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ENCIS Environnement is a consulting firm based in Limoges (France) with several branches in Nantes, Niort, Bordeaux, Avignon and Toulouse.

The ENCIS Environnement team – composed of geographers, engineers, landscape designers and botanists – produce and process large files. They usually work remotely, with an unstable Internet connection.

Elisabeth Gallet-Milone, Manager of the Environmental Department/ICPE-Landscape, explains: “We often work on very detailed maps. One working day can represent several gigabytes of data, which makes them very large files.”

A centralized solution suitable for both fixed and mobile workstations
Before using Carbonite’s solution, backup solutions varied and had to be tailored to the employees’ geographical locations. The most commonly used solution required the user to have a stable internet connection throughout the backup process, risking having to start from scratch if interrupted. Moreover, support from their partner, Limousin Informatique, supplier of the hardware and IT infrastructure of ENCIS Environnement, was essential to recover backed up data.

“We have wanted to have a consistent solution for backing up our data across all agencies for several years now. We also wanted it to be simple enough to be able to access backups ourselves if needed, without having to call support each time. The Carbonite Endpoint solution met these needs perfectly”, said Elisabeth Gallet-Milone.

Data theft

Only two weeks after installing the software on all workstations at the head office, Encis Environnement were robbed. “At the beginning of December, our IT partner Limousin Informatique had installed Carbonite Endpoint on half of the workstations at the head office, and on 23rd December, they installed it on the other half, about 30 workstations in total. On 5th January, we noticed the break-in and without the backup, we would have lost our data”, explains Elisabeth Gallet-Milone. “Our clients are project owners, working on renewable energy projects, industrial companies that are setting up ICPE (Installation Classified for the Protection of the Environment) files or local authorities," she continues. "We collect data on the field and then perform a very thorough analysis. The hardest part that day was finding 11 new computers to replace the previous ones. Then the employees whose workstations had been stolen were able to access their data on the same day and continue working on their projects.”

Effective backup while waiting for an on-site server

“I recommend Carbonite because not only is it fast to install, but this solution is also very easy to use. And above all, in case something does happen, from a careless mistake to a burglary, it is possible to recover the data very quickly.”

Elisabeth Gallet-Milone The question of having an on-site server had already been discussed several times, however it was left undecided. Working on large maps away from offices is complicated and there is the problem of unstable connections at hotels where botanists stay.

“We tested a dozen solutions before advising Carbonite solutions to ENCIS Environnement,” recalls Jérémy Lathiere, Co-manager of Limousin Informatique. “We tested it for a month on a few workstations in order to reassure ourselves and gain a measure for its effectiveness, particularly in terms of incremental backup – from block to block.”

“One of the main advantages of backing up to the cloud with Carbonite Endpoint backup is that it is done automatically every 15 minutes and even if the computer is disconnected from the internet for a period of time, it picks up where it left off,” says Elisabeth Gallet-Milone.

Meanwhile, administrative data is stored on a NAS drive and a common server will be set up sometime in 2020 for on-site storage.

“It was a very much relief to have had Carbonite Endpoint installed before the break-in. It was a stroke of good fortune. The consequences of this event could have been so much worse and even have put our entire business at risk. Today, when I need to recover data, I just log in to the Carbonite Endpoint console. It is very simple and fast,” concludes Elisabeth Gallet-Milone.

Company: ENCIS Environnement
Founded: 2004
Turnover: €2.3 million in 2019
Numbers of employees: 49
Sector of activity: Consulting firm specializing in environment, renewable energies and sustainable development
Technology environment: no server; storage and backup of data on computer workstations and external hard drives.
Solution used: Carbonite Endpoint
Integrator reseller: Limousin Informatique
Results: Full recovery of data after hardware theft. Business continued as normal on the same day.