In an age where cybersecurity threats loom large, small businesses are often caught in the crosshairs of attacks like ransomware. For these enterprises, swift recovery from disruptions is vital to maintaining operations and customer trust. Recognizing this urgent need, Citynet, a key provider of IT solutions in Austria, has launched an innovative disaster recovery-as-a-service (DRaaS) offering. This initiative aims not only to bolster local businesses’ defenses against cyber incidents but also to minimize potential downtime and financial losses.
Citynet, part of HALLAG Kommunal GmbH based in Hall, Austria, has long provided essential services to its community, from broadband connectivity to digital solutions for local enterprises. With increasing reports of ransomware attacks affecting numerous businesses, Citynet has identified an essential gap in disaster recovery capabilities among its clientele. Their goal: to ensure businesses can recover swiftly, ideally within hours, rather than facing prolonged downtime that can lead to significant operational disruptions and revenue loss.
To realize this vision, Citynet sought partnership with Lenovo, a trusted collaborator for over 20 years. Leveraging the Lenovo 360 for TruScale framework, Citynet is now equipped to offer a comprehensive DRaaS solution. This allows businesses to quickly set up a temporary IT environment and restore critical services without major interruptions.
Christian Vojak, Supervisor DevOps at HALLAG, stressed the importance of robust disaster protection: “As we provide essential municipal services, we have robust disaster protection capabilities in place to reduce the threat of security incidents to our systems and services. Our goal was to extend that same level of disaster protection to businesses across the region.”
The partnership with Lenovo has facilitated the delivery of a rapid, cost-effective disaster recovery option. “The flexibility of Lenovo TruScale Device-as-a-Service was instrumental in delivering a rapid, cost-effective approach to disaster recovery—helping businesses respond more quickly to ransomware and other IT disruptions,” said Abdul Hakim, Executive Director of Digital Workplace Solutions at Lenovo.
For small business owners, transitioning to such advanced disaster recovery solutions can present considerable advantages. One major benefit is compliance with increasing cybersecurity regulations. In Austria, recent laws require businesses to report ransomware incidents and isolate affected systems, necessitating an effective disaster recovery plan. The EU’s Network and Information Security Directive (NIS2) amplifies this requirement, prompting many businesses to invest in bolstered disaster recovery strategies.
Vojak explained how the pay-as-you-go pricing structure offered by Lenovo TruScale aligns well with the needs of smaller enterprises: “Lenovo TruScale’s flexible pay-as-you-go pricing and agile deployment options made it a perfect fit for our new disaster recovery-as-a-service solution. With built-in maintenance and remote support, it gives us the confidence to offer customers a reliable option during critical situations.”
The turnkey solution provided by Citynet ensures that businesses can deploy the service swiftly—no complicated set-up required. Clients can get their systems operational as soon as the server rack arrives. Furthermore, additional services can be integrated as business needs evolve, affording significant flexibility.
Citynet’s data center leverages a hyperconverged infrastructure featuring Lenovo ThinkAgile VX nodes, which consolidate storage, compute, and networking into a single, streamlined system. For employees requiring urgent access to IT resources, Citynet also provides Lenovo ThinkPad notebooks to ensure that they can resume operations swiftly, even if original devices are compromised.
As businesses contend with the realities of cyber threats, Citynet’s new service offers not just a safety net, but also a strategic advantage. The ability to recover quickly enhances operational resilience, reduces risks, and can make all the difference in maintaining customer trust and confidence.
However, small business owners should remain mindful of potential challenges. While the immediate benefits of disaster recovery services are significant, their adoption requires an assessment of existing infrastructure and compliance processes. Additionally, while outsourcing disaster recovery solutions can reduce complexity, it also necessitates a careful evaluation of vendor reliability and service level agreements.
As this trend continues to grow, Citynet’s proactive approach represents a valuable opportunity for local businesses seeking to strengthen their defenses against rising cyber threats and operational disruptions. Vojak concluded, “With Lenovo TruScale, we now offer disaster recovery capabilities as a cost-effective subscription service, with Lenovo managing the core system maintenance. It’s a complete data center in a compact rack—flexible enough that our customers can also use it for other scenarios, such as to support complex infrastructure migrations.”
For more details, visit the original announcement at Lenovo News.
Image Via BizSugar
