Case Study: North West Rural Electric Cooperative achieves tape-free instant disaster recovery and PCI compliance with Unitrends Recovery 714S

Powering Better Backup Solutions for Electric Utilities

North West Rural Electric Cooperative (NWREC) is a consumer-owned utility serving more than 9,600 accounts across northwest Iowa. With a small IT team, aging tape backups that couldn’t be easily verified or restored at the file level, and a failing tape drive, IT administrator James Vondrak sought a modern, supported replacement recommended by a peer.

NWREC deployed a Unitrends Recovery 714S at an off-site location connected by fiber and archives weekly to NAS, enabling instant spin-up of failed applications and maintaining PCI compliance. The move eliminated tapes, centralized backup management and testing, and allowed quick recovery of accidentally deleted files and a deleted database during migration — delivering full disaster-recovery capabilities and stronger protection against ransomware and accidental deletes.

North West Rural Electric Cooperative

James Vondrak

IT Administrator