Sheffield Hallam University modernises its data protection strategy with a cloud-first approach, delivering faster backups, stronger cyber-resilience and simplified recovery across its hybrid IT environment.
Sheffield Hallam University has strengthened its data resilience strategy by deploying Veeam’s data protection platform as part of its wider cloud-first Digital Transformation programme.
The university, which continues to invest in digital learning platforms and research infrastructure, selected Veeam to provide a unified approach to data protection across its hybrid IT environment after identifying gaps in its previous backup and recovery capabilities.
“Our mission is to empower students, staff, and researchers with the digital tools they need to do the best work they can,” said Simon Henry, Head of Cloud, Networks, and Infrastructure at Sheffield Hallam University. “To support this, we are always optimising our technology estate to ensure that we’re getting the best value for money without limiting innovation.”
As part of its secure-by-design strategy, Sheffield Hallam wanted to introduce capabilities including role-based access control, immutable backups and centralised governance while supporting greater adoption of Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Azure.
“We have been in a process of transitioning our technology posture to adopt a cloud first approach to digital delivery,” said Henry. “Ensuring that this data is well protected and easy to recover is key to our success and ability to deliver services for users.”
Working with partner MTI, the university selected Veeam over alternative platforms because of its flexibility, pricing and lack of vendor lock-in.
“Veeam ticked every box on our checklist of requirements,” said Henry. “The lack of vendor lock-in with Veeam was a major win for us.”
The deployment protects workloads across the university’s on-premises infrastructure using a combination of platform-based and agent-based backups, while multiple copies of data are stored both on-site and in Veeam Vault.
“The environment protected by Veeam is varied,” said Henry. “It includes everything from research applications to systems that control lights in our campus buildings. Veeam can handle it all.”
The university has also extended protection to its Microsoft environment through Veeam Data Cloud for Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Entra ID, supporting its broader secure-by-design approach.
According to Sheffield Hallam, the implementation has delivered a 99.9% data recovery success rate, significantly faster backup performance and enhanced cyber-resilience through features including immutable backups and malware scanning.
“With Veeam we had full confidence in backup and restores from day one,” said Henry. “Our largest workload backs up 2.8x or 80% faster with Veeam, while some agent-based backups complete 13.7x faster than before.”
The university is now exploring the use of Veeam to improve data portability between platforms and extend protection to cloud workloads.
“Whether we choose to switch hypervisor or adopt hyper-converged infrastructure, we know Veeam will provide the same level of outstanding data resilience with minimal complexity,” said Henry. “Our experience of working with Veeam so far has been enriching and we look forward to seeing where we go next on our journey together.”
We asked Simon Henry, Head of Cloud, Networks and Infrastructure at Sheffield Hallam University, further questions to find out more about the project.
How does data resilience fit into Sheffield Hallam University’s wider cloud-first Digital Transformation strategy?
Data resilience underpins our wider Digital Transformation ambitions. As we’ve increased our use of cloud services, we’ve needed to ensure that the data supporting teaching, research, collaboration and administration is protected and recoverable across a hybrid environment. Data resilience gives us the confidence to adopt new technologies and modernise services, knowing that we can maintain availability and recover quickly if needed. Ultimately, we see resilience as an enabler of innovation rather than a barrier to it.
What were the key challenges you were looking to address by modernising the university’s backup and recovery capabilities?
Our previous backup platform had served us well, but our requirements had evolved. We wanted to strengthen our cyber-resilience, improve recovery confidence and gain better visibility across the estate. We were also looking for capabilities such as immutable backups, role-based access controls, stronger governance and improved reporting. Perhaps most importantly, we wanted greater assurance that we could recover services quickly and effectively in the event of an incident.
How important are immutable backups and role-based access controls in strengthening the university’s cyber-resilience?
They are extremely important. Immutable backups provide confidence that our recovery data remains protected and cannot be altered or deleted, even in a worst-case scenario. Role-based access controls help ensure that people only have access to the functions they need, supporting both security and governance requirements. Together, these capabilities form a key part of our secure-by-design approach and help us maintain a strong cyber-resilience posture.
Your environment supports everything from research applications to campus building systems. How do you ensure consistent protection across such a diverse range of workloads?
Higher education environments are incredibly diverse, so flexibility is important. Our approach is to apply consistent resilience principles while using the most appropriate protection method for each workload. We use a combination of platform-based and agent-based backups to protect everything from research applications and virtual infrastructure through to operational systems that support the campus. By combining this with multiple copies of data, immutability and centralised management, we can deliver a consistent level of protection and recovery confidence across the estate.
What impact has the new data protection platform had on your IT team’s ability to support students, staff and researchers while maintaining operational efficiency?
The biggest impact has been increased confidence and reduced operational overhead. The platform gives us better visibility into our environment and automates many of the routine tasks associated with backup management, allowing our teams to focus on delivering value elsewhere. We’ve also seen significant improvements in backup performance and recovery assurance, which means we can support students, staff and researchers knowing that critical data and services can be restored quickly when needed.
