Waltham Forest College

Waltham Forest College

"The managed service, combined with cost predictability and ransomware protection, made Assured the perfect choice for our college."- Kalim Uddin, Assistant Director of IT, Waltham Forest College

Waltham Forest College is a further education institution based in London, serving over 7,000 students across a diverse range of short and long-term study programs. With a critical reliance on IT for both academic delivery and business operations, the college manages 160 teaching spaces and a broad spectrum of endpoint devices across its campuses.

To address increasing cyber threats, regulatory compliance requirements, and IT resource limitations, Waltham Forest College partnered with Assured Data Protection (Assured) to modernize its backup and disaster recovery operations with a secure, scalable, and fully-managed solution.

The Challenge

Prior to partnering with Assured, Waltham Forest College used Veeam for over a decade, backing up data to both on-premises hardware and a cloud storage provider. However, as cyberattacks became more sophisticated, particularly post-covid, the college identified limitations in its legacy system. These included:

• No support for immutable backups, which was a growing requirement for cyber insurance.
• Manual monthly backups that consumed valuable staff time and often required weekend work.
• Rising operational costs and complex hardware refresh cycles.

The college also relied on VMware Site Recovery Manager for disaster recovery (DR), which required specialist support, high overheads, and limited real-world testing capabilities.

To enhance cyber resilience, simplify DR, and reduce costs, Waltham Forest College began seeking a modern, managed backup solution that would provide operational efficiency, long-term scalability, and peace of mind.

The Solution

After reviewing solutions from Veeam, Rubrik, and Backup Exec, Waltham Forest College selected Assured. Assured offered the turnkey solution the college was looking for: integrated hardware and software with immutable storage, comprehensive ransomware threat detection, and fully-managed support.

Assured’s solution provided:

• Immutable Backups: A critical insurance requirement and safeguard against ransomware.
• Ransomware Threat Hunting: Built into Rubrik’s platform, flagging hidden threats in backup data.
• On-Premises and Off-site DR: Local backup for rapid recovery, with secure cloud-based DR for resilience.
• Cost Predictability: An OpEx-based model that eliminated the need for future hardware refreshes.
• Full Admin Access: Allowing the college to maintain visibility and technical oversight without needing deep expertise in backup infrastructure.

The Result

Since partnering with Assured, Waltham Forest College has seen numerous benefits, including:

• Significant Time Savings: Manual monthly backup tasks were eliminated, saving weekend hours and reducing backup complexity.
• Cost Reduction: 30-40% savings in total cost of ownership over three to five years, compared to legacy hardware and software costs.
• DR Simplification: The college’s recovery platform was replaced with a more effective and testable DR solution.
• Cyber Insurance Compliance: Immutable backups and regular DR testing satisfied insurer requirements and Cyber Essentials accreditation criteria.

Looking Ahead

With a successful deployment and smooth experience over the past 18 months, Waltham Forest College sees Assured as a long-term partner in its IT strategy.

As cloud adoption increases and cyber threats evolve, the college is confident in its ability to adapt and recover, backed by Assured’s proactive service and Rubrik’s secure, scalable technology.