Swapping out physical servers for their virtual counterparts isn’t just a tech upgrade—it’s a whole new game. Virtual machines (VMs) offer the same flexibility, efficiency, and cost savings you’re used to, but in a sleek, digital package. However, securing this new virtual landscape is another story. This blog cuts through the complexity of data protection, offering clear, actionable steps to fortify your VMs against threats. Get ready to master the art of virtual security with ease.
Understanding Virtual Server
A virtual server is a software-based server that functions on a physical server. This is along with other virtual servers through software commonly referred to as a hypervisor, which shares the physical resources between VMs. This architecture makes it possible for a number of virtual machines to run independently on one physical server; hence, the utilization of resources is done efficiently and at lower costs.
Disaster Recovery: VMs are equally exposed to these threats as the physical servers on which they are hosted, namely hardware failures, cyber security attacks, and errors caused by the human factor.
Efficiency: VM backups offer a more efficient recovery process than traditional backup methods.
Regulatory Compliance: Many sectors require data backups to meet legal and regulatory standards.
VMware Backup Solution
VM Backup Methods: Two Principal Approaches
Treat VMs Like Physical Servers: This is the orthodox way of installing backup software agents within the VMs and treating the VMs just as you would your physical servers. It is simple and, however, has a downside where several virtual machines can be simultaneously backed up, therefore creating a performance hitch.
Hypervisor-Level Backup: A relatively new way is the backing up of VMs at the hypervisor level. It is more effective in computing and reduces the overhead on VM performance. It uses technologies like Windows’ Volume Shadow Copy Services (VSS) in making consistent backups.
What is VSS and Why is it Important?
Windows Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) is vital for creating application-consistent backups. It ensures that even if data is being used or changed during the backup process, the backup version will be consistent and reliable, crucial for applications like SQL Server or Exchange.
Specialized Backups for Hypervisors: The Future of VM Protection
With the advancement of technology, backup solutions have evolved to offer specialized options for VMs, utilizing APIs provided by hypervisor vendors. These solutions enable efficient, application-consistent backups that are integral for modern data protection strategies.
Final Thoughts: Making VM Backup Part of Your Data Protection Strategy
As virtual servers continue to dominate the IT landscape, having a solid backup and recovery strategy is more important than ever. By understanding the basics of VM operation, the significance of hypervisor-level backups, and the role of technologies like VSS, organizations can ensure their data remains secure, compliant, and recoverable, no matter what challenges arise.
Protecting your virtual servers may seem daunting at first, but by breaking down the process into manageable steps and understanding the key technologies involved, even those without a technical background can ensure their digital assets are well-protected.
To see more about how Catalogic helps VM users protect their VMs, check this BLOG.
Selecting the right virtualization platform is a critical decision for IT departments aiming to boost efficiency, reduce costs, and scale operations effectively. With VMware and Proxmox VE leading the pack, each platform offers distinct advantages. Proxmox VE, with its open-source framework, is particularly appealing for its cost-effectiveness and flexibility. This contrasts VMware, a proprietary solution known for its comprehensive support and scalability, though often at a higher cost. Recent changes in VMware’s licensing, influenced by corporate decisions, have led some organizations to consider Proxmox VE as a more customizable and financially accessible option.
The Critical Role of Backup in Migration
Migrating from VMware to Proxmox VE necessitates a strategic approach, with data backup being a cornerstone of the transition. It’s crucial to maintain backups both before and after the migration for both virtualization platforms. Additionally, it’s necessary to retain backup data for a period, as VM administrators need to run test systems to ensure everything operates smoothly. This process highlights the differences in backup methodologies between VMware and Proxmox VE, each tailored to its respective platform’s architecture.
VMware vs Proxmox Backup Demo
VMware Backup vs. Proxmox VE Backup
For VMware environments, usually the backup software adopts an agentless approach, streamlining the backup process by eliminating the need for installing backup agents on each VM. This method leverages VMware vCenter and a virtualization proxy server to manage VMware snapshot processing and communication with the storage destination. It enables auto-discovery and protection of new or modified VMs, ensuring comprehensive coverage. Additionally, the backup software offers instant recovery options, including the ability to quickly map Virtual Machine Disk (VMDK) images back to the same or alternate VMs, significantly reducing downtime and enhancing data accessibility. The support for both physical and virtual environments underlines the backup solution’s versatility, catering to a wide range of backup and recovery needs.
