Between the global pandemic, remote work and ransomware attacks, the challenges faced by the IT sector are becoming increasingly complex and, precisely for this reason, the so-called Data Resilience it becomes more difficult than it should be and, we all know very well that we prefer Smarter solutions and tools, especially if we talk about our data and their recovery.
Backup & Recovery solutions alone are no longer sufficient, in fact they are needed advanced functionality such as monitoring, automation, and recovery orchestration. It is on this basis that Veeam, in the first quarter of 2023, was released at Veeam Veeam Backup & Replication V12.
Although a new release does not necessarily involve radical changes, the news, now available a few weeks ago, opens different new scenarios and opportunities that can be a starting point for your data protection strategy.
Why do we choose Veeam Backup at CloudFire?
As you know, at CloudFire we choose Veeam Backup software because its approach over the years has allowed us, and still does, to integrate it perfectly with our infrastructure in Veeam Cloud Platform. The new Veeam Backup Replication V12, combined with the Veeam Data Platform model, which places data resilience at the center, once again confirms the potential of the leading Backup software in the data protection market.
It is precisely with the aim of offering you such guarantees of resilience and data protection that within the CloudFire Team we constantly consolidate our Skills, with training courses, certifications made available by Veeam itself and above all Testing concretely every new feature.
This month our Team had the opportunity to take a look at the news of Veeam V12 and, in this article, we want to let you know what, in our opinion, are the news that really make the difference compared to previous releases.
What's new in Veeam V12
Veeam, especially in the launch of Veeam Backup & Replication V12, focused on three pillars such as Data Freedom, Data Security and Data Recovery and, in each one, we have found new distinctive features that deserve further study.
S3 🚀 Direct To Object Storage
Regarding the concept of Data Freedom, certainly one of the main new functions included is the possibility of performing any backup job directly to Object Storage.
In previous versions of Veeam Backup & Replication, which already supported copies to Object Storage, it was mandatory to first create a Scale Out Repository and only later do the copy job. Now it is no longer mandatory to create an additional Repository, but it is possible to send data directly to compatible S3 Object Storage, such as that of CloudFire.
A possible backup strategy that you could use, in fact, is shown in the following diagram”Object Storage Everywhere” which would entail:
- have one or more object storage available, from different Cloud providers, all of which are potentially immutable;
- copy data at both performance Tier and Capacity Tier levels and store once again in an additional Object Storage.
To date, we can therefore say that the Cloud Object Storage It is a highly reliable solution that Veeam, given the releases of new features, is making the standard to be used as backup repository, improving both in terms of performance and resilience, completely freeing you from local storage.
The use of Object Storage with Veeam, in fact, in particular our S3 Storage, certainly involves a greater predictability of costs in terms of occupied space and the possibility of enablingImmutability of data within the Repository.
See Amover 🔁
Another particularly interesting feature linked to the concept of Data Freedom is VeeaMover.
It allows you to move or copy backups to different locations. With Veeam V11, in fact, where this functionality was not provided, changing a destination repository already containing a backup was a manual process that first involved an interruption of the backup process, the copying of data from the old repository, and the transfer to an additional repository with the consequent alignment of all the jobs between the repositories involved.
Now, thanks to VeeamOver and V12 instead, migrate between multiple repositories In a much more uncomplicated and rapid, without the need to carry out the steps required in the previous release, saving time and effort.
Immutability everywhere 🔒
With the aim of containing the consequences of ransomware attacks and counteracting any malicious, increasingly sophisticated and aggressive actions, the response of Data Security by Veeam is theimmutability of the data.
To enable this feature, we have already anticipated it in this article, the solution is Object Lock: protocol functionality, available with any cloud provider or product compatible with S3, which if activated, prevents the alteration or deletion of a file until a certain date.
This functionality, already present in V11, brought with it some constraints mainly related to Object Storage such as:
- Mandatory configuration of a Scale Out Repository;
- A first copy on the S3 Capacity Tier Repository or Archiving Tier and, only later, on Immutable Object Storage.
The time required to have this type of functionality became decidedly limiting. However, with the introduction of V12 and the discourse related to the possibility of making a backup and backup copy directly on S3 storage, the support of multiple Buckets on the Scale Out Repository, It distorts the previous logic allowing you to enable the Immutability functionality on S3 storage, certainly improving data resilience performance.
All of this allows you to make any object storage immutable easily.
At CloudFire, in addition to our Veeam Cloud Platform, we provide the our S3 storage technology-based Ceph, compatible with the AWS S3 protocol with object lock functionality. The difference compared to other Cloud Storage is certainly in terms of Billing and Usability; in fact, it does not involve variable transfer costs remain Unlimited The transfers input/output and download/upload. In this way, you can approach a transparent and clear cost estimate.
We have explored this topic in depth in a Webinar”Deep dive - Empower Your Veeam with S3 Immutable storage” that we recommend you watch!
Also with regard to Microsoft 365, at Veeam they have released other features with which you can guarantee the immutability of the data contained in the Microsoft 365 tenant.
Along with V12, immutability support has also been introduced on Veeam Microsoft365 backup copies, which allows you to ensure that no data contained in your M365 tenant, under your responsibility, can be encrypted, tampered with or in any way deleted and ensure efficient recovery.
Restore ✅
The last feature we refer to is the reverting.
Although backup is essential, even, and above all, data recovery is a delicate and essential moment, and Veeam has always been pushing particularly hard in this regard. In fact, the moment you are attacked by ransomware, you have deleted data or you find yourself in a generic hardware failure, the key to giving continuity to each business is to restore data quickly and safely.
With Veeam V12 they become 91 available data recovery techniques, while for M365 they are 45, guaranteeing you a security in recovery never achieved before.
Veeam never ceases to amaze us by continuously implementing new features that we regularly test internally at CloudFire.
These are all the new features in Veeam V12 💚 that, in our opinion, make the difference. Which are your favorites? Write it to us here!
