Sheffield Hallam University evaluated Veeam against Rubrik before selecting the platform, with pricing flexibility and the absence of vendor lock-in cited as decisive factors. Implementation partner MTI designed and configured the solution. The university now protects its on-premises estate, Microsoft 365, Azure workloads, and Microsoft Entra ID through a combination of platform-based and agent-based backups, with a second immutable copy held in Veeam Vault — a managed cloud storage tier with predictable, all-inclusive pricing.
The numbers from the deployment are specific. The largest workload backs up 80% faster than before; agent-based workloads complete in a fraction of their previous time — 13.7x faster. Average throughput runs at 473 MB/s. Immutability and automated malware scanning operate at the backup layer, alerting the security team to potentially compromised backups before they are needed for recovery.
"Veeam ticked every box on our checklist of requirements," said Simon Henry, Head of Cloud, Networks, and Infrastructure at Sheffield Hallam University. "We narrowed down our choices to Veeam versus Rubrik, and Veeam won the day because it was better priced and more flexible. The lack of vendor lock-in with Veeam was a major win for us. MTI worked closely with us to understand our systems and processes, before helping us refine the solution configuration to take full advantage of the exceptional visibility and control offered by Veeam."
Sheffield Hallam also engaged Veeam Technical Account Manager services — a managed advisory function. Henry noted the practical advantage of a TAM with higher-education experience: institutional vocabulary required no translation, and the external perspective helped build stakeholder confidence in governance decisions around data protection.
"With Veeam we had full confidence in backup and restores from day one, allowing us to recover our data with ease and support users across the university," Henry added. "Our average data processing rate through Veeam is 473 MB/s, putting us in a very strong position for both resilience and performance. Veeam automatically flags backups that may have been compromised, which is helping us move to a more proactive cybersecurity stance. By doubling up on immutability through Veeam and our storage, we can be certain of our data's integrity."
The university is now evaluating whether to extend Veeam coverage to its Azure workloads, which would bring the entire hybrid estate — on-premises, Microsoft cloud, and physical campus infrastructure — under a single data protection interface.
To stay across the latest in cloud, AI and enterprise tech analysis from Compare the Cloud, subscribe to our weekly newsletter at https://www.comparethecloud.net/newsletter