In contrast, the approach for Proxmox backup with backup software is similarly agentless but specifically tailored to the Proxmox VE platform. It incorporates hypervisor snapshot management, enabling efficient backup and recovery processes. One of the features for Proxmox VE backups allows for incremental backups after an initial full backup, focusing only on changed data to minimize backup windows and storage requirements. Backup software also provides a disk-exclusion option, enabling users to exclude certain VM disks from backups. This can be particularly advantageous for optimizing backup storage by omitting disks that contain temporary or non-essential data.
The distinction between VMware and Proxmox backup strategies illustrates the tailored functionalities that backup software must provide to effectively cater to each platform. VMware’s solution emphasizes comprehensive coverage, instant recovery, and streamlined integration within a diverse and complex IT infrastructure. Meanwhile, Proxmox’s backup solution focuses on efficiency, flexibility, and the specific virtualization technologies of Proxmox VE, offering scalable and efficient data protection. This highlights the critical role of choosing a backup solution that not only matches the technical framework of the virtualization environment but also supports the strategic goals of the organization’s data protection policies.
Check our Proxmox Backup Webinar
Choosing the Right Backup Destination of Cloud
When it comes to selecting a backup destination, options abound, including disk, tape, and cloud storage. Based on our recent experience, many user choose to backup VMs onto the cloud, Wasabi Cloud Storage stands out for its affordability, reliability, and performance, making it an excellent choice for Proxmox VE backups. Its streamlined integration with DPX vPlus backup solutions offers scalability and off-site data protection, without the burden of egress fees or hidden costs.
Securing Proxmox VE Backups with Wasabi Cloud Storage
The process of backing up Proxmox VE to Wasabi Cloud Storage is straightforward, beginning with setting up a Wasabi storage bucket and configuring DPX vPlus to use Wasabi as a backup destination. This approach not only ensures secure and high-performance cloud storage but also leverages DPX vPlus’s reliable backup capabilities, providing a robust data protection strategy for your virtual infrastructure.
Conclusion
The transition from VMware to Proxmox VE, motivated by the desire for a more flexible and cost-effective virtualization solution, highlights the importance of a well-planned backup strategy. The comparison between VMware and Proxmox VE backup methodologies reveals the need for backup solutions that align with the specific requirements of each platform. Integrating Proxmox VE backups with Wasabi Cloud Storage through DPX vPlus offers a compelling solution, combining cost-efficiency with reliable data protection. For organizations contemplating this migration, understanding these differences and options is crucial for ensuring data integrity and system continuity.
For a detailed demonstration on integrating DPX vPlus with Wasabi for Proxmox VE backups, request a demo here.
Virtualization and Data Protection: Navigating the Advantages and Disadvantages of Agent-Based and Agentless Backups in Modern IT Infrastructures
Against this highly dynamic landscape of contemporary IT infrastructures, virtualization has indeed become the key initiative for businesses to gain flexibility, scalability, and efficiency. This paradigm shift has accentuated effective data protection strategies. From among the myriad of options available, two major methods of safeguarding virtual machines (VMs) stand out, which include agent-based and agentless backups. Each of the two has its pros and cons unique to them, and for that reason, businesses should always make sure they comprehend the differences for their decisions to be enlightened.
This synthesis attempts to make an encompassing view of both the advantages and disadvantages of the approaches helpful toward making the best-tailored strategy for data protection.
Agent-based Backup: Granular Control but Expensive
Agent backup solutions are the types of backups that require the installation of a dedicated software agent on every VM, giving control over the backup process.
Pros:
Granular backup and recovery let the users take control of fine-grained objects that are being backed up—ranging from single files to full systems—so that they can design their backup strategy according to their needs.
Application-Specific Support: Best for critical, complex applications and databases, with a guarantee of application-consistent backups for important systems.
Enhanced Security: The security of data is improved by built-in security measures with VM deployments, adding one more layer of security to the agent-based backups.
Cons:
Resource Heavy: The requirements by individual agents in each VM require an enormous amount of resources and could affect the performance of the system.
Management Complexity: Managing a huge number of agents across many VMs gives rise to administrative overheads.
Compatibility and Scalability Issues: This makes it difficult to maintain the scale since, to match the agents installed for any VM operating system, in addition to scaling up with the growing infrastructure requirements.
Agentless Backup: Simplifying Scalability and Management
Agentless backup solutions communicate directly with the hypervisor interface and do not need any software to be installed within the specific VMs.
