Druva Unveils Secure Azure Backup, 'Dru' AI Copilot

• By David Ramel
• 11/08/2023

Druva, provider of a data resiliency SaaS platform, this week expanded its multi-cloud protection capabilities for the Azure cloud after previously unveiling an AI-powered copilot called "Dru" to help with backups.

The company yesterday (Nov. 7) announced cloud-native protection for Azure backups to help customers leverage the simplicity and value of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) across their cloud deployments.

"Druva's 100 percent agentless, cloud-native SaaS solution provides air-gapped backups for Azure VMs and reduces total cost of ownership by up to 40 percent compared to traditional solutions," the company said. "With a unified cloud platform, customers can easily protect, secure and manage backups across data centers and Azure and AWS environments at enterprise scale."

Druva said its Azure VM backup and recovery capabilities provides customer benefits including:

• Air-gapped, secure backups: Druva helps organizations protect data from ransomware by creating immutable backups. The solution automatically secures backup copies outside of customers' Azure tenancy in the Druva Cloud -- better protecting data and reducing risk from emerging threats and insider attacks.
• Agentless, multi-cloud management: Druva's solution eliminates the need for additional infrastructure or hardware and streamlines ease of use by enabling users to manage data environments across multiple clouds, all within a single interface. With Druva, customers benefit from enhanced simplicity and can protect their data in less than five minutes.
• Global deduplication and no egress fees: Druva optimizes data storage by deduplicating data across customer environments and eliminating egress fees for backups and restores -- while reducing the number of backup copies required for backup redundancy, providing cost savings and predictability. Customers benefit with up to 40 percent cost reduction compared to traditional solutions.

Druva's Azure VM backup and recovery capabilities are now globally available, with more information available here.

Last month, meanwhile, the company announced Dru, claiming it's the industry's first AI copilot for backup, to increase productivity and support better IT decision-making.

Dru's generative AI capabilities offer:

• Interactive reporting: Dru delivers streamlined data access and reporting with an interactive and highly visual design. Dru enables users to request real-time, custom reports, ask follow-up questions to refine report variables, and act on AI-powered suggestions to remediate backup failures within user reports.
• Assisted troubleshooting: With simple written prompts, Dru can analyze logs, and troubleshoot errors -- helping users understand and improve their backup and security postures. The conversational interface makes it easier for IT teams to interact, analyze and find the information they're looking for.
• Intelligent responses: Dru proactively prompts users with recommendations and best practices customized to their specific environments. It also advises users how to leverage new and advanced functionality to get the most value out of the platform.
• Simplified admin operations: Dru will assist with everyday administrative tasks by executing simple protection tasks for users. From creating new backup policies to triggering new backups of specific workloads, Dru will drive enhanced productivity for every user.
• Customized navigation: Dru is architected with simplicity in mind, allowing users to navigate their custom data protection environments with an easy-to-use conversational interface.

"Dru is built on AWS Bedrock, which seamlessly integrates with Druva's advanced security measures, offering customers a fortified and reliable experience," said Stephen Manley, CTO of Druva. "With the robust foundation models provided by AWS Bedrock, customers will benefit from a smoother, more efficient user experience, as well as faster integrations through responsive, adaptive capabilities."

More information can be found ina blog post published just today, "Druva's AI for Backup: You Won't Believe What Dru Can Do."

"Ultimately, Gen AI will enable Druva to connect data protection to the business," today's post said. "Customers want to balance cost and risk, not think in terms of backup sets and RPO/RTO. Dru will help customers prioritize their applications and data, identify their most critical risks, and create the most cost-effective solution to meet their business risk requirements."