Case Studies
Strengthening Municipal Resilience Across Canada with Thrive
The City of Moose Jaw partnered with Thrive to modernize its backup and disaster recovery solutions, addressing the unique needs of Canadian municipalities. By replacing its outdated, on premises systems with Thrive’s managed services, including Veeam Backup, Office 365 Backup, and Warmsite DRaaS, the city achieved significant cost savings, improved operational efficiency, and ensured business continuity for its citizens.
The City of Moose Jaw, located in southern Saskatchewan, Canada, has approximately 34,000 residents. Like many municipalities, it faces challenges balancing IT resources, ensuring efficient service delivery, and safeguarding critical data. When the city’s legacy backup system became insufficient to meet its growing needs, Ryan Nelson, Information Services Manager for the City of Moose Jaw, sought a partner who could provide a scalable, reliable, and cost-effective solution.
Why Thrive Was Chosen
The city’s previous backup system relied on outdated software and hardware, which was costly to maintain and offered limited functionality. Nelson wanted a partner, not just a vendor—someone who could provide a hands-on relationship, offer expertise, and ensure a seamless transition to a modern solution. Thrive stood out as the ideal choice.
For years, Moose Jaw’s IT team relied on a system that required constant attention and offered limited functionality. Backups were stored locally and replicated at a nearby site with no warm recovery capabilities, and the system placed a significant maintenance burden on the team. Nelson knew the city needed a company that could deliver more than just technology; they needed expertise and a relationship they could count on.
“I wanted to move away from being dependent on aging hardware and manual processes,” Nelson said. “But more importantly, I wanted a partner—not a corporation—who would understand our specific challenges and help us achieve our vision. Thrive stood out because they could deliver exactly what we needed and provided a personal, trustworthy approach,” said Nelson.
Thrive proved to be the ideal fit for the City of Moose Jaw by offering a hands-on, tailored service model. Their ability to provide a fully managed solution eliminated the need for the city’s IT team to manage complex licensing or invest in additional training.
Solutions Delivered
Thrive provided a comprehensive suite of solutions to modernize the City of Moose Jaw’s backup and disaster recovery processes. The cornerstone of the implementation was Veeam Backup and Recovery, a turnkey solution that allowed the city to securely back up its data while enabling fast, local recovery when needed. Thrive also implemented robust retention policies to manage and protect the city’s growing Office 365 environment, including email and SharePoint, ensuring data security across cloud-based workloads.
In addition to backups, Thrive delivered Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS), providing the city with a warm site ready to ensure continuity during a disruption. This solution integrated seamlessly with the city’s existing VPN infrastructure, offering secure and reliable access to critical systems during continuity events.
“Thrive’s ability to guide us through every transition step was invaluable,” Nelson shared. “They provided clear documentation, answered all our questions, and ensured the solutions worked perfectly within our environment. We went from an outdated, labor-intensive system to a modern, hands-off approach almost overnight.”
With Thrive’s help, the City of Moose Jaw now has a fully managed solution that addresses its backup needs and ensures readiness for future challenges.
Thrive’s Impact
Since partnering with Thrive, the City of Moose Jaw has seen transformative results. The IT team no longer spends excessive time managing backups, allowing them to focus on strategic priorities.
“We’re no longer spending time babysitting backups or troubleshooting outdated systems. Instead, we’ve gained a reliable solution that meets our needs and has saved us money,” Nelson shared.
Business continuity has also improved significantly, ensuring the city can maintain operations in any scenario. The city now has peace of mind knowing that its data and services are protected, even during potential disruptions.
Looking ahead, Moose Jaw is also working with Thrive to fortify its cybersecurity. This continued collaboration highlights the
trust and value Moose Jaw places in Thrive’s expertise and solutions.
“Thrive has our back. Their solutions don’t just work—they free us to focus on what’s most important while knowing our data is secure and accessible.” ~ Ryan Nelson, City of Moose Jaw Information Services Manager
About Thrive
Thrive delivers global technology outsourcing for cybersecurity, Cloud, networking, and other complex IT requirements. Thrive’s NextGen platform enables customers to increase business efficiencies through standardization, scalability, and automation, delivering oversized technology returns on investment (ROI). They accomplish this with advisory services, vCISO, vCIO, consulting, project implementation, solution architects, and a best-in-class subscription-based technology platform. Thrive delivers exceptional high-touch service through its POD approach of subject matter experts and global 24x7x365 SOC, NOC, and centralized services teams. Learn more at www.thrivenextgen.com or follow us on LinkedIn.