Pros:
Less overhead: Get rid of individually, inefficiently, with easy-to-manage agents, and reduce resource footprint on VMs.
Ease of Deployment and Scalability: The agentless backup deployments are so simple that it become particularly beneficial for large or fluid virtual environments; they easily accommodate new VM additions.
Comprehensive VM Coverage: Auto-discovery for new or modified VMs helps in automating the ensuring process of all parts of the virtual environment being protected without manual interventions.
Cons:
Granularity at Risk: May not give an equal level of granular backup choices as agent-based solutions—potentially adding complexity to specific file or application recoveries.
Application Consistency Challenges: Applications running within VMs risk data integrity since it’s harder to get consistent backups of such applications in case of recoveries.
Dependent on Hypervisor Compatibility: The efficiency and capability of agentless backup solutions may greatly depend on the virtualization platform being used.
Hybrid Approach: Combining Strengths for Enhanced VMware Protection
For VMware environments, a hybrid strategy deploying both agent-based and agentless backups offers a complete solution. The first one undertakes an agentless approach to data protection for wide coverage with a minimum overhead, while the second approach brings in the use of agents for backup with the facility of granular control and application consistency. Features of instant VM recovery, support of complex applications, and resource efficiency are features that, in fact, should make such a flexible combination of methodologies stand out in features and general versatility.
Conclusion: Matching Backup Strategy to Business Case
It means the users would have to use the proper choice to navigate such complexities and understand all the details within the pros and cons of both these strategies regarding VM backup. While agent-based solutions offer detailed control and security, they come with higher resource and management costs. Agentless backups bring simplicity and scalability with the compromise of level of granularity and application-specific support. In businesses based on VMware, the above integrations with the two afford the respective strengths to have a well-rounded, all-inclusive, and flexible data protection solution in place. In conclusion, the choice between agent-based, agentless, or integrating both really should be in line with an organization’s specific needs, priorities, and their IT infrastructure, resulting in the best protection of their virtual environment.
Explore Both Approaches with Catalogic DPX
Catalogic DPX provides robust solutions for both agent-based and agentless VM backup approaches, enabling you to tailor your data protection strategy to your organization’s specific needs. To see these solutions in action and discover how they can enhance your data protection strategy, request a demo here.
Professionals in State, Local, and Educational (SLED) circles are in a tough spot. They’ve got to keep their data safe under a tight budget, battling against costly and stormy cyber threats. It’s a complex battlefield, no doubt. This post lists the 11 biggest challenges SLED organizations are facing right now when it comes to protecting their precious information. We’re talking about the must-tackle zones that need smart moves and sharp strategies to keep sensitive data under lock and key.
Top 11 SLED Data Protection Challenges
Comprehensive Risk Assessment: Effective data protection starts with understanding the landscape of potential threats. SLED organizations must regularly perform risk assessments to identify vulnerabilities in their information systems.
These assessments should evaluate the susceptibility of data assets to cyber threats, physical damage, and human error. By pinpointing areas of weakness, SLED entities can prioritize security enhancements, tailor their cybersecurity strategies to address specific risks, and allocate resources more effectively.
This proactive approach ensures that protective measures are aligned with the actual risk profile, enhancing the overall security posture of the organization.
Budget-Conscious Cybersecurity Solutions: Amid financial constraints, SLED entities must find cybersecurity solutions that are both effective and economical. By exploring cost-effective measures, organizations can achieve robust security against complex threats without exceeding budgetary limits.
These solutions should offer scalability and flexibility, allowing for the efficient allocation of resources in response to changing cybersecurity demands. Emphasizing the importance of strategic investment, SLED entities can enhance their cybersecurity posture through smart, budget-friendly choices, ensuring the protection of critical data and services against evolving digital threats.
Encryption of Sensitive Data: Encryption transforms sensitive data into a coded format, making it inaccessible to unauthorized individuals. For SLED entities, encrypting data at rest (stored data) and in transit (data being transmitted) is crucial.
This ensures that personal information, financial records, and other confidential data are protected against unauthorized access and breaches. Encryption serves as a robust line of defense, safeguarding data even if physical security measures fail or if data is intercepted during transmission.
Implementing strong encryption standards is a key requirement for maintaining the confidentiality and integrity of sensitive information within SLED organizations.
Multi-factor Authentication (MFA): MFA adds a critical security layer by requiring users to provide two or more verification factors to access data systems. This approach significantly reduces the risk of unauthorized access due to compromised credentials.
