Centacare halves Azure storage costs in DR overhaul

Managed infrastructure provider 11:11 Systems has published an Australian case study on its work with Centacare Catholic Community Services, covering disaster recovery, cloud backup, and a storage change it said halved Azure data storage costs.

Centacare is one of South Australia's larger providers of social and community support services. It has operated for more than 80 years and handles sensitive information linked to community and client services.

The case study says Centacare's previous disaster recovery setup had reached end-of-support and lacked air-gapping, which it describes as increasing exposure to ransomware and other cyber threats.

Centacare's ICT team also had limited ability to test recovery procedures. The environment did not allow isolated failover testing, leaving uncertainty about how the organisation would recover if a major incident disrupted production systems.

Technology changes

The project focused on moving away from legacy disaster recovery infrastructure to a mix of managed services. 11:11 Systems said this included 11:11 Disaster Recovery as a Service for Zerto, 11:11 Cloud Backup for Veeam Cloud Connect, and 11:11 Object Storage for AWS.

According to the case study, the combination delivered a modern, air-gapped disaster recovery environment. Air-gapping separates backup or recovery systems from day-to-day networks, reducing the likelihood that malicious activity can reach recovery data.

The case study also reports a cost outcome linked to storage: Centacare cut Azure data storage costs by 50% after moving to an S3-compatible storage offering from 11:11 Systems.

Centacare said it reinvested the savings into stronger backup arrangements, including immutable backup storage designed to prevent alteration or deletion for a defined period.

Procurement approach

The case study positions the change as more than a hardware refresh, describing it as a broader reassessment of disaster recovery design with a focus on cyber risks-now a standard consideration for organisations running mixed on-premise and cloud systems.

Many organisations with long-lived infrastructure have faced end-of-support deadlines in recent years. These deadlines can increase operational risk as vendors stop providing fixes and security patches. Cyber security teams also warn that ransomware groups often target weaknesses in backup processes, since backup and recovery systems are central to restoring services after an attack.

Centacare Manager of ICT Services Brenton Denney described the procurement discussions that led to the project.

"Every other provider we spoke to started by asking what we were currently doing and then proposed a solution that replicated it. That might have fixed the hardware issue, but not the network or resilience problems," said Brenton Denney, Manager of ICT Services, Centacare Catholic Community Services.

He contrasted that with 11:11 Systems' approach.

"Instead, 11:11 Systems began by asking a simple but powerful question: 'Why are you doing it this way?' No one else challenged our thinking like that, and it led to a broader conversation about doing it better, not just differently," Denney said.

Local context

Australian not-for-profits and community service organisations often operate under tight budgets and compliance obligations around personal information. They also handle high volumes of sensitive records, including health, welfare, and family support data. This can amplify the operational impact of cyber incidents, as downtime may disrupt essential services.

Disaster recovery projects in these environments typically span technology, process, and governance. Organisations often look for repeatable testing, clear recovery time expectations, and backup immutability, alongside controls on storage and data movement costs.

In the case study, 11:11 Systems described the project as a shift from a reactive posture to a more resilient operating state. Centacare and 11:11 Systems said the environment now provides stronger protection against ransomware and other threats, while preserving flexibility in how data is stored and protected.