Company Background
Ricoh is a global technology company specializing in office imaging equipment, production print solutions, document management systems and IT services. Headquartered in Tokyo Ricoh Group operates in more than 200 countries and regions. Ricoh Canada Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Ricoh Americas Corporation with its head office located in Toronto, employing over 2,100 employees.
The Challenge
Ricoh Canada wanted to launch RCloud Services™ backup and recovery, to provide its Canadian SMB customers with hybrid cloud local backup, mobile access to files, and secure file sync & share. Cloud storage promises to deliver great cost savings and business agility for organizations while delivering easier ways of storing, sharing and protecting data. However, there are several challenges such as security of data as it moves to and from the cloud, WAN speed and latency in remote sites and integration with IT systems and applications.
Ricoh SMB customers required a cloud storage solution to restore data quickly from on–site appliances while still being able to recover it from the cloud in case of a local disaster. Moreover, they needed to have full encryption for data sent to the cloud while still having the option of controlling the encryption key. Additionally, they needed to eliminate the high cost of server and laptop backup solutions, file servers and off-site storage services to save in IT administration overhead.
We launched RCloud Services with a strategic view of creating added-value Canada-based cloud services for our customers, keeping their data secure and in compliance with their requirements.
Eric Fletcher, Marketing Vice President, Ricoh Canada
The CTERA Solution
Ricoh selected CTERA’s cloud storage platform for offering hybrid cloud and local backup and file sync & share services based on cloud infrastructure hosted entirely in Canada. The solution uses cloud storage gateway appliances for hybrid backup and end-point agents for PC, Mac and mobile. The solution is fully private-labeled to reflect the Ricoh brand on the Web, appliance, CTERA agent and mobile app user interfaces.
The CTERA solution enables Ricoh to deliver its SMB customers cloud storage, data protection and file sharing services. Ricoh administrators can implement the solution rapidly and remotely using its Web interface with full remote management and monitoring, minimizing the need for visits to the customers’ premises.
“We launched RCloud Services with a strategic view of creating added-value Canada-based cloud services for our customers, keeping their data secure and in compliance with their requirements,” said Eric Fletcher, Vice President, Marketing Ricoh Canada. “Storage and backup is one area where we see our customer’s largest pain points: Backup & recovery service, catering to the needs of both small and large customers at an attractive price point, allowing them to reduce expenditure while enjoying ‘set and forget’ peace of mind and first rate service levels with our national coverage.”
Now, with the CTERA-powered offering, Ricoh can address Canadian SMBs’ cloud storage needs with an all-in-one solution. With integrated cloud storage, backup and file sharing applications, Ricoh is making tape, disk and dedicated laptop backup solutions redundant, and delivers to its customers significant cost savings as well as peace of mind.