By combining something the user knows (like a password) with something the user has (such as a security token or a smartphone app confirmation), MFA ensures that stolen or guessed passwords alone are not enough to breach systems.
For SLED entities, implementing MFA is essential for protecting access to sensitive systems and data, particularly in an era of increasing phishing attacks and credential theft.
Data Backup Regularity: Regular, scheduled backups are essential for ensuring data integrity and availability. SLED organizations must establish a stringent backup schedule that reflects the value and sensitivity of their data.
This involves determining which data sets are critical for operations and ensuring they are backed up frequently enough to minimize data loss in the event of a system failure, data corruption, or cyberattack. Regular backups, combined with comprehensive inventory and classification of data, ensure that all vital information is recoverable, supporting the continuity of operations and services.
Offsite and Immutable Backup Storage: Storing backups offsite and using immutable storage mediums protects against a range of threats, including natural disasters, physical damage, and ransomware attacks. Offsite storage ensures that a physical event (like a fire or flood) at the primary site does not compromise the ability to recover data.
Immutable storage prevents data from being altered or deleted once written, offering a safeguard against malicious attempts to compromise backup integrity. For SLED entities, these practices are integral to a resilient data protection strategy, ensuring data can be restored to maintain public service continuity.
Testing and Validation of Backup Integrity: Regular testing of backups for integrity and restorability is crucial. This process verifies that data can be effectively restored from backups when necessary.
SLED organizations must implement procedures to periodically test backup solutions, ensuring that data is not only being backed up correctly but can also be restored in a timely and reliable manner.
This practice identifies potential issues with backup processes or media, allowing for corrective actions before an actual disaster occurs. It’s a critical step in ensuring the operational readiness of data recovery strategies.
Data Minimization and Retention Policies: Data minimization and retention policies are about storing only what is necessary and for as long as it is needed. This approach reduces the volume of data vulnerable to cyber threats and aligns with privacy regulations that require the deletion of personal data once its purpose has been fulfilled.
SLED organizations should establish clear guidelines on data collection, storage, and deletion, ensuring unnecessary or outdated data is systematically purged. These policies help mitigate risks related to data breaches and ensure compliance with data protection laws, minimizing legal and reputational risks.
Incident Response and Recovery Planning: An incident response plan outlines procedures for addressing data breaches, cyberattacks, or other security incidents. It includes identifying and responding to incidents, mitigating damages, and communicating with stakeholders.
Recovery planning focuses on restoring services and data after an incident. For SLED entities, having a well-defined, regularly tested incident response and recovery plan is vital. It ensures preparedness to act swiftly in the face of security incidents, minimizing impact and downtime, and facilitating a quicker return to normal operations.
Compliance with Legal and Regulatory Requirements: SLED organizations are subject to a complex web of regulations concerning data protection and privacy. Compliance involves adhering to laws and regulations like FERPA for educational institutions, HIPAA for health-related entities, and various state data breach notification laws.
Ensuring compliance requires a thorough understanding of these regulations, implementing necessary controls, and regularly reviewing policies and procedures to accommodate changes in the law. This not only protects individuals’ privacy but also shields organizations from legal penalties and reputational damage.
Employee Training and Awareness Programs: Human error remains a significant vulnerability in data protection. Training and awareness programs are crucial for educating employees about their roles in safeguarding data, recognizing phishing attempts, and following organizational policies and procedures.
Regular training ensures that staff are aware of the latest threats and best practices for data security. For SLED entities, fostering a culture of cybersecurity awareness can significantly reduce the risk of data breaches caused by insider threats or negligence, making it an essential component of any data protection strategy.
Facing these challenges highlights the urgent need for a smart plan that fixes today’s security problems and gets ready for tomorrow’s dangers. To tackle these big issues, a set of solutions is designed to close the gap between possible risks and the strong protections needed to stop them. These solutions show us how to go from spotting cybersecurity issues to putting strong safeguards in place. This shows a forward-thinking and thorough way to keep the digital and day-to-day operations of SLED organizations safe.
What Are the Solutions to the Top 11 Challenges Faced by SLED?
Automated and Scheduled Backups: To ensure data is regularly backed up without relying on manual processes, which can lead to gaps in the backup schedule.
Affordable and Flexible License: Emphasizes the need for cost-effective and adaptable licensing models that allow SLED entities to scale security services according to budget and needs, ensuring essential cybersecurity tools are accessible without financial strain.
