Commvault, a global enterprise software leader in the management of data across cloud and on-premises environments, today announced the availability of a new solution for schools and universities that can harness the many benefits of Azure cloud adoption, while protecting faculty and student data via the enterprise-grade, backup-as-a-service (BaaS) functions of the award-winning Metallic Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) portfolio.
Educational institutions manage and protect vast amounts of data. They can now purchase Metallic Office 365 Backup in a licensing model that aligns with the purchasing process of Microsoft 365. For each Metallic Office 365 Backup faculty license purchased, educational organisations will receive four student licenses free of charge. The Metallic student licenses also remain free for the lifetime of the faculty member’s subscription, and the offer is applicable for grades K-12, in addition to higher education institutions.
“Educational institutions are stretched to do more with less—this year especially. Yet they face increasing risks from data loss, breaches, and ransomware due to the shift to remote operations, an increased reliance on data, and the need to trim costs. They need to protect and manage an increasing number of devices and accounts,” said Manoj Nair, General Manager, Metallic. “Schools do not necessarily have a blueprint for how to easily protect their data in a secure, scalable way—especially within applications like Microsoft 365. Much like Metallic did last year with our free Endpoint Backup offer for laptop and desktop data, we want this new offer to help alleviate the strain they are already under as they pivot their IT operations to face current realities.”
Coupling Azure cloud storage with Metallic’s BaaS protection for Microsoft 365 enables IT pros in academia to quickly start protecting faculty and students’ devices without physical interaction or downtime. The Metallic solution, paired with Azure, can be up and running in minutes, and it provides sophisticated, secure, enterprise-grade technology that can quickly scale—without impacting students, teachers, or administrators. It delivers coverage across Microsoft Exchange, OneDrive, SharePoint, Project, and Teams to help ensure that valuable Microsoft 365 data is protected and recoverable from deletion or attack. In addition, the Metallic solution’s silent installs and backups normally require no action from end users. Data is protected without affecting teacher, staff, or student productivity.
“It has been crucial over these past 12 months that remote education has been able to continue throughout the pandemic as many children have been – and continue to -study from home,” adds Shai Nuni, VP EMEA, Metallic. “The integration of Office 365 tools with Microsoft Teams meant this solution is proving immensely popular amongst education leaders, and this was reflected in the near 900% growth in Teams between March-June 2020. This incredible uptake has made it even more important to ensure that secure backups for Office 365 are in place and that recovery in the event of data loss is quick and simple. These measures are vital to prevent any educational organisation from permanently losing teachers’ or students’ data – with the clearly negative impact on learning that would result.”
Metallic’s new education license is available in more than 23 countries globally and wherever Metallic can be purchased. Learn more about Metallic’s cloud-native data protection solutions and the new Metallic Office 365 Backup offer for educational institutions here.