Acronis announced that BAE Systems, a leading global aerospace and defense company, uses Acronis Backup Advanced to back up workstations at 11 locations across Europe. Acronis software, which met the strictest criteria for securing data used to maintain Eurofighter fighter aircraft, enabled BAE Systems to significantly accelerate workstation deployment and minimize downtime in the event of an IT failure.
BAE Systems uses 1,000 Acronis Backup Advanced for PC licenses to back up servers and workstations. The backup software makes it possible to create a unified workstation image, including the operating system, settings, and applications, which can then be easily replicated across all workstations. In addition to network deployment, Acronis also enables the disk image to be loaded using CD or DVD media, increasing the security of sensitive data that unauthorized persons could otherwise potentially access during network transmission.
Servers and workstations play a key role in monitoring and recording flight data from Eurofighter aircraft—if information from the systems is unavailable, the aircraft cannot take off. The IT department manages more than 1,000 dedicated workstations at numerous bases in different countries. All workstations must have identical system settings; originally, these settings were configured manually based on a 300-page manual explaining every step in detail. The entire process was extremely demanding in terms of time and resources.
“With every installation, we have to be 100% certain; otherwise, some workstations may be unable to store and process data correctly. At certain locations, up to 200 workstations need to be installed, and deployment at each base took us more than a month on average,” said Lee Carden, Hardware Technology Specialist in BAE’s Engineering Support System division. “With the Acronis solution, the entire process has accelerated tremendously, and instead of 300 pages of instructions, we can manage with instructions on two A4 pages.”
The organization originally relied on a VMware solution that provided basic backup functions without additional disaster recovery or data protection features. Acronis now makes it possible to bring a workstation online up to 30 times faster than through the manual process—the average deployment time was reduced from 6 hours to 10 minutes, which means full operation at a base with 200 workstations in less than two days. If any workstation fails, Acronis restores the same image to new hardware with minimal downtime.
About BAE Systems
The organization is one of the leading global suppliers of technologies in the aerospace, defense, and security industries, delivering a wide range of products and services for land, naval, and air military forces. It employs approximately 105,000 people and has annual revenue of $35 billion. The company operates on every continent, particularly in the United Kingdom, Sweden, the USA, Australia, Saudi Arabia, and South Africa.
Article author: ZEBR.ai editorial team