Encryption and Security: Strong encryption for data at rest and in transit, ensures that sensitive information remains secure from unauthorized access.
Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA): Support for MFA to secure access to the backup software, reducing the risk of unauthorized access due to compromised credentials.
Immutable Backup Options: The ability to create immutable backups that cannot be altered or deleted once they are written, protecting against ransomware and malicious attacks.
Offsite and Cloud Backup Capabilities: Features that enable backups to be stored offsite or in the cloud, providing protection against physical disasters and enabling scalability.
Integrity Checking and Validation: Tools for automatically verifying the integrity of backups to ensure they are complete and can be successfully restored when needed.
Data Minimization and Retention Management: Capabilities for setting policies on data retention, ensuring that only necessary data is kept and that old data is securely deleted in compliance with policies and regulations.
Incident Response Features: Integration with incident response tools and workflows, enabling quick action in the event of a data breach or loss scenario.
Compliance Reporting and Audit Trails: Tools for generating reports and logs that demonstrate compliance with relevant regulations and policies, aiding in audit processes.
User Training and Awareness Resources: Availability of resources or integrations with training platforms to educate users on best practices and threats, enhancing the overall security posture.
Key Takeaways
SLED organizations must urgently tackle data protection challenges as they protect sensitive information from growing cyber threats. This blog shows the complex task of keeping public sector data safe, emphasizing the need for encryption, regular backups, following the law, and teaching employees about cybersecurity.
Facing these challenges head-on requires not just understanding and diligence, but also the right partnership. Catalogic Software data protection experts are ready to bolster your cyber resilience. Our team specializes in empowering SLED IT managers with tailored solutions that address the unique threats and compliance requirements facing public sector organizations today.
The Landscape Shift: Cohesity’s Acquisition of Veritas
Veritas’ NetBackup is among the most renowned backup software in the industry, and just a few weeks ago, SoftBank-backed Cohesity Inc. boldly announced its intention to acquire Veritas Technologies LLC’s data protection business for $3 billion.
Netbackup’s Turbulent History
As one of the most successful backup software, NetBackup’s journey has seen many changes. Originally developed by Control Data Corporation, it was acquired and renamed by Tolerant Systems in 1989. In 1993, OpenVision Technologies acquired the software, which was then bought by Veritas Software Corporation in 1997. The 2005 merger of Symantec Corporation and Veritas brought NetBackup under Symantec’s umbrella. In 2014, Symantec announced its spin-off, leading to the establishment of Veritas Technologies LLC in 2015, which has managed NetBackup ever since.
My Experience of Acquisitions
Having experienced two corporate mergers and acquisitions in the infrastructure industry throughout my career, I’ve witnessed numerous backup software companies being acquired by others with similar offerings. Often, one of the duplicate products gets abandoned, or its roadmap drastically reduced.
For this reason, many users start considering alternative products for their software upon mergers and acquisitions, also taking migration issues into account. Catalogic DPX empowered customers for 25+ years, click here to learn more backup integrations.
Why Backup Software Migration is More Relevant Than Ever
Migrating software, from ERP, CRM, OA, and other applications closely integrated with business operations, to databases, virtualization, containers, software-defined solutions, and onto websites, various apps including webinars, chat tools to Teams, is no small feat for enterprises. Backup software, a data storage software within the infrastructure, differs significantly. If you aim for all applications and platforms to have a secure backup, backup software touches on almost everything mentioned above, whether it involves backup client plugins or the often-discussed agentless backup.
For someone like me, who has spent years in the backup software industry, seeing clients switch backup software is initially surprising, then admirable. It’s not just a long-term project or a massive undertaking; it also faces huge challenges from front-end business, legal regulations, and more.
Why People Change Their Backup Solution?
From my experience, the main reasons clients switch backup software include:
New projects, new data centers—iif the current backup software doesn’t support or requires costly expansion or upgrade licenses for these new projects, then clients might consider starting anew with a different backup software.
Losing confidence in the current software — for example, if it can’t keep pace with the progress of applications and platforms in terms of compatibility, ease of use, service level, and roadmap.
The company being sold or acquired — this means the product’s roadmap and the future of its star products are uncertain. You can’t know if the path ahead will open up and bring joy to everyone or lead to crisis or even a bottomless abyss. Especially in the case of industry mergers, like HP and Compaq where Compaq no longer exists, Lenovo’s acquisition of IBM’s ThinkPad and servers making IBM no longer represent hardware, Walmart’s acquisition ofJet.com, withJet.comdisappearing in 2020.
