PLIXXENT AWS backup – New ways to back up data – PLIXXENT leverage innovative AWS cold storage.

PLIXXENT Holding is a leader in Europe’s polyurethane industry specialised in the development and manufacture of polyurethane system solutions. With locations in six European countries, the company produces the materials to make the foam. For PLIXXENT, Bechtle implemented an innovative backup solution in the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Cloud configuring a cold storage account as an efficient and secure data repository. Critical data are given long-term protection against cyberattacks in adherence with compliance policies that doesn’t break the budget.

Project details.

Services

Security
Managed Services
Cloud

Industry

Chemical / Extractive
Manufacturing

Manufacturer

Company size

250 – 1,500 employees

Challenge.

PLIXXENT is all about the versatility of polyurethane. The ubiquitous plastic is used in a whole range of industries including automotive, construction, sports and furniture with PLIXXENT providing them with specialist products such as PUre3 Solutions, POLYSTONE®, PURE-FLEX®, PO-LYTRAK® and POLYSTABLE® and continually striving to advance its offering. With six system houses and points of sale from Latvia to Greece, PLIXXENT is a creative, agile and adaptable company delivering top innovation and supply chain services. Its more than 320 employees all work in a central Amazon AWS Cloud environment, but to ensure that the data saved there are secure and protected from malware, PLIXXENT was eager not to rely on the backup methods that exist within the AWS infrastructure. Instead, the company aimed to set up a more advanced and isolated backup environment that would not only ensure data integrity, but also speedy recovery in the event of an emergency. The solution should automatically scan the data for malware and take any necessary remedial action before creating a backup and storing it in a secure environment. To this end, a scalable and reliable backup solution needed to be set up within AWS to ensure AWS resources are free from malware before being saved in an isolated account.

We are very happy with Bechtle’s solution. While we are fortunate not to have encountered a worst case scenario up until now, the new backup system gives us enormous peace of mind. It’s reassuring to know we are well-prepared for every eventuality. The collaboration with Bechtle exceeded our expectations of reliability and security and the company’s commitment and skill have provided us with a robust a durable solution that considerably strengthens our entire infrastructure.

Thomas Battermann, IT Service Manager, PLIXXENT Holding GmbH

Solution.

A long-term partner of PLIXXENT, Bechtle envisioned automated data analytics using various AWS services along with separate and highly secure cold data storage with variable backup periods. For the effective implementation, Bechtle combined proven and specialised AWS technologies with AWS GuardDuty continually monitoring for anomalies and potential threats. AWS Lambda automates process management by leveraging purpose-built features that respond to specific security events. It’s a Lambda feature that launches the AWS GuardDuty scan while another reads the data and metrics collected by the Amazon CloudWatch monitoring service to identify malware. If malware is detected, the Simple Notification Service (SNS) sends an alert. At the same time, AWS EventBridge reads special event data (CloudWatch Events) that contain information about when the malware was found. Amazon CloudWatch monitors and logs all relevant activities to ensure consistent documentation, enable a fast response in the event of a security breach and establish a recovery point for backups created up until that time. Backups are fully automatic and PLIXXENT can define when they take place—from every few seconds to every few months. The recovery point is used to create an Amazon Machine Image (AMI) which is basically a backup up of PLIXXENT’s entire AWS infrastructure. This AMI is then encrypted using special security mechanism and kept in a separate cold storage account. Bechtle configured this special account in an AWS S3 Glacier data archive, which is a cost-effective way of securely storing data that are rarely accessed, and which protects the AMI from attacks. Best of all, the AMI copy is initially flagged for sharing. Another Lambda feature specifically developed by Bechtle reports when the AMI has been shared and sends a duplicate of the immutable image to the new environment. Once the copy has been created, a process triggered in EventBridge deletes the original AMI. This tag-based solution can be extended by authorised parties to other virtual machines or databases as required, allowing it to grow with PLIXXENT.

Business benefits.

Thanks to Bechtle’s expert configuration of AWS’ features, PLIXXENT can access uncompromised and secure backups at any time, fully automatic and without a server. The new strategic and centrally managed infrastructure significantly minimises the risk of data loss and, in a worst case scenario, enables fast recovery with verified and clean data. AWS services’ automated features and strict monitoring also optimise PLIXXENT’s IT efficiency to deliver a resilient system that the company does not have to take care of itself, but can be sure that its data is always restored safely and cleanly if things should go wrong.