Lush is a British cosmetics retailer of bath, body, skin, and hair care products. Founded in 1995, the company is headquartered in Poole, United Kingdom, and operates 951 retail locations across 49 countries. Lush is well known for its devotion to products that are fresh, effective, ethically sourced, cruelty-free, vegetarian, handmade and low-waste.
The problem:
With the company and its data growing at a rapid pace, Brad Candy, head of IT at Lush Digital, began to re-evaluate its backup needs. While Lush did have a solution in place, it was becoming increasingly costly to maintain and required the use of different third-party technologies. With the goal of lowering costs and standardising around Veeam, the leader in Backup solutions that deliver Modern Data Protection, which Lush was already using on-premises, Candy began looking into alternatives on the market.
The solution:
As a five-time Veeam Impact Cloud and Service Provider Partner winner and three-time Veeam Innovation Award winner, iland, an 11:11 Systems company, represented a perfect fit for Lush. With iland Secure Cloud Backup for Veeam Cloud Connect, Lush got a fully integrated, secure solution for no-compromise, data protection all managed through a unified console. It also came at a fifth of the cost as their existing solution.
“iland just blows everyone away. I don’t know what they do, but there is some sort of magic going on in the background that keeps costs down and the quality up,” said Candy. “From my point of view, iland Secure Cloud Backup met all the criteria we had in mind for an enterprise-level, scalable solution.”
While Candy’s initial goal was simply to find a cost-effective, like-for-like solution, he soon noticed a number of added benefits beyond the standard protection against data loss events like malicious or accidental deletions, hardware failures and cybercrime. For example, his team now has access to iland’s award-winning Secure Cloud Console, a unified management platform that allows for unmatched monitoring, control, and visibility into their environments. iland also provides dedicated on-boarding and 24/7/365 support along with committed account managers.
“The combination of iland and Veeam really checked a lot of the boxes for us,” said Candy. “Looking into cloud-based backup initially started as a cost-saving exercise, but the functionality of iland’s solution and its ease of use made it a no-brainer.”
“Cloud backup solutions that are easy and cost-effective have never been more important for growing businesses, especially those with strict IT budgets and increased data availability needs,” said Johnny Carpenter, iland VP of sales for EMEA. “The ‘magic’ of iland is our ability to work with customers, understand their needs and then offer the best possible solutions, support and price point. Our goal is to continue helping Lush in this manner, providing the security and flexibility it needs to scale and lay a foundation for future cloud strategy. Lush has long-thrived in an industry that rewards ingenuity and adaptability – characteristics that are not only vital to success, but also make for great partnerships. We look forward to what the future holds.”
The result:
For more than 20 years, Lush has been driven by an ethos of creativity and innovation, from its fizzing bath bombs and shower jellies, to its commitment to fresh ingredients and the fight against animal testing, to its customer-driven mobile app. It is no surprise, then, that this mentality extended to Candy’s search for a cloud backup solution.
“We want to approach our IT strategy the same way we, as a business, approach everything else,” said Candy. “We want all the traditional IT services that allow a modern company to function, but we also must maintain our ability to be flexible and agile enough to create all the new products, smells, and wonderful things we do.”
Lush viewed iland Secure Cloud Backup as the best way to achieve these core-company goals, while also beginning to plan cloud strategy that, according to Candy, is still in its embryonic stages. Cloud backup is often the first-place company’s start on their cloud journey, and iland’s solution is specifically designed to help modernise an organisation’s IT and business continuity plan.
“Our entire experience, from the ease of set up and ease of use, to the cloud console, to cost point, really speaks to iland being the right place for us to be in this moment,” said Candy.
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