NPA trusts “bomb-safe” data

The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) is one of the country's leading investigative institutions, specialising in dealing with the most sensitive and high profile of cases.

As such, the information stored on prosecutors' and investigators' desktop and laptop computers are of the utmost importance to the efficient functioning of the NPA.

“We cannot afford to lose any information, we cannot afford to be slowed down or stalled in any way,” says Marnus Steyn, IT Infrastructure Manager for the NPA. “The county expects and deserves results.”

Due to the nature of their work, with investigators needing to travel all over the country, and the world, in performing their tasks, vast amounts of critical data are stored on laptops.

The NPA urgently needed a reliable solution to not only back up their data, but also encrypt their operations-sensitive information in the process.

For both its desktop and laptop computers, the institution needed to find a data backup and recovery solution that would be simple and effective to use. High importance was placed on finding a product that would do what it says, without requiring a Masters Degree to administer it successfully.

“It's quite simple really,” says Steyn. “When comparing Cibecs to other players in the backup and recovery space, we found it easy to use when performing backups and data restores. The product performed exactly as we were promised it would, which is a rarity in terms of software solutions. Fact is we needed something that was 'bomb safe' - Cibecs fit the bill without a shadow of doubt.”

In 2005, the NPA chose Cibecs as its partner in protecting their most operations-critical information. Since then Cibecs has been used on numerous occasions to restore lost data (select files and complete hard drive content), as well as in the migration of data to new PCs.

“In December 2009 my hard drive crashed, with it masses of highly sensitive case information, including contracts, e-mails and other important data,” says Steyn. “Using Cibecs I got everything back and could continue working on a new laptop within 45 minutes. I have never felt the urge to kiss a supplier until that day.”

Steyn describes Cibecs as one of the best decisions the institution has ever made in terms of its IT infrastructure and data continuity. Along with the simplicity and efficacy of the Cibecs solution, he raises Cibecs' customer support as a last point of excellence.

“Cibecs support is always available and 100% committed to helping us derive the greatest operational benefit from their solution,” says Steyn. “It is a mature product and service offering that I will happily recommend with great conviction to anyone.”