It’s another extraordinary day at Veeam, as Veeam Backup & Replication v11 and Veeam Backup for Microsoft Azure v2 are launched. Without a doubt, the most significant aspect of these two launches is that Veeam Backup & Replication can now natively back up your Azure environment (more on that later). Veeam is consistently building on its promise of delivering a true Cloud Data Management platform, and these releases are packed full of capabilities to help natively protect Microsoft Azure workloads.
For anyone who is not familiar with Veeam Backup for Microsoft Azure, the solution enables fully automated native snapshotting and backups of Microsoft Azure virtual machines (VMs), including offloading those to Azure Blob storage for greater cost efficiency in the cloud. Recovery is equally powerful, providing capabilities to perform full- or file-level recovery options within Azure, or outside of Azure to any other supported platform. The appliance is easily deployed directly from the Azure Marketplace in minutes. This remains true for version 2 also, but for those with hybrid environments protected by Veeam, this appliance can now be deployed and managed directly from Veeam Backup & Replication. Let’s take a look at that…
Azure-native backup with Veeam Backup & Replication
Veeam Backup & Replication supports a number of platforms, and it is now extremely easy to add a Microsoft Azure environment into the console. This new integration allows you to natively protect and restore your Microsoft Azure workloads easily with the very same Veeam Backup & Replication console you currently use for all your other jobs.
You have two options when it comes to the initial setup: 1.) Connect to an existing Veeam Backup for Microsoft Azure appliance (if you already have one deployed), or 2.), deploy a new one. Once you’ve gone through the few steps required to connect the two, all the backup policies and backups can be managed directly within Veeam Backup & Replication.
Snapshots, backups and recoveries are all managed directly through the Veeam Backup & Replication console. With Veeam Backup & Replication integrations, you’re not just limited to recovering in Azure either, since you can also restore to any supported platform, including other cloud providers. This new addition truly builds on Veeam’s Cloud Data Management strategy, allowing you to properly protect data at its source, move it where you need to when you need to, and properly protect it at its destination, all from a single control plane.
Tiering to hot and cool Azure Blob Storage
While sometimes it is easy to think about using snapshots solely for backup purposes, it’s important to consider data retention requirements too. With Veeam Backup for Microsoft Azure, backups can be taken and offloaded to Microsoft Blob storage for low-cost and longer-term data retention. Microsoft Azure blob storage offers different tiers for different use cases, which are typically focused on how often the data is accessed.
Veeam Backup for Microsoft Azure now supports the cool Azure Blog storage tier (in addition to the already-supported hot tier), allowing cost vs. frequency requirements to be included in any backup policy. For longer-term data storage requirements looking to meet compliance recommendations, cool storage can be used, with the expectation that the data stays in place for longer than 30 days. For hot storage, this is typically used to store data that is frequently accessed and disposed of regularly. With the introduction of support for both of these tiers, Veeam Backup for Microsoft Azure provides the capabilities to build a true data protection policy for quick recovery, or longer-term data retention, all while controlling your cloud expenses.
Application consistency
Taking backups is always critical to protect your data but making sure that the backup data is consistent is just as important. The latest release of Veeam Backup for Microsoft Azure enables backup policies to be defined to take either application-aware snapshots for Microsoft Windows VMs or run pre- and post-job backup scripts for Microsoft Windows or Linux VMs.
This provides greater consistency when protecting workloads, like running databases, for an example. Scripts can be run to shut down the database prior to a backup being performed and bring that database back online post backup.
Enhanced policy wizard
With all the new capabilities being brought into Veeam Backup for Microsoft Azure, an enhanced policy wizard has been included to provide more streamlined usage. The policy wizard brings in capabilities centered around harmonized scheduling, allowing you to choose daily, weekly monthly and yearly selections while being able to select different backup repositories per schedule.
Summary
With the new capabilities and features in Veeam Backup & Replication, you can now unify the management and protection of all your workloads under one common control plane. If you only have an Azure environment and never want to move data elsewhere, the Veeam Backup for Microsoft Azure appliance can run completely independently, too. This approach to natively protecting your workloads in Azure means enterprises with hybrid- or multi-cloud environments have purpose-built backup for all their needs, but also born-in-the-cloud organizations or developers that only need Azure backup are catered for, too.
For more information on all the new features available when it comes to Azure backup and recovery, I encourage you to visit the “What’s New” guides.
I mentioned earlier in the blog about 25 FREE VUL to protect cloud workloads. If you’re a current Veeam Backup & Replication, Veeam Availability Suite or Veeam Backup Essentials customer, we’re giving you 25 VUL FREE to natively protect your AWS or Azure workloads. What’s more, we’re even throwing in $250 in cloud credit of your choice to sweeten the offer. Check out all the offer details here and register to start natively protecting AWS and Azure workloads FREE!
If you’re not currently a Veeam customer or just want to backup Azure only, deploy the appliance here. You can even backup 10 Azure VMs FREE!