How STCNtech kept a campus open after a midnight outage with Datto BCDR

Case study highlights

• Restored critical campus systems in 1–1.5 hours after a late-night outage
• Spun up core servers in the Datto Cloud to re-enable authentication and access
• Ensured classes and operations ran normally by 8 a.m.
• Replaced slow, manual USB backups with cloud-enabled BCDR
• Uses automated screenshot verification to confirm backups boot successfully
• Delivers predictable continuity costs for education and healthcare clients

Built on the expectation that the business must stay open

STCNtech was founded in 2010 with a clear focus: helping organizations stay operational when technology fails. Over time, that focus became less of a positioning statement and more of a day-to-day reality shaped by the clients they serve.

Across education, healthcare, nonprofits and legal organizations, downtime has immediate and potentially devastating consequences. Schools can’t teach without systems. Healthcare providers can’t operate without access to patient data. Nonprofits and legal offices can’t simply pause work and wait for systems to return. In environments like these, having a backup isn’t enough. What matters is whether the business can keep running.

The distinction between backup and business continuity, and misconceptions around the outcome when relying only on the former, is what STCNtech repeatedly encountered as they evaluated client environments and backup strategies.

Backed up, but not back online

Before standardizing on Datto BCDR, STCNtech regularly worked with organizations that believed they were protected — until they examined what recovery would actually look like. In many cases, the gap between perception and reality was significant.

Some relied on fragile, manual processes. One client, for example, was backing up multiple Hyper-V hosts to USB drives. Technically, the data existed somewhere else. Practically, restoring it would have taken days.

“It’s great that you’re backing it up,” Bruce Sarte, COO of STCNtech. “But if something goes sideways, restoring this is going to take forever. You’re going to be down for days.”

For STCNtech, that kind of risk was unacceptable. Their clients had limited tolerance for downtime and strict budget constraints, which meant any continuity solution had to work fast in real-world conditions, not just on paper. STCNtech needed something they could confidently stand behind when systems failed, not just something that stored data.

Why Datto BCDR became the standard

After evaluating alternatives over time, STCNtech chose Datto BCDR because it fit how they wanted to operate and how their clients needed to function. It gave them a way to talk about continuity with clarity and certainty, rather than caveats.

That confidence would soon be tested.

A real outage, late at night

Late one night, STCNtech received a call from a client in the education sector. An accident near the campus had caused a major power outage, and the generator supporting the on-site data center had failed. Core systems were offline, authentication services became unavailable and power was not expected to be restored until well into the next day.

Sarte immediately understood the implications. “You’re not going to be able to have classes tomorrow,” he recalls thinking. “You’re not going to be able to do business at 8 a.m.”

Rather than waiting for power restoration, STCNtech treated the situation as a disaster recovery event. The team decided to spin up the client’s core servers in the Datto Cloud so essential services could be restored before the day began.

That decision proved critical. Modern environments depend on authentication for nearly everything, from student information systems and learning platforms to Microsoft services, MFA and dozens of interconnected applications. Even if users could reach a login page, nothing would work without Active Directory running behind the scenes.

Working with Datto’s Code Red team, STCNtech restored DNS, DHCP and authentication services and rerouted traffic to the cloud-hosted environment. Within roughly an hour to an hour and a half, systems were online and accessible. “There was no question whether they could do business at 8 o’clock in the morning,” Sarte says. “When the doors opened, it worked.”

Power returned shortly afterward. By then, continuity had already been preserved. “It didn’t matter,” Sarte adds. “We just changed DNS settings again and moved on.”

From assumption to proof

That incident changed how STCNtech talks about continuity with clients. Instead of relying on theoretical assurances, they could point to lived experience and real outcomes. “It makes it something I can talk about with confidence,” Sarte says. “Not just ‘this is what the paper says.’ This is reality.”

Datto BCDR also improved everyday operations. Restoring individual files now takes minutes instead of waiting on lengthy mounts. Server upgrades are easier to manage, with data transitioned in controlled phases. Clients experience fewer disruptions and less stress during routine changes.

Knowing it actually works

For Sarte, the most valuable part of Datto BCDR isn’t the interface or the recovery options — it’s the verification. “That proof that it’s been checked and it’s good to go, that’s extremely valuable,” he says.

Automated screenshot verification gives STCNtech clear evidence that systems don’t just back up — they boot. That assurance turns backup from an assumption into something that can be proven. “If we’re not doing this, then what are we doing?” Bruce asks. “We’re just saying we’re doing something.”

Continuity that builds trust

Today, Datto BCDR plays a central role in how STCNtech differentiates itself — not by promising uptime, but by proving recoverability.

When clients ask what happens if the worst occurs, STCNtech doesn’t answer with theory. They answer with experience. And even when everything goes dark, the doors stay open.