Latest Veeam Data Platform enables business resilience

Veeam Software, the modern data protection provider, announced a new Veeam Data Platform back in February this year. The company recently highlighted the advanced data security, recovery and hybrid cloud capabilities of the new platform in Singapore.

Businesses are facing a more complex world with cloud-based backups, rarely-updated recovery plans, and ransomware attacks, shared Lester Yong, a System Engineer with Veeam. With Veeam, customers enjoy instant, granular and orchestrated data recovery. "Business continuity is getting harder," he said at a Veeam event in Singapore. "The challenge is staying in control of your data."

The Veeam Data Platform, which includes Veeam Backup & Replication (VBR) v12, delivers the 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, Veeam said. 

Secure backup and fast, reliable recovery functionality is available in three enterprise-grade editions for protecting cloud, virtual, physical, software-as-a-service and Kubernetes applications. The Foundation, Advanced and Premium editions all contain Veeam’s VBR and Instant Recovery; while the Advanced and Premium editions also deliver advanced resiliency features including monitoring, analytics and recovery.

The current Foundation Edition has over 500 new features and enhancements compared to the previous edition. Advanced Edition combines VBR with Veeam ONE (ONE) to give customers deep, intelligent monitoring and observability to identify and resolve any backup or recovery problems before they begin.

Premium Edition offers the ultimate enterprise modern data protection and recovery, and includes VBR, ONE and Veeam Recovery Orchestrator (VRO). Premium adds the full automation of complex data recovery process with near-zero recovery point objectives (RPOs) while automating testing and providing complete data resiliency with one-click recovery. Premium Edition customers are also eligible for the new Veeam Ransomware Warranty which covers the cost of data recovery, up to US$5 million dollars, in the event of a ransomware or cyberattack.

“Organisations are more vulnerable than ever. Over the past twelve months, 85% of organisations were attacked at least once; up from 76% in last year*,” said Danny Allan, CTO and Senior VP of Product Strategy at Veeam.

“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.”

All editions of Veeam Data Platform leverage VBR v12 as their foundation. Highlights of this edition are:

New direct-to-object storage backups

Send backups directly to Veeam’s broad ecosystem of object storage partners on-premises, or back up your edge locations directly to cloud object storage.

Trusted immutability

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 resilience

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 multifactor 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 optimised

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 a 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.

Veeam’s monitoring and analytics solution delivers intelligent insights and visibility within the new Veeam Data Platform Advanced and Premium Editions to help identify and resolve issues before problems arise. The latest version expands on new capabilities and includes support for more Veeam backup solutions (including Veeam Backup for Microsoft 365). Additionally, new monitoring and visibility capabilities include immutability reporting and data protection statuses for multicloud.

The new Veeam Data Platform Premium Edition also includes recovery orchestration, one of the most powerful tools to cut down time to recovery. By automating planning, testing and orchestrating the steps needed to recover from a disaster, businesses can simplify operations and prove backup compliance. The Veeam Data Platform now delivers automated, orchestrated recovery to Microsoft Azure, instant restore of Veeam Agents backups as virtual machines (VMs), and an automated recovery rollback for clean, ransomware-free data recoveries.

Platform extensions may be added to any of the Veeam Data Platform editions, or operated standalone, including backup for Kubernetes with Kasten K10 by Veeam, Veeam Backup for Microsoft 365, and Veeam Backup for Salesforce.

The new Veeam Ransomware Warranty, which complements the Veeam Data Platform, is a commitment to Veeam customers that in the event of a ransomware attack. For eligible users**, the Veeam Ransomware Warranty includes a 30-minute support service level agreement (SLA), a dedicated support account manager, quarterly health checks for best-practice operations, and optional design and installation services through a Veeam Accredited Service Provider. In addition, Veeam will deploy the Veeam Ransomware SWAT team — a dedicated team of security support experts trained in ransomware recovery — to help fight for the customer's business in the event of an attack.

"As hybrid cloud becomes the deployment architecture of choice, and cybersecurity threats become pervasive, the need to robustly provide backup and replication is crucial to enterprises. Veeam has been a market leader in this space and the new Veeam Data Platform launch demonstrates the company's commitment to innovation,” said Steven Dickens, Senior Analyst, Futurum Research, at the time of the launch.

“Fifty-two percent of businesses are now utilising containers in production environments***. Kasten K10 by Veeam has emerged as the leader in providing backup, disaster recovery, and application mobility solutions for containers operating in Kubernetes environments. The new Veeam Data Platform provides organisations with a centralised solution that offers seamless data protection operations and investment protection, while also addressing the unique requirements of Kubernetes environments, giving organisations ultimate data freedom,” said Gaurav Rishi, VP of Product Management, Kasten by Veeam.

"As organisations increasingly invest in modernising their technology infrastructures, flexibility is a key need for their applications and data to avoid risk. Together, with the expanded integration for USAPI and Veeam Direct to Object, Veeam and Pure Storage are enabling joint customers to benefit from unmatched disaster recovery performance, granularity and simplicity, and ultimately empowering these organisations to strengthen their cyber resilience in today's complex and dynamic business environment,” noted David Harvey, Vice President of Solutions and Alliances, Pure Storage.

“Ranked as the No. 1 object storage solution for the backup use case by Gartner, Scality is excited to be an early supporter of the new Veeam Data Platform. Veeam continues to set the standard for modern data protection by strategically building object storage into its platform to provide customers with simpler, more cost-effective, and more resilient solutions. Scality's partnership with Veeam has deep roots, and we feel privileged to be one of the object storage vendors to support the Smart Object Storage API, which enables customers to take advantage of the unlimited scalability of object storage without sacrificing performance,” added Wally MacDermid, VP, Strategic Alliances, Scality, which provides a compliance solution for websites and apps.

“Ransomware is a top concern for all organisations and backups are increasingly becoming the No. 1 target. The newly-released Smart Object Storage API in the new Veeam Data Platform enables Veeam users to send their backup data directly to Object First's immutable and reliable ransomware-proof storage. By combining Veeam with Object First, organisations can rest easy knowing their backups are ransomware-proofed with a simple, powerful, and affordable data protection solution,” added David Bennett, CEO, Object First at the time of the launch. The company provides backup storage for mid-enterprise Veeam customers.

Veeam protects over 450,000 customers worldwide, including 82% of the Fortune 500 and 72% of the Global 2,000. Veeam’s global ecosystem includes 35,000+ technology partners, resellers, service providers, and alliance partners.

*, ***Veeam Data Protection Trends Report 2023; January 17, 2023. https://vee.am/DPR23

 **Eligibility requirements for New Veeam Ransomware Warranty