Case Study: City of Sarasota achieves 24x7 availability and avoids a $34M ransom with Veeam Backup & Replication

City of Sarasota Sidesteps Cyber Attack and Avoids $34 Million in Ransom by Restoring Locked Files with Veeam

The City of Sarasota, a Gulf Coast municipality of about 55,000 residents and 850 employees, relies on digital services for everything from permitting to emergency management and must keep those services available 24x7—even during hurricanes and floods. Legacy tape-based backups were failing frequently, putting city operations and resident services at risk and prompting the IT team to find a reliable, fast recovery solution.

Sarasota deployed Veeam Backup & Replication (the team started the first job within 30 minutes) and used it to fully restore three file servers after a 2016 ransomware attack that demanded $34 million, avoiding payment and preventing any service or resident impact. Veeam now provides verified recoverability (SureBackup), minutes‑level restores (Instant VM Recovery), 3-2-1 backup compliance, and guaranteed business continuity across the city’s virtual environment.

City of Sarasota

Herminio Rodriguez

Director of IT