Figaro Engineering Inc. Lowers Cost of Microsoft 365 Backups by 60% with Wasabi+Veeam

Established in 1969, Figaro Engineering Inc. is the global leader in the development, manufacture, and supply of gas sensors for the detection of methane, propane, carbon monoxide, and other combustible or harmful gases. Headquartered in Mino, Osaka, the company is also one of the founding members of the Japan Breath Alcohol Testing Consortium. Their FUGO series breath alcohol testers are widely adopted by large airlines and other transportation companies, helping to contribute to industry logistics and public safety. 

In an effort to optimize its information systems and improve efficiency, the company has enthusiastically embraced the adoption of SaaS solutions. “We have introduced Microsoft 365 (M365) to improve the efficiency of daily work,” said Masahiro Miyajima, Information Systems Department at Figaro. However, rapid data growth and the risk of disruption due to accidental or malicious data loss put the company on a search for a more economical solution for securely backing up their M365 data outside of Microsoft’s cloud. 

Challenge: Egress fees made backup expensive and pricing unpredictable 

As usage of Microsoft 365 expanded across the company, backing up all that data became a greater challenge. “Microsoft Teams has become a standard across the company,” said Kana Nakashima, Information Systems Department at Figaro. “Many employees make full use of it for daily work, so the amount of data that needs to be backed up and protected keeps increasing.” Any loss of important data would be unacceptable and could potentially disrupt the business, so the IT team immediately worked to resolve the problem.

The team originally planned to use Microsoft Azure as a target for Veeam Backup & Replication since Azure was already being used for other applications, but high costs were an issue. “Azure, like many other cloud storage providers, charge additional fees for egress,” said Ms. Nakashima. “It is difficult to predict usage and, therefore, future total costs. If we have a large number of restoration jobs in a given time period, our costs will increase accordingly.”    

Solution: Wasabi’s predictable flat fee, ease of use, and tight integration with Veeam 

Wasabi was the ideal solution for Figaro Engineering due to the fact that it does not charge for egress or API requests. “Our company highly valued this aspect,” said Ms. Nakashima. “Not having to worry about download fees and paying only a fixed price was very appealing to us because we could avoid situations where costs pile up unexpectedly no matter how people used it. We no longer had to be concerned with unpredictable operations costs and it made future budget planning much easier.” 

The IT team also appreciated Wasabi’s ease of use and high level of integration with Veeam. The company had been using multiple means to create backups, including cloud backup with a storage replication function for file servers and other backup software for virtual servers prior to their decision to standardize on Veeam. “We valued how flexibly we could configure user authorization settings,” explained Ms. Nakashima. “For example, if we conducted every restoration job, the workload for maintenance operations would be excessive. However, with Wasabi+Veeam, we can easily give authorization to a person in charge of a work site to do the job.” 

“Because Wasabi does not charge for egress or API requests, we don’t have to worry about getting hit with additional and unpredictable fees when backing up or restoring our Microsoft 365 data. We plan to expand our use of Wasabi for other backup use cases to continue to reduce our costs and optimize operations.” 

–Masahiro Myajima, Information Systems Department, Figaro Engineering Inc. 

The team also appreciated the speed and simplicity of the initial setup and installation process. “Wasabi showed amazing performance,” said Ms. Nakashima. “We expected and planned for the initial backup to take a considerable amount of time, but our concern was not necessary. Wasabi was so simple, we not only completed the settings within a day but were able to finish the initial backups for approximately 200 users in less than 24 hours.” The usability of Wasabi has been highly valued, as well. “While other cloud services and storage products can be complex and difficult to use, Wasabi’s interface is extremely easy to understand,” said Ms. Nakajima. “It is in Japanese and very intuitive, saving valuable time for our operations team.”   

Results and next steps 

The Wasabi+Veeam solution safely protects Figaro Engineering’s M365 data quickly and cost effectively. The daily backups take only about 30 minutes, so the team can take care of this task during regular work hours instead of at night. “What cannot be missed is the advantages in regards to cost,” said Mr. Miyajima. “We have seen a 60% return on our initial investment, and our total cost savings will be significantly larger when you factor in all of the downloads and API request fees that we no longer have to pay.” 

Considering their success, the company is planning to expand its use of Wasabi. “We have not made extensive use of cloud storage in the past due to all of these transaction fees that other providers charge. However, Wasabi can be used at low cost and its operability is excellent,” explained Mr. Miyajima. “So, we plan to use Wasabi for other backup operations, as well.” This includes migrating file server and virtual server backups, as well as file-sharing systems, from Azure to Wasabi. As a first step, the team has already switched the backup location of all its smaller NAS devices to Wasabi. “Wasabi’s ease of use not only let us complete this work quickly,” said Mr. Miyajima. “Wasabi’s high performance reduced the time needed for backup by thirty to forty percent.”