Keepit helps JACOPS strengthen resilience and business continuity
As an infrastructure-driven organization active across construction, utilities, and technical services, JACOPS operates in environments where downtime isn’t just inconvenient — it can directly impact projects, safety communication, and client commitments. With a hybrid IT landscape that’s increasingly Microsoft cloud-centric, the Belgian company needed a data protection strategy built for resilience, compliance, and long-term growth.
Geoffrey Desmet, IT infrastructure manager at JACOPS, oversees end-to-end IT operations, working across internal teams, business units, and external partners to ensure operational continuity and a strong security posture.
We handle sensitive operational data, project documentation, and communication with government and enterprise clients. That means integrity, retention, and recoverability aren’t optional — they’re core requirements.
– Geoffrey Desmet
IT Infrastructure Manager, JACOPS
Moving beyond native Microsoft retention
Before implementing Keepit, the IT team faced clear gaps. Microsoft’s native retention capabilities were limited, restoration processes were complex, and protection across Teams and SharePoint lacked consistency. Most importantly, there was no independent backup environment outside the Microsoft tenant.
The team needed a solution that would go beyond built-in retention and deliver fast, straightforward restore for Teams, SharePoint, and OneDrive. It also had to provide immutable protection against ransomware, reduce administrative overhead, establish vendor independence, and offer predictable, transparent pricing.
Business continuity was the driving force behind those requirements. In JACOPS’ sector, downtime disrupts field coordination, planning, and contractual timelines. Reliable access to data — and the ability to recover it quickly — is essential.
“We rely heavily on Teams, SharePoint, and OneDrive every day,” Desmet explains. “If we can’t restore quickly — whether it’s a full site, a specific file, or even a Teams conversation — productivity drops immediately.”
Why vendor independence and EU data residency mattered
Two factors stood out during the evaluation process: European data residency and true vendor independence was important to the Belgian company.
EU-based storage was essential for regulatory compliance and simplifying data protection impact assessments. It also reinforces trust with clients who expect EU-only data processing.
Vendor independence was equally important. In the event of a Microsoft tenant compromise, outage, ransomware attack, or identity breach, JACOPS needed confidence that its backups would remain isolated and unaffected.
Vendor independence is crucial for us. If the Microsoft tenant is compromised, we need to know our backup is completely separate and unaffected.
– Geoffrey Desmet
IT Infrastructure Manager, JACOPS
Security architecture further reinforced that decision. The IT team required write-once immutable backup copies, strong encryption, and clear separation from production systems to address modern ransomware threats and reduce exposure to insider risks.
Immutable protection with fast, granular restore
Keepit delivered the independent, immutable backup environment JACOPS was looking for, along with full Microsoft 365 coverage and rapid, granular recovery.
Backups run automatically. Retention policies are enforced without manual intervention. Restores are simple and precise — whether recovering an entire site, a specific file, or an individual Teams conversation. The intuitive interface enables the IT team to locate, preview, and restore data in just a few steps.
Restore times have gone from hours to minutes with Keepit. We now have full Microsoft 365 coverage, zero manual retention overhead, and much better visibility into our backups.
– Geoffrey Desmet
IT Infrastructure Manager, JACOPS
Stronger posture, greater confidence
Before Keepit, restore times were inconsistent, retention management required manual handling, and overall risk exposure was higher. Today, JACOPS operates with compliant retention policies, automated long-term backups, and significantly improved recoverability.
The impact extends beyond IT. Faster recovery minimizes disruption for distributed teams and strengthens overall ransomware resilience. With a scalable, cloud-engineered platform in place, JACOPS is well positioned to support continued growth across Microsoft services and other SaaS applications.
JACOPS discovered Keepit through industry recommendations, peer reviews, vendor comparisons, and positive references within the Microsoft partner ecosystem. The decision ultimately came down to resilience, independence, and operational simplicity.
For JACOPS, backup is no longer a reactive safeguard. It’s a strategic layer of protection — built to support critical infrastructure projects today and safeguard the company’s digital future.