insurance, and gaming sectors, with a strong focus on the local banking industry. Safeguarding the financial vibrancy and banking system in Malta is a top priority for the Smart Technologies team. To achieve this, they implement the strongest form of data protection at the deepest level of their clients’ storage infrastructure. This approach ensures an essential last line of defense to thwart any potential threat. Before Scality came into the picture: Backup was time-consuming and frustrating Head of Systems and Cloud, Karl Fenech of Smart Technologies explains, “Before approaching Scality, we were backing up critical data on traditional storage, and we soon found out that there are limits to how much we could store in these legacy devices.” “Not only did those disks have storage limitations, but the update process was complex and time-consuming, and often resulted in system shutdowns,” adds Smart Technologies’ CTO Robert Azzopardi. On the hunt for a secure and scalable backup solution Smart Technologies, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise platinum partner, discovered Scality ARTESCA during one of HPE’s presentations. What they heard sparked immediate interest among the team. “To us one of the most important features is how you access ARTESCA,” says Robert, referring to the system’s secure, segregated environment. “If there is a ransomware attack, the bad actor is not able to see the backend storage because the ARTESCA bucket is only visible in the backup application and not at VM level. This segregation adds a critical layer of security — it’s a very important feature, especially for banking.” ARTESCA delivers substantial advantages to Smart Technologies with immutability, zero-downtime upgrades, and scalable performance Smart Technologies has implemented a 200-terabyte ARTESCA installation, addressing past challenges with update management. Previously, performing updates posed risks of downtime and other issues, making the process time-consuming and challenging. With ARTESCA, the team now has the flexibility to perform updates during production hours without interruptions. ARTESCA’s systematic update process enhances this capability by upgrading one node at a time, maintaining high availability throughout. This sequential node-by-node approach has proven valuable to Robert and his colleagues, who appreciate the reliability and efficiency it brings. ARTESCA’s CORE5 technology also fortifies data protection against ransomware attacks, ensuring that backup data remains inaccessible for exfiltration, deletion, or encryption by attackers. This guarantees that, even in the event of a ransomware attack that compromises access to primary data, Smart Technologies can still restore the backup data securely. At Scality, we’ve identified the five critical levels of safeguards necessary to achieve this ambitious standard of cyber resilience. We call these the CORE5. Learn more about CORE5 in our tech guide:Beyond immutability: 5 must-have levels of cyber resilience for the AI era Scalability is another highlight of ARTESCA. According to Karl, “The ARTESCA protocol offers limitless S3 buckets, and it’s the perfect technology for our backup solution.” In contrast to other solutions Smart Technologies evaluated, ARTESCA’s scalability allows them to scale rapidly and meet diverse client demands, providing as much capacity as necessary. Smart Technologies was so impressed with ARTESCA’s capabilities that they opted to deploy it internally for their own backup needs. Robert elaborates: “We’re now using ARTESCA to manage our own backups. Our setup is unique; we’re cloud providers with our own datacenter, SmartCloud — a joint venture between STL and Melita — where we offer various cloud services, including secure backups.” This internal setup allows Smart Technologies to provide secure, off-site backups for clients with ARTESCA. By following best practices, the recommended backup rules, and S3 object locking with ARTESCA’s immutability feature, Smart Technologies enhances their defense against ransomware attacks. Unlike traditional 1:1 deployments, Smart Technologies hosts multiple customers on the same system, integrating ARTESCA into their infrastructure to deliver scalable cloud backup services. This shared deployment approach enables them to serve a variety of clients securely and efficiently within their cloud ecosystem. What set Scality apart from alternative solutions: White-glove service Scality’s ongoing customer service and support have been a game-changer for Smart Technologies. For instance, when trying to integrate with Veeam solutions, Scality has been instrumental in assisting with any troubleshooting along the way. Robert points out that Scality ARTESCA offers features and benefits that are very difficult to find elsewhere. Having an object store that is based on an S3 protocol and that can be installed on-premises is a huge plus because solutions that provide the advantages of a true ‘cloud-like’ service offering are scarce. . “Ultimately, what I think made Scality a success story for us is the support we get from them. Scality support has provided white-glove level service. They go the extra mile at every interaction, leaning in to understand the challenges and how we can get through them. We’re pleased about that. The Scality solution makes things very easy for us now.” Delivering positive and resilient outcomes to customers The organizations Smart Technologies serves are often subject to strict data protection requirements. In Europe, the financial sector must meet Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) requirements by January 2025, and NIS 2 requirements as of October 17, 2024. The upcoming DORA requirement will ensure that companies back up data and critical systems regularly and that backups be stored securely off-site. The goal is for an organization’s data to stay protected even in the event of a ransomware attack. Scalability comes in clutch here, helping Smart Technologies ensure this for their customers. One of ARTESCA’s best features is immutability. Karl highlights, “Our customers can now decide to keep their backups immutable for whatever length of time suits them — two weeks, one year, whatever it is. Once a backup is made and the policy is set, the data cannot be modified. This is very important because it guarantees that even if a cybersecurity incident occurs or a third party gets into the system, they can’t change or delete the data.” Another area of focus for many of Smart Technologies’ customers is data sovereignty, especially in banking institutions. It’s extremely important that they have control of their data. Again, with the kind of applications Smart Technologies has integrated with ARTESCA, they can provide that control. While Smart Technologies provides the storage service, the data remains under customer control. They have access to a portal to check on their data backups at any time and take action. The most reassuring thing about Scality, Robert says, is how data is protected. “It’s insurance nowadays. Our customers frequently ask us questions like: ‘How is your data secured? What kind of additional security updates do you provide?’ We have peace of mind that we now have a technology that addresses their security questions. We know from experience that even the underlying platform of ARTESCA is very reliable. It doesn’t break easily, and it’s also very secure from an operating point of view. Not only is client data secure, but access to the Scality platform is also very secure.” A bright, immutable future Unlike Game of Thrones, the grand finale of this story doesn’t involve chaos or disaster. No flying dragons scorching the landscape or epic battles over power and treasure. This story is just the opposite. With Smart Technologies’ savvy team of IT experts using Scality ARTESCA cyber-resilient storage, they now have the backup capacity, immutability, and seamless updates they sought. They intend to keep growing, including several capacity upgrades next year, and have begun promoting ARTESCA as a data center and backup solution that customers can have extreme confidence in.
