It’s hard to believe, but we’re fast approaching the 2-year milestone of the Veeam Universal Storage API release. Our API enables storage alliance vendors to write their own storage integration with Veeam Backup & Replication to deliver not only faster backups but also provide a way to leverage amazing storage features such as space efficient and performant cloning.
To date, the Veeam Universal Storage API has already enabled a number of storage integrations to benefit from all the great features and functionalities that comes with it.
The next plug-in is for the Dell EMC SC Series. As most of you probably already know, this is not the first integration we have done with Dell EMC, and this latest integration will add to the list which already includes Dell EMC VNX, VNXe and Unity. But in contrast to the Dell EMC storage products we already have integrations with, this will be the first integration written by Dell EMC themselves. This new plug-in with SC Series will help to increase Veeam’s storage footprint coverage.
Tighten the RPO
We talk a lot about the ability to recover data as fast as possible; this is very important, but we also absolutely need to think about the point in which we have to go back to if we do have to recover that data. RTO and RPO have to go hand in hand. One of the features that is enabled as part of the Veeam Universal Storage API and the storage integration is the ability to use the Dell EMC SC series snapshot engine, this allows us to take an orchestrated application consistent storage snapshot which is stored on the storage system for a retention period. This enables for a very tight recovery point with very little impact during business hours.
Leverage storage efficient snapshots
Previously, I mentioned the ability to orchestrate application consistent snapshots which is a great way of having a very up-to-date recovery point. Additionally, we also provide the ability to leverage application consistent snapshots as a source for our backup onto a different media type. By doing this we enable, or satisfy, the 3-2-1 methodology of backup.
Being able to offload the data transfer of backup and replication jobs to the storage layer introduces a performance advantage. In this way, backups from storage array snapshots provide a fast and efficient way to allow the Veeam backup proxy to move data to a Veeam backup repository. A cornerstone differentiation on this capability is that VMware’s Changed Block Tracking (CBT) is maintained with this Veeam technology. This means that you only have to process the data blocks that have changed since the last backup, rather than having to walk the entire file system.
Activate your data
Veeam DataLabs is one of Veeam’s most significant groupings of critical functionalities and an area I don’t believe we talk about enough; this really takes Veeam’s capabilities outside the backup and recovery space and allowing you to truly “activate your data.”
Veeam DataLabs provides the ability to take application consistent storage snapshots and create isolated environments and enable your business to iterate with data, without impacting your production set and operations. On-Demand Sandbox from Storage Snapshots enables you to achieve this in an automated fashion from a few simple steps defined in the Veeam management interface.
Find more details on this topic and specifically around DataLabs from a storage integration point of view.
Fast, effective restore options
The final piece to the puzzle for now is to determine just how fast will this storage integration enable us to restore our data back into production, therefore resulting in the best available RTO.
Firstly, we are able to take those same application consistent snapshots and provide the ability to open them and explore those snapshots not only from a file level point of view but also from an application point of view using our Veeam Explorers.
Another recovery option that ensures the fastest level of recovery when a failure scenario has taken place is our ability to instantly recover a virtual machine from that snapshot using our Instant VM Recovery. Directly from the storage snapshot, we can mount that snapshot as a VMware datastore and bring that machine up within seconds to ensure that your workloads are back in business as fast as they possibly can.
The last comment that I want to make is that these fast, effective restore options are also included in Veeam Backup & Replication Community Edition , which means you can leverage Veeam Explorers to recover your data in our FREE version of the product as well. Who else can do that, but Veeam?
Download the plug-in and give it a try!
See More:
- On-Demand Sessions from VeeamON Virtual