Then, what should be considered when migrating backup software?
Blueprint for Success: Planning Your Backup Software Migration
Here are the prerequisites for migrating backup software from my personal opinion, distilled into key points from our discussion:
Assess Current Backup Solution and Infrastructure: Evaluate the capabilities, limitations, and integration of your current backup solution with your IT infrastructure.
Data Audit and Classification: Understand all data storage locations and classify them based on importance and sensitivity. This helps prioritize data migration efforts.
Documentation of Existing Backup Processes: Document current backup and recovery processes in detail. This is crucial for ensuring a smooth transition and training.
Technical Requirements Assessment: Ensure that current hardware, bandwidth, and storage infrastructure can support the new backup solution, or identify necessary upgrades.
Compliance and Data Retention Policy Review: Review data retention policies to ensure the new backup solution meets regulatory requirements and data retention needs.
Migration Strategy Selection: Decide whether a “big bang” or phased migration approach better suits your organization’s needs, considering acceptable downtime and resource availability.
Data Cleanup: Clean up data to eliminate redundancy, correct errors, and delete outdated information before migration, ensuring only relevant data is migrated.
Stakeholder Engagement and Training Plan: Develop a plan to engage stakeholders(like server admin or database admin) and train your IT staff to ensure they are prepared for the transition.
Testing and Validation Strategy: Establish a comprehensive testing and validation strategy to ensure the new backup solution meets all technical and operational requirements before going live.
Differences Between Backup Software Migration and General Software Migrations
Backup software migration differs from other types of software migration due to the critical nature of data protection, the technical complexity involved in the backup process, and the need to ensure data integrity and recoverability throughout the migration. Here are the differences between backup software migration and other software migrations:
Critical Data Protection Needs: Backup software directly involves protecting organizational data, making its migration sensitive and critical. Ensuring no data loss or compromise during migration is vital, whereas, in other software migrations, data integrity may not be as crucial.
Complex Data Transfers: The process involves migrating vast amounts of data, often stored in various formats and locations. This complexity requires specialized tools and strategies to ensure accurate and efficient data transfer to the new system.
Downtime Considerations: Given the critical role of backup systems in disaster recovery, minimizing downtime during migration is essential for maintaining business continuity. This is a key consideration, which might be less critical in migrations of other less critical software systems.
Compatibility and Integration: Ensuring the new backup solution is compatible with the existing IT infrastructure and can seamlessly integrate with other systems (e.g., databases, applications) is crucial. Integration capabilities may need stricter requirements than other software migrations due to the need for immediate data access and recovery.
Testing and Validation: Thorough testing, including disaster recovery drills and data integrity checks, must be conducted before fully transitioning to the new backup software. This level of testing ensures the new system meets the organization’s Recovery Time Objectives (RTO) and Recovery Point Objectives (RPO), representing a more extensive validation process compared to other software migrations.
Compliance and Security: Backup data often contains sensitive information subject to regulatory compliance. Therefore, the migration process must ensure data handling, storage, and protection comply with required compliance standards, emphasizing security more than some other software migrations.
These differences show the need for careful planning, expertise, and meticulous execution in backup software migration to achieve data protection goals without compromising data security or compliance requirements.
Navigating the Migration Process: Step-by-Step Guide to Backup Software Transition
At last, I would like to advice you some step by step guide for migrating backup software
1. Plan and Assess
Define Objectives: Understand the reasons behind the migration (e.g., functional limitations, scalability issues) and define your goals.
Audit Existing Data and Infrastructure: Review your current backup solution, data storage locations, and capacities.
Compliance and Policy Review: Ensure the new solution meets legal and regulatory compliance requirements.
2. Select a New Backup Solution
Evaluate Options: Research and compare backup solutions that meet your identified needs and objectives.
Vendor Evaluation: Consider the vendor’s support, reliability, and reputation.
Technical Compatibility Check: Ensure the new solution is compatible with your existing IT environment.
3. Pre-migration Preparation
Data Cleanup: Clean up redundant, outdated, or unnecessary data to simplify the migration process.
Infrastructure Upgrade (If Necessary): Upgrade any hardware or network components to meet the new solution’s requirements.
Documentation: Record current backup processes and configurations for reference.
4. Develop a Migration Strategy
Choose a Migration Method: Decide on a full migration at once or a phased (incremental) approach.
