Ensuring interruption-free operations with robust disaster recovery

The history

Metropolitan Software is the maker of Attendance Counts, a SaaS-based attendance and leave tracking solution that integrates with timekeeping software from some of the largest workforce management vendors in the business, including ADP.

“Our users are demanding,” said Scott Blankenship, who oversees IT operations at Metropolitan Software. “They expect their data to be accessible at all times of day and night, and they have no tolerance for downtime.”

Metropolitan Software has enjoyed year-over-year revenue growth without a data breach or major outage every year since its founding more than 20 years ago.

“Protecting our client data and ensuring consistent access to it is our most important responsibility, and it has been key to our growth over the years,” said Blankenship.

The challenge

Staying at the forefront of disaster recovery and business continuity planning

In the labor management industry, where storing pay data and sensitive personally identifiable information (PII) for millions of employees is the norm, data security is paramount.

“The stakes could not be higher,” said Joel Sackman, president of Metropolitan Software. “Even a single data breach or broad outage could irreparably damage our company’s most precious asset: our reputation.”

It is not just Metropolitan Software’s clients who demand the highest level of data safeguards. The company’s strategic business partners, including ADP, have stringent compliance requirements for data security and operational practices that must be adhered to in order to do business with them.

Details: Staying at the forefront of disaster recovery and business continuity planning was critical not only for preserving Metropolitan Software’s business relationships but also for reinforcing their brand as a world-class service provider, capable of protecting client data to the highest standards possible.

The solution

Flexential DRaaS solution meets Metropolitan Software’s needs

An existing relationship with Flexential as a hosting center made the choice an easy one for Metropolitan Software. And it made for a seamless implementation of the additional disaster recovery services.

“We were looking to bolster our disaster recovery plans, and Flexential DRaaS solution fulfilled the requirements we were looking for,” said Sackman. “Our business is somewhat unique in that our data access volume is highest in the overnight hours. Flexential was able to offer near real-time backup capabilities that fit our needs and didn’t break the bank.”

Metropolitan Software leveraged the Flexential partnership with Zerto to deploy continuous data protection, which tracks every change made in the primary system data and ensures that the backup copy reflects these changes, allowing for the restoration of the system to any previous point in time when needed.

The near real-time replication results in the lowest recovery time objectives (RTOs) and recovery point objectives (RPOs) in the industry.

Key features: Advanced services from certified experts.

Metropolitan Software was able to partner with Flexential disaster recovery experts to create a strategy specific to their business requirements.

Implementation: To ensure a seamless delivery, the implementation program manager hosted a kickoff meeting to review the solution requirements, proposed timeline and expectations.

“The implementation process went very smoothly,” said Sackman. “Flexential understood our requirements and provided a packaged solution quickly.”

Their already existing partnership with Flexential ensured that Metropolitan Software did not have to invest a lot of time or resources mapping out the technical aspects or planning for the implementation.

Flexential engineers mirrored the configuration of the production firewall for the DRaaS version, designed the failover solution and tested it ahead of implementation. Within just a few days after approval, Flexential was ready to deploy the solution.

“The actual implementation process was boring, in a good way,” said Blankenship. “It involved a brief 30-minute call to complete the configuration, and then it was turned on.”

The results

Money saved shifted to customer digital experience upgrade

Performance: A tailored DRaaS solution allows Metropolitan Software to stay ahead of marketplace demands and customers’ compliance requirements.

Efficiency: Continuous data protection ensures that Metropolitan Software can quickly recover from data loss incidents with minimal downtime.

Customer Experience: Delivering a best-in-class data protection solution bolsters Metropolitan Software’s reputation for providing exceptional service.