NGO Protects Critical Refugee Data with NAKIVO Backup & Replication on Synology NAS

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NAKIVO Backup & Replication provides reliable VM backups, instant granular recovery, and peace of mind for a Belgian NGO supporting refugees and migrants.
www.cire.be

Business Challenge

Founded in 1954, CIRÉ (Coordination and Initiatives for Refugees and Foreigners) has been defending the rights of people in exile for more than 70 years. The Brussels-based NGO ensures that migration policies respect human rights and works to strengthen the rights of foreigners, including the right to asylum. CIRÉ views migrants as active citizens who enrich multicultural societies.

CIRÉ manages highly confidential data about refugees seeking legal protection, including sensitive case details, such as reports of torture, displacement, and domestic violence. With two interconnected sites in Belgium, a new Dell server running VMware ESXi and nine virtual machines, CIRÉ needed a reliable backup and disaster recovery solution.

The NGO’s past methods, such as manually copying files to an external hard drive every week, were inconsistent and risky. A previous cryptovirus incident highlighted the need for daily backups, fast recovery and complete data protection, without storing critical information in public clouds.

Solution

After evaluating enterprise solutions that were either too complex or too expensive, CIRÉ selected NAKIVO Backup & Replication for its simplicity, efficiency and affordability. The IT team, led by Piet, deployed NAKIVO on a Synology NAS. Installation was seamless and took only a few hours, with no disruption to the NGO’s daily operations.

The intuitive web interface enabled the small IT team to quickly configure and monitor jobs. All nine virtual machines, including Microsoft Exchange, Active Directory, file servers, accounting systems, Ubuntu intranet and database servers, are backed up nightly to the Synology NAS appliance, ensuring fresh recovery points every day.

Granular recovery enables the retrieval of individual emails and documents months after they are deleted, a critical feature when staff members discover missing information long after an incident has occurred. CIRÉ also leverages VM replication, maintaining ready-to-boot VM replicas that can be activated immediately if a production VM fails.

Security is a top priority for CIRÉ. NAKIVO Backup & Replication’s screenshot verification automatically checks the integrity of every backup and sends confirmation to the IT team, eliminating uncertainty. Coupled with Synology’s immutable storage options, CIRÉ can maintain backup copies that cannot be deleted, modified or encrypted by ransomware, adding an extra layer of protection for sensitive refugee data.

Results

By deploying NAKIVO Backup & Replication, CIRÉ transformed its data protection strategy:

  • Daily, Reliable Backups: Every night, the entire VMware environment is securely backed up to the Synology NAS, without affecting network performance.
  • Rapid, Flexible Recovery: VM replication enables CIRÉ to restore a full virtual machine in minutes, while granular file recovery allows quick restoration of individual files and emails.
  • Ransomware Resilience: Immutable backup copies and screenshot verification ensure that data remains intact and recoverable, even if ransomware strikes again.
  • Lower Costs and Simplified Management: Compared to the other enterprise solutions, CIRÉ avoided steep licensing fees and reduced administrative overhead, all with a single IT specialist managing the entire environment.
  • Peace of Mind: The IT team can focus on supporting staff and programs rather than worrying about backups.

“With NAKIVO Backup & Replication on Synology NAS, we know our critical refugee data is safe. Backups run automatically every night, and screenshot verification proves that every copy is valid. The software is simple, affordable and lets us sleep peacefully,” said Piet, IT Specialist at CIRÉ.

About CIRÉ

CIRÉ (Coordination and Initiatives for Refugees and Foreigners) is a non-profit organization based in Brussels, Belgium. Since 1954, the organization has advocated for the rights of refugees and migrants, providing legal support, promoting integration and ensuring that migration policies adhere to human rights standards. For more information, please visit https://www.cire.be.