MacRoberts LLP: Case Study
The Background
MacRoberts is one of the leading law firms in Scotland, operating from offices in Edinburgh and Glasgow with an impressive 150-year track record.
As the firm’s existing IT infrastructure was approaching end of life, they started a review and planning process to identify options to upgrade to a more effective and efficient set up with enhanced security, disaster recovery and business continuity.
Robust protection from ransomware attacks was a designated priority.
The Solution
After assessing the firm’s needs, Capito recommended a simpler replacement infrastructure that is significantly more efficient and resilient, while taking up less space and reducing power consumption.
New Hyper-V clusters were installed in Glasgow and Edinburgh using the latest version of Microsoft Windows Server creating an up-to-date robust solution based on technology that the MacRoberts IT team were entirely familiar with.
Pure Storage volumes and datastores were fully configured, providing strong protection against malicious or ransomware attacks using Pure’s Safe mode that ensures storage system snapshots cannot be deleted, encrypted, or modified.
Pure’s ActiveDR (Disaster Recovery) feature was also installed to provide continuous replication between MacRoberts Glasgow and Edinburgh data centres to deliver quick and efficient disaster recovery in the event of a catastrophic failure.
Capito worked with the client to run extensive user acceptance testing which was completed without failure of the system as expected.
The Outcome
MacRoberts is delighted with the upgrade and Capito’s management of the process. The firm now has full confidence that they are protected from ransomware attacks, giving their clients the peace of mind that their data is being managed safely and securely.
The two offices are synchronised with data replicated between both sites with a replication lag of between 1 and 2 seconds. Recovery point (RPO) and recovery time objectives (RTO) have been greatly enhanced as a result and further enhance the firm’s business continuity credentials. As the system uses clustered servers, updates are easily applied on an ongoing basis ensuring that security updates are implemented immediately and without business disruption.
While the new system is much more secure and robust, it uses a fraction of the power that was previously being consumed, making a significant contribution to the firm’s environmental social governance goals.
“Our system has been 100% trouble free since installation, which was undertaken seamlessly by the team at Capito. They have worked with us for many years, establishing trust in their expertise and ability to fully understand the needs of the firm.
“We have total confidence in the new system, which is a significant enhancement that delivers the robust protection, security and performance that our clients expect.”
Chief Information Officer
MacRoberts LLP