Inundated with data generated by booming business growth, the McGrath real estate brand needed ‘unparalleled’ data protection. Darren Warner, Head of Technology, McGrath Estate Agents, outlines why McGrath is sold on Veeam.
Real estate isn’t an industry known for early IT adoption. However, McGrath Estate Agents bucked that trend in the 1990s when they acquired innovative tools to support agents and boost productivity.
McGrath was spot on about IT; productivity multiplied, sales soared and McGrath became a leading residential real estate group.
Still a powerhouse today, McGrath is experiencing another business growth challenge. New agents are joining in droves and competing real estate groups are queueing to join the McGrath brand. With each new entity comes an immense amount of data.
“We often don’t know how much data they’re bringing until they’re officially onboard, so our challenge was finding automated, scalable backup,” said Darren Warner, Head of Technology, McGrath Estate Agents. “We also wanted a solution that would grow with us, since we’re on a roadmap to double our office footprint in the next few years.”
McGrath had been using another provider to protect their on-premises data, but the IT team was unsure of that provider’s ability to protect their data in the cloud. The goal was to migrate 99% of on-premises data to cloud-based Microsoft 365 and Azure.
“We discovered that protecting data in the cloud was complex with (the other provider), so we looked for a simple solution that would support our rapid business growth,” Warner said. “We partnered with Veeam Data Cloud is simple to use too.”
“Protecting our fast-growing data is so easy and straightforward with Veeam,” Warner said. “It’s also affordable and predictable, enabling us to forecast IT costs as McGrath grows.
“Our data protection expenses also decreased by 50%, saving $100,000 in backup and storage costs annually.”
“Veeam are a great fit for us because they deliver fully automated, secure, scalable and cost-effective backup and recovery that support and sustain our business growth,” Warner said. “They also offer service level immutability to protect us from ransomware attacks and data loss. One of our competitors didn’t pay a ransom following an attack and a lot of their finance and HR data went out the door and onto the dark web. They were in a world of pain – they struggled to operate and pay employees.”
Veeam Data Cloud ensures data can be restored whenever and wherever.
For McGrath, this might include another Azure region, AWS or on-premises locations.
In addition, Veeam support legal and regulatory compliance so McGrath isn’t at risk of violating data protection and retention regulations. Violations lead to fines, and in even worse cases, realtors could lose their licenses and face criminal charges.
Veeam Data Cloud also encrypts the rapidly growing data behind McGrath’s 2,000+ Microsoft 365 users and fast-growing property management and research data in Azure. This includes Microsoft Exchange emails among agents, buyers and sellers, property documents in SharePoint and financial information in OneDrive for Business.
Another important part of McGrath is research. The McGrath Report is unlike any other report in the real estate market. Based on years of research, The McGrath Report delves deeply into market performance and trends so clients can make informed decisions as they buy, sell or lease a home.
“We truly care about our clients – they’re the reason we become experts in our field and compile these reports,” Warner said. “Most estate agents tell you what has happened, but our estate agents tell you what’s going to happen as well. Research data is sacred at McGrath – we’re grateful Veeam Data Cloud is protecting it.”
