CA Group secures compliant, long-term retention and ransomware-ready recovery with Vawlt

Vue d'ensemble 

CA Group supports the assessment of fire performance and compliance across building envelope systems, where test evidence and reports must remain available, traceable, and protected for more than twenty years.

They needed two things at once: a long-term archive for critical testing data that could be proven immutable, plus an immutable off-site copy of backups to strengthen ransomware recovery. With Vawlt, CA Group kept familiar NAS and Veeam workflows, while adding cloud immutability, auditability, et flexible failover options in the event of on-prem disruption.

 

“CA Group is a great example of an organization that takes long-term data protection seriously. From the start, they were clear about the need to combine compliance-grade immutability with practical recovery under real-world conditions. It’s a pleasure to work with teams like CA Group that proactively invest in higher security standards, and choose architectures that are both resilient and simple to operate. We’re proud to support their long-term retention and ransomware-ready recovery strategy with Vawlt.” — Ricardo Mendes, CEO, Vawlt Technologies

 

“We needed a secure, immutable way to protect both long-term testing archives and off-site backup copies without adding complexity. Vawlt was straightforward to deploy, simple to manage day to day, and gives us clear auditability to prove immutability. That combination improves our security posture and strengthens our ability to recover quickly if needed.” — Andrew Hall, IT Infrastructure Manager, CA Group

The Challenge

CA Group previously relied on a local NAS to retain test data over many years. As the archive grew, the risks became harder to ignore: protecting a single on-prem system against accidental deletion, hardware failure, or malicious activity.

In parallel, their Veeam environment already had local backup repositories, but they wanted a second, immutable off-site copy to improve recovery confidence and align with modern backup best practice. The goal was clear: keep local performance where it mattered, add immutable cloud copies for resilience, and make recovery predictable under pressure.

 

Why Vawlt?

CA Group needed a secure and long-lasting outcome without adding complexity. They needed one unified approach where:

• Testing data could be copied from on-prem NAS into immutable, long-term cloud storage with clear retention controls.
• Veeam backups could land in an immutable S3 target for ransomware protection and off-site recovery.
• The environment remained simple to operate, with the option to present cloud data back as a file system if on-prem storage failed.

Vawlt delivered exactly that.

The Solution

CA Group deployed Vawlt for two use cases.

1) Immutable long-term archive for testing data
Vawlt Data Synchronizer (included) pulls datasets from the on-prem NAS and copies them into a cloud storage target, then applies immutability to preserve evidence and reports for the required retention period. This removed the burden of building and maintaining separate NAS backup processes while ensuring the archive is protected against deletion and tampering.

In addition, a Vawlt volume can be mounted and presented as an SMB share, giving CA Group the option to use it as a virtual NAS during an outage or NAS failure.

2) Immutable cloud copy for Veeam repositories
For backups, CA Group uses Vawlt as an immutable S3-compatible target for Veeam, writing into a Vawlt volume. Recent backups benefit from local caching for fast access, while cloud immutability provides a protected off-site copy designed for ransomware recovery.

Vawlt is more cost effective than tier-one hyperscalers for immutability with Veeam, particularly where API-driven charges can inflate the cost of backup and restore operations.

The Result? CA Group kept their existing NAS and Veeam workflows, while gaining provable immutability, an off-site ransomware-resilient copy of backups, and a practical recovery path if on-prem storage is unavailable.

 

Value pillars

Local cache for fast recovery
Recent backups remain accessible at local-like performance for rapid restores.

Long-term, immutable retention
A durable archive with immutability and retention controls designed for multi-year compliance.

User transparency
No retraining and no workflow changes. NAS data is synchronized automatically, and Veeam continues to write to an S3 target as normal.

Virtual NAS experience
If needed, a Vawlt volume can be presented as a file system and shared via SMB during an outage.

 

Outcomes & Benefits

• Immutable archive for testing datasets, supporting long retention requirements and report reproducibility.
• Audit trails to demonstrate immutability and strengthen compliance posture.
• Reduced operational overhead by replacing manual or bespoke NAS backup routines with Vawlt Data Synchronizer.
• Off-site immutable copy of Veeam backups for stronger ransomware recovery readiness.
• Alignment with 3-2-1-1-0 style backup architecture through an additional immutable, off-site copy.
• Local caching for recent restore points, improving recovery speed.
• More affordable versus direct tier-one cloud approaches, particularly by reducing API-driven charges.

Resilience and Data Security

• Immutable retention protects against accidental deletion and malicious tampering across both archive and backup copies.
• Off-site copy strengthens disaster recovery if on-prem infrastructure is lost or compromised.
• Clear evidencing and auditability for long-term retention commitments.
• A Vawlt volume can be presented back as an SMB share to support continuity if NAS systems fail.
• S3 integration with Veeam enables a clean, standards-based immutable repository target.
• Local caching helps keep recovery practical, not just theoretical, when minutes matter.

Conclusion

CA Group adopted Vawlt to protect two critical data streams: long-term testing archives that must remain intact and accessible for 20+ years, and Veeam backups that must remain recoverable even under ransomware conditions.

With provable immutability, audit-ready controls, and flexible recovery options including virtual NAS capability via a Vawlt volume, CA Group now has a secure and compliant foundation for retention and recovery over the coming years.

 

Ready to modernize your storage strategy and protect your data in a seamless way?

Let’s talk about a quick pilot or tailored demo for your environment.

👉 Book a demo  or Contact us: sales@vawlt.io