Waikato-based Hansa is a market-leading specialist in the design and manufacture of high-quality chipping and shredding equipment. Founded by Manfred Vogel, who built Hansa’s first chipper in 1981, the company now has a team of 55 people and exports about 65% of its machinery to Australia and Europe.
Hansa relies significantly on IT for its operations, and aspects such as remote access for its global team and cybersecurity play a huge factor. When Hansa went to market to look for a new IT support provider, a primary consideration was a dependable Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery (BCDR) solution. This stemmed from their first-hand experience with a previous crypto virus attack. IT Partners sat down with Martin Vogel, Managing Director of Hansa, to explore the IT Partners managed backup solution and how it has consistently proven beneficial for their business on multiple occasions.
At 4:19 pm on February 12, 2022, a fire erupted at Hansa's manufacturing facility due to a malfunctioning printer on one of their workbenches. In just 3 minutes, the flames rapidly spread, resulting in substantial damage to their workshop. Martin notes “goes to show how quickly it can happen and really take hold”.
Immediately after the incident and thanks to the managed backup solution in place, IT Partners were able to spin up Hansa’s on-prem environment in the cloud. This allowed the Hansa team to inform customers and suppliers about developments in the days following the incident. The next step involved removing their on-premises server from their site (given the lack of power available) and transferring it to the IT Partners office. This allowed the Hansa team to resume ‘normal operations’ from an IT Perspective. “IT Partners were proactive and also really generous in offering their office spaces because while the office wasn’t damaged, it smelt pretty badly of smoke. Fortunately, our team was well-versed in remote work, so we didn’t need to use their office”. It is crucial to emphasise that with IT Partners managed backup solution, Hansa did not experience any data loss as a result of the fire, and once the Hansa team secured a generator to power their server, it was moved back to their site. “IT Partners had the right solution in place and got us back up and running in a timely manner” states Martin.
Investing in a Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery (BCDR) solution is paramount for any business looking to safeguard its operations and mitigate potential risks. Martin states that “having a reliable BCDR solution is really critical in any business, and for us having experienced a cyber attack, and fire, really highlighted the importance of it”.
The fire at Hansa’s offices in 2022 provided insights into the need to minimise downtime in the face of unexpected events to allow for critical data and systems to be protected. Martin emphasises how Hansa viewed the IT Partners managed backup solution as “a bit of an insurance policy. That reliability is critical, and when you need it, you can guarantee it will work”. The collaboration between IT Partners and Hansa went beyond ensuring a prompt recovery; “They went above and beyond”, states Martin, which further highlights a genuine and solution-focused partnership.
