The Ocean Race ensures cybersecurity and data protection in the most remote areas of the globe with Acronis Cyber Protect

The Ocean Race is the ultimate test of a team and a human adventure like no other. Over 50 years of round-the-world racing, the Race has kept an almost mystical hold over some of the greatest sailors and been the proving ground for the legends of sailing. The Ocean Race has a long-standing commitment to sustainability, and with the support and collaboration of its key stakeholders, the Spanish-based organization is inspiring action and creating tangible outcomes to help restore ocean health.

The Ocean Race drives sailing races across the open sea with stopovers around the world. Over 150 team members travel internationally to monitor, track and report on these events. The Ocean Race media team and its media partners produce high-quality video content to cover event developments — often in real time. Additionally, data is dissimilar, and the team ingests, transfers and stores information in various formats, including race telemetry, photo and video content. This data is critical to the race control team responsible for monitoring the status of the boats 24/7 and ensuring the safety of participants in the event of an onboard emergency that requires coordinated assistance. Not only do these events generate high volumes of data, they also require continuous connection and coordination with the company’s headquarters in Alicante, Spain. One of their primary challenges has been that staff connect to unsecure networks from remote locations around the world and rely on satellite connections with limited bandwidth. For example, in the 2022-2023 race, the team sent 514 GB of data from many parts of the ocean that are only connected by (relatively) slow satellite connections to the race control team. The Ocean Race also has 271 TB of Google Drive data. The Ocean Race recognized that connections to insecure networks elevated cyber risk. The team also identified that Google Drive doesn’t provide proper backup capabilities. Finding a cybersecurity and data solution that would protect Google Drive data was of utmost importance. The team required a solution that would improve efficiency because saving time is vital to the event.

The Ocean Race evaluated several cybersecurity and data protection products on the market. And after careful consideration of all the solutions, the organization decided Acronis Cyber Protect was the perfect fit. Acronis Cyber Protect covers all the security areas that The Ocean Race depends on, including backup, antivirus, malware detection and continuous data protection. Acronis Cyber Protect integrates cybersecurity and data protection in a single, easy-to use solution that comprehensively protects diverse IT environments, including Google Workspace, which enables The Ocean Race to safeguard and back up 271 TB of Google Drive data.

With Acronis Cyber Protect, The Ocean Race can validate that their IT environment and data is secure. The integrated solution ensures The Ocean Race can securely access and restore critical data from the most remote parts of the ocean. The Acronis solution was easy to configure which helped The Ocean Race rapidly deploy it across all machines, and the product itself helps them recover machines both online and locally to ensure their staff and race participants do not lose time in the competition.

Sebastian de Prado Garcia, IT Systems Manager, The Ocean Race, shared an instance when Acronis Cyber Protect saved the Race: “We had a case when a critical machine to validate the connections went down during the race, and it took us less than one hour to be fully working again. You must have solutions that you feel are 100% reliable and be confident with their performance.” Many of the industry’s leading cybersecurity and data protection solutions on the market are not efficient enough and do not provide the level of technical support that The Ocean Race needs. According to Sebastian de Prado Garcia, Acronis delivers both highly efficient protection and hands-on technical support to help ensure The Ocean Race’s IT department maximizes efficiency. The intuitive Acronis Cyber Protect console enables them to recover data in a few clicks and eliminate hours of recovery time. Acronis Cyber Protect gives The Ocean Race peace of mind with additional layers of security and ensures connections are secure across the open seas. The critical IT infrastructure and data that The Ocean Race staff and many lives depend on are reliably protected without hindering operational efficiency.