Providing data resilience is one of the key competencies required by any IT department. As professionals who have to keep everything up and running, part of that responsibility includes being able to respond and ultimately recover from disaster quickly, securely and reliably. Just five years ago, whenever we talked about outages we would often think about the hypothetical “data center on fire” scenario. However, a lot has changed in the past five years.
Ransomware attacks are growing at an alarming rate and show no signs of slowing down, and phishing is exhibiting similar behavior. In order to gain access to internal networks, these attacks have become very lucrative for threat actors. And when these attempts are successful, it can take weeks before the malicious code is discovered. This can lead to situations where your backups are compromised, whether through deletion, encryption or due to the possibility of reinfection. Ultimately, this leaves your organization in a tough spot.
Immutability has become one of the leading tools we can use to combat these attacks. Being able to securely store our backups without needing to worry about attackers or simple human error is one of the strongest defenses that enterprises can employ. However, as the saying goes, a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. As enterprises strive toward cyber resiliency, Veeam Data Platform can empower them with immutability anywhere.
IMMUTABLE CLOUD STORAGE
Cloud storage is not new to the enterprise, and with good reason! It can provide an easy avenue to scale when needed, sits physically offsite and away from your on-premises data center and finally, many offerings can make data immutable.
Azure Blob Storage has been supported within Veeam Data Platform for many years. It remains a popular choice among enterprises for cloud storage, and it‘s therefore commonly used to store backed-up data. Storing data in the cloud does not make it safe by default, however, since:
- Mount points can still be used as an entry for ransomware
- Whether maliciously or accidentally, data can still be deleted
- Management credentials could be compromised and wipe out entire buckets
These concerns can be addressed with Veeam Data Platform by leveraging Immutable Storage for Azure Blob. With the straightforward check of a box, you can make backups immutable based on a period of your choice. Enabling this option at the repository level also reduces the risk of your settings being compromised via stolen portal credentials.
ENTERPRISE APPLICATIONS
Applications such as Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle RMAN, SAP HANA and SAP on Oracle are the driving force behind many of today’s enterprises. The traditional approach to protecting many of these virtualized workloads is to back up the entire virtual machine (VM). This is a step in the right direction, but this can also be problematic when it comes to restores since you may only want to recover a granular subset of your data.
I’ve previously written about the new Microsoft SQL Server plug-in. This plug-in will empower your database administrators and provide them with granular control over what gets backed up and when. Like the Microsoft SQL Server plugin, the plug-ins for Oracle RMAN, SAP HANA and SAP on Oracle can now all be written to the Linux Hardened Repository. This allows enterprises to granularly decide what data is protected and how long the backups should be immutable for.
In some cases, virtualized workloads such as Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle or PostgreSQL are protected via application-aware processing. With Veeam Data Platform, they can now be written directly to object storage, where immutability settings can be directly applied. Let’s not forget about physical workloads either. Veeam Agent for Microsoft Windows, Veeam Agent for Linux and Veeam Agent for Mac can all enjoy many of the same immutability benefits. Each of these can leverage Linux Hardened Repository as a backup target and take advantage of direct-to-object support.
Flexibility in an enterprise application data protection strategy is something that many organizations need, and it can be achieved with Veeam Data Platform!
PROTECTING UNSTRUCTURED DATA
Not all enterprise data sits in databases; a significant amount of data that enterprises generate every day can be found in text documents, spreadsheets and other forms of unstructured data. This data, which often sits on NAS appliances, is typically accessible by a large number of staff. Additionally, because the data is usually collaborative in nature, permissions likely aren’t in place to prevent widespread damage. Whether it be malicious attacks like ransomware or accidental deletion, NAS data needs a comprehensive protection strategy.
Veeam has been reliably and quickly backing up NAS datasets since Veeam Backup & Replication v9.5. The approach that we take to protecting NAS workloads is unique, and that can be seen by the speed and performance of the process. Backup speed is only part of the story; when it comes to restoring NAS shares, you need that data back fast. With this release, you’ll be able to accomplish this through Instant Recovery for SMB shares. This is NAS recovery in seconds with little to no impact to your end users!
Let’s not forget about keeping your NAS backups protected. With this release, you can achieve NAS backup immutability by using new direct-to-object storage support for NAS backups! In addition to the immutability benefits offered by object storage, NAS backups can also be written directly to our Linux Hardened Repository.
TRUSTED IMMUTABILITY FOR ALL
In today’s hybrid-cloud world, protecting your data is no longer a matter of securing a single backup repository at a single physical site. To become truly cyber resilient, enterprises need to ensure that their data is protected against internal and external threats.
Veeam has long talked about the 3-2-1-1-0 Rule with one meaning that a copy of your data should be stored offline or in some kind of immutable form. With Veeam Data Platform, trusted immutability has never been easier. With the enterprise efficiency enhancements to Linux Hardened Repository, you can easily design and build a solution that meets your needs without being tied to a specific hardware vendor.
If you want to take advantage of the benefits of using object storage, we have a number of partners that you can work with today. Veeam is all about data freedom, and that includes avoiding vendor lock-in! Veeam is all about data freedom, and that includes avoiding vendor lock-ins!
If you haven’t already, be sure to watch our Veeam Backup & Replication v12 Launch Event, where we had a chance to hear from experts as well as your peers.