Semperis helps airline protect AD from devastating disasters
Maintaining systems uptime and getting passengers to their destinations on time are key to El Al Airline’s success. So, when it came time to modernize its Microsoft Active Directory (AD) environment, Israel’s largest airline sought a solution to help it maximize AD uptime and meet strict, demanding service level agreements (SLAs).
El Al Airlines has more than 8,000 employees and transports millions of passengers each year to 180 destinations worldwide.
El Al reviewed its AD security and disaster readiness as part of a transition to Office 365 and a hybrid IT environment. Based on the airline’s highly advanced, complex IT infrastructure, El Al’s IT team was concerned about the state of its AD environment.
Modernizing AD security for high-pressure demands
AD disasters are extremely expensive for the airline industry, from both a financial and reputational perspective. Potential delays, cancellations, and re-accommodation result not just in lost income but in unhappy customers.
We can’t afford downtime because our customers are counting on us and any system outage has a ripple effect.
Chen Amram, Deputy Director of Infrastructure & Communication, El Al Airlines
The team had previously tested manual AD disaster recovery. The manual process was cumbersome, taking more than 24 hours to complete. To protect the airline’s AD infrastructure, El Al began searching for a solution to help the airline quickly bounce back from any AD issue that could jeopardize its operations.
The team chose Semperis because their solution simplified the recovery process and allowed us to recover our entire AD environment in less than two hours.
Chen Amram, Deputy Director of Infrastructure & Communication, El Al Airlines
After performing a thorough investigation, El Al’s Infrastructure team implemented Semperis’ Active Directory Forest Recovery (ADFR) solution. ADFR not only protects the AD infrastructure, it also supports future upgrades and modifications. Semperis ADFR automates the Active Directory disaster recovery process, with an entire forest recovery taking just three mouse clicks. ADFR minimizes business disruption in case of an AD failure.
The Semperis platform helped El Al reach a point where we are sure that we can overcome any Active Directory outage. Semperis offers superior technology, and their Directory Services Protection Platform is a tremendous asset for any company that uses Active Directory.
Chen Amram, Deputy Director of Infrastructure & Communication, El Al Airlines
The zero-hassle solution also enables the El Al team to spin out lab environments with an exact copy of its production AD. This streamlined process helps the company to meet its annual business testing obligation.
El Al’s migration to Office 365 was tested and went off without a hitch. With the ADFR solution implemented, the team was able to automate the AD backup and recovery process and minimize potential downtime during the migration.
We’re now very confident that our IT infrastructure will be protected when we need to make an upgrade or changes to our Active Directory.
Chen Amram, Deputy Director of Infrastructure & Communication, El Al Airlines
With ADFR, the airline was able to meet stringent AD uptime requirements and protect the seamless transport of millions of passengers to their desired destinations.
