News

Amid Ransomware Deluge, Veeam Debuts New Data Platform

• By David Ramel
• 02/14/2023

Citing protection against ransomware, Veeam Software unveiled a new data platform that builds upon its flagship Backup & Replication offering.

The new Veeam Data Platform from the Ohio-based data protection specialist adds more than 500 new features and enhancements for Veeam Backup & Replication v12. Those include direct-to-object storage backup, trusted immutability, cyber resiliency and hybrid cloud protection.

Coming in three enterprise editions, the new platform provides what the company calls three key requirements to keep a business running: data security, data recovery and data freedom to backup and use data from anywhere without platform or cloud lock-in.

As far as providing ransomware protection amid a years-long deluge of unceasing and expensive attacks, the company unveiled the Veeam Ransomware Warranty that includes:

• Advanced onboarding support
• A 30-minute time-to-first-response support service level (SLA)
• A dedicated support account manager (SAM) for assistance and escalation
• Quarterly health checks for best-practice operations
• Design and Installation services through a Veeam Accredited Service Provider
• In the event of a ransomware attack, Veeam will cover the cost of data recovery

Company execs noted the new data platform marks a change in the company's approach that goes beyond the usual industry practice of updating core products with new features and functionality. "While the market is always hungry for the next release from Veeam, today we are aligned around Veeam Data Platform delivering more innovation to keep businesses running," said a blog post authored by CTO Danny Allan and product strategy senior director Rick Vanover. "Veeam's been keeping the lights on for organizations around the world for over 16 years. The heart of Veeam Data Platform is secure backup and fast recovery, it's what Veeam is known for. Today the platform story is more real and relevant than ever."

As far as the standard announcement of new features and functionality, new direct-to-object storage backups were highlighted by the company:

• Direct to On-premises Object Storage: "Send your enterprise scale datacenter backups directly to Veeam's broad ecosystem of object storage partners on-premises with the performance you need to meet your goals."
• Direct to Cloud Object Storage: "Reduce the overall cost and complexity of managing new and existing infrastructure backups at the edge with direct backups to object storage in the cloud."

Along with the new direct-to-object storage backups, other highlights of the release as presented by Veeam include:

• Trusted immutability for every workload: "Ensure backups can always be restored after a cyberattack with comprehensive, enterprise-grade immutability options from trusted vendors, including on-premises object, block and file storage, hardened repositories and deduplicating storage appliances, cloud object storage and tape."
• Cyber resilient: "Enable the fastest response to ransomware attacks by identifying, alerting and restoring only clean data, including automation and proven recovery orchestration for all workloads. Empower a zero-trust journey with multi-factor authentication (MFA), password-less service accounts (gMSA) for Windows and single-use credentials for Linux, and fortify defense against cyberattacks with Kerberos-only and IPv6-only environment support".
• Hybrid-cloud optimized: "Achieve even greater efficiency and security across the hybrid cloud with immutable backups for cloud-native AWS and Microsoft Azure workloads, new cloud-integrated agents for lift-and-shift workloads, and unified cloud monitoring and reporting."
• Ecosystem Excellence: "Veeam Universal Storage API 2.0 and NEW Smart Object Storage API provide even more future-proofing for enterprise scalability and offsite resiliency. Ecosystem vendors include Pure Storage, Scality and Object First as the inaugural launch partners that integrate with these new APIs".

"Organizations are more vulnerable than ever," said Allan in a news release. "Over the past 12 months, 85 percent of organizations were attacked at least once; up from 76 percent in last year. "We understand IT leaders feel they aren't sufficiently protected and as IT environments continue to grow more complex and demanding, it's now obvious that Modern Data Protection must be integrated into the overall cyber preparedness plan. The Veeam Data Platform brings the best of Veeam solutions together to deliver a single platform with relentless security, reliable data recovery and trusted data freedom, and is designed to give our customers the choice to leverage the right solution that fits their needs and keeps their business running."

Those stats come from the company's 2023 Data Protection Trends report published last month. Along with noting that 85 percent of organizations had at least one ransomware attack last year, the survey-based report also revealed:

• 79 percent of organizations have a protection gap
• 80 percent of organizations will use BaaS/DRaaS for at least some of their servers
• 15 percent of IT leaders consider protection of IaaS/SaaS workloads as the most important aspect of enterprise backup
• 74 percent of organizations will use cloud-powered data protection services by 2025
• 32 percent of organizations say improving reliability and success of backups will drive changing their enterprise backup solution in 2023