Data Protection and Backup: Top 4 Cloud Native Solutions Enterprises Can’t Ignore
How organizations protect and backup data is changing with the growing migration to cloud. We identify the top solutions that can help them achieve these goals.
Data Protection and Backup: Top 4 Cloud Native Solutions Enterprises Can’t Ignore
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We are continuing to see big changes in how enterprises approach backup, recovery, and data protection strategies. It seems almost archaic now that we once rotated backup media between on and off-premise locations as the essential part of a disaster recovery plan. Today, the cloud plays an active role in most data protection and backup solutions for companies.
According to International Data Corporation (IDC), about 90% of organizations use the cloud as part of their data protection strategy. Until recently, the cloud has been limited to a secondary role in a scenario that looks something like this:
- Backups are created and stored in the same physical location as the production environment, allowing for quick operational recovery when necessary. These backups are segmented by a separate VLAN or firewall zone to protect them from malicious attacks such as ransomware.
- Retention policies are created in coherence with recovery objectives.
- A secondary backup copy of the on-premise backup is created and stored in a public cloud to be used in case the on-location backups are compromised or destroyed.
The Shift Towards Native Cloud Solutions
This type of strategy is characteristic of many organizations today, but one that will undoubtedly give way to more native cloud solutions in the future. Rather than the cloud simply being an “add-on” to these traditional backup solutions, the cloud will become the primary means of backup. There are several reasons for this:
- Organizations are migrating an increasing number of resources to the cloud, which means that cloud storage now becomes the local storage location.
- The proliferation of edge computing and remote work strategies has led to data sprawl in which data is now dispersed and trapped in multiple siloed locations. This leads to an ad-hoc variety of redundant backup solutions with no overall vision or conformity.
- Traditional backups solutions lack the scalability that organizations have grown accustomed to in other facets of IT. The cloud’s infinite scalability to scale up and down in alignment with dynamic data environments is becoming more critical.
- Organizations are growing accustomed to the OPEX model of financing IT in which one only pays for the use of a resource.
- Cloud-based solutions are easier and faster to implement, lessening the dependency on highly skilled proprietary technicians.
- With the propagation of ransomware attacks, organizations realize the importance of completely isolating their backup environments.
One big difference between traditional and cloud-native backup solutions is their backup approach. Traditional backup solutions use a snap-shot-in-time approach, while cloud-based solutions backup data synchronously in an automated fashion.
Let’s look at some of the top data protection and backup solutions available today. Rather than calling myself to determine what the “top” solutions are, I am using Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Backup and Recovery Software Solutions as a guide. Three of the top four below are Gartner’s industry leaders, while the final entry is more suited for SMBs.
Learn more: Cybersecurity for Multi Clouds: Why the Cloud Needs Native Security
1. Dell EMC Data Protection Suite
Dell PowerProtect is designed to protect your data no matter where it resides. Its Dell EMC PowerProtect appliance portfolio helps you automate your backup and recovery efforts with cloud-enabled modern data protection. They also offer a virtual appliance that can run on any choice of hardware or public cloud. Dell EMC Protection suite is aimed at the midmarket and enterprise market segment. It is designed to protect everything from laptops, large data depositories and servers in your data center as well as multi-cloud environments. Supported clouds include AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud. Because of Dell’s partnership with VMware, PowerProtect is tightly integrated with VMware virtualization environments and includes vSphere APIs, plugins for vRealize Suite automation, and support for Tanzu Kubernetes environments. Dell made ransomware protection a top priority with immutable and air-gapped architectures that meet the strictest security standards set by the American Bankers Association.
2. Carbonite
Carbonite provides robust, safe, and dependable backup solutions for every type of data, from on-site, cloud, and hybrid backup to high availability and document retention. It lets organizations manage cloud backup for apps, documents, and other critical data typically kept on on-site systems. Its features include unlimited cloud storage, remote sharing and access, cloud backup, courier recovery, hybrid backup, backup policy customization, as well as a mirror image, video, and hard disc backup. It also allows Windows users to restore to a prior OS version in the event of data loss or deletion. Carbonite also forgoes typical backup scheduling in favor of continuous data protection (CDP), which means files are backed up as they change. The software saves data in a regulated environment with 24-hour backup generators, ensuring that organizations receive simplified and safe cloud backup services. Customer service is accessible seven days a week, and the platform is available on a monthly subscription basis.
Click here to sign up for Carbonite
3. Veritas Technologies
Veritas Backup Exec has been around since the 80’s of IT and remains a Magic Quadrant Leader today, currently managing some 100 exabytes of information. Veritas Technology still offers the traditional Backup Exec that utilizes secondary cloud backup and their NetBackup solution. The NetBackup appliance portfolio offers an appliance-based solution for nearly every type of enterprise environment. It supports long-term cloud data retention for Azure and AWS, allowing you to backup snapshots using the same protection policies in the cloud as you do on-premise. Its NetBackup CloudCatalyst feature provides deduplication technology to the cloud, allowing for fast recovery. NetBackup uses Cloud immutable storage to protect data against Ransomware by integrating with immutable Object Lock storage on AWS S3. Amazon S3 Object protects data using a write once, read many (WORM) model.
4. Acronis Cyber Protect Home Office
With so many professionals quitting their jobs and going out on their own, it’s probably good to focus on an SMB or home office solution as well. Acronis Cyber Protect, formerly known as Acronis True Image, caters to this market. It may appeal to larger enterprise customers looking for a solution to serve their remote employees working out of home offices. It’s a dedicated cloud backup service that even includes forensic backup, which allows you to collect digital evidence for possible investigations. The company also chose to package other services such as advanced anti-malware protection and data protection mapping that tracks data distribution across your machines. While your backed up data may reside up in the cloud, restorations are fast, and its built-in Acronis Survival Kit simplifies the recovery process from a fatal computing error or virus. Compared to large enterprise solutions, it is quite affordable for everything that it has to offer.
Learn more: Top 3 Considerations When Choosing a Cloud Storage and Backup Solution
Click here to sign up for Acronis
Conclusion
While the discussion of backup technology may not prove as exciting as other topics, it’s a technology that your business might depend on for its survival one day. These four solutions show how backup technology continues to evolve and how there is a solution for every type of business.
Do you think cloud native solutions are the future of data protection and backup? Comment below or let us know on LinkedIn, Twitter, or Facebook. We would love to hear from you!
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