Risk Assessment: Identify potential risks and develop mitigation strategies.
Test Plan: Outline how to test the migration in a controlled environment.
5. Implement and Execute
Data Backup: Perform a comprehensive backup of existing data before starting the migration.
Execute Migration: Proceed with the migration, whether all at once or in phases.
Monitor Progress: Closely monitor for any errors or issues during the migration process.
6. Testing and Validation
Functional Testing: Verify that all functionalities of the new backup solution work as expected.
Data Integrity Checks: Ensure all migrated data is accurate and intact.
Recovery Testing: Test the recovery process to ensure it meets the required RTO and RPO.
7. Training and Documentation
Staff Training: Train relevant personnel on how to operate and manage the new system.
Update Documentation: Modify or create documents reflecting the new backup system’s processes and configurations.
8. Transition to Production
Go Live: Officially switch to the new backup solution for daily operations.
Phased Rollout (If Applicable): Gradually increase the new system’s load according to the phased approach.
9. Post-migration Review
Performance Monitoring: Observe the system’s performance and adjust configurations as needed.
Feedback Loop: Collect feedback from users and IT staff to determine if further training or adjustments are needed.
Finalize Documentation: Ensure all operational documents are up to date with the new system.
10. Ongoing Maintenance and Optimization
Regular Reviews: Periodically review the backup solution to ensure it continues to meet organizational needs.
Updates and Upgrades: Update the software and its documentation according to vendor recommendations and evolving business needs.
The Future of Data Protection Post Cohesity Acquire Veritas Deal
As we look to the future, the Cohesity-Veritas acquisition is not just an endpoint but a beginning. It represents an evolving dialogue about how we protect our most valuable digital assets in an increasingly complex and threat-prone digital landscape.
Staying Ahead: Why Continuous Adaptation is Key in Backup Software Migration
In the realm of data protection now, stagnation is not an option. Continuous adaptation, informed by strategic foresight and robust planning, is essential to navigate the challenges and opportunities ahead.
Ready for a seamless migration? Our team ofdata protectionexperts is here to guide you through every step of your backup software migration journey.
Contact ustoday to ensure your data remains protected, resilient, and ready for the future.
Are you ready to revolutionize how you protect and manage your enterprise data? The storage and data management world constantly evolves, presenting new business challenges and opportunities. One such challenge is selecting a NAS NDMP backup solution that is affordable and provides the ability to perform file-level restores to support your users’ needs. In this blog post, we’ll delve into the what, how, where, and why of NAS NDMP backup, exploring the key considerations and solutions for achieving comprehensive data protection.
The Quandary of NAS NDMP Backup
Picture this: a bustling enterprise with extensive network-attached storage (NAS) infrastructure, housing critical data essential for daily operations. The storage team faces the daunting task of safeguarding this wealth of information while grappling with the quandary of selecting a NAS NDMP backup solution. The need for an affordable yet robust solution that enables file-level restores to cater to user demands looms large, posing a significant challenge for the team.
Understanding NAS, NDMP, and File-Level Restore
What are NAS Backup and NDMP?
NAS (Network-Attached Storage) serves as a centralized repository for data storage, accessible to a diverse range of clients and servers.
NDMP (Network Data Management Protocol) is a standard protocol for backing up and restoring data within NAS environments, facilitating efficient data protection operations.
The Challenge of File-Level Restore
File-level restore capability is crucial for addressing user-specific data recovery needs, ensuring the seamless retrieval of individual files and folders without needing full volume restores .
The Power of a Comprehensive Solution
Affordable and Robust NAS NDMP Backup Solutions
Navigating the complexities of NAS NDMP backup is made seamless with innovative solutions tailored to address the specific needs of enterprises. Catalogic Software offers cutting-edge solutions that empower organizations to achieve comprehensive data protection while ensuring affordability and the ability to perform file-level restores.
Unlocking the Potential: A Success Story
Imagine a thriving enterprise grappling with the challenge of NAS data protection. With the implementation of Catalogic’s NAS NDMP backup solution, the storage team witnessed a transformative shift. Not only did they experience enhanced data protection, but the seamless file-level restore capability empowered users to retrieve critical files with unparalleled ease, amplifying operational efficiency and user satisfaction.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Why is file-level restore capability crucial for NAS NDMP backup solutions?
A: File-level restore capability ensures that users can swiftly retrieve individual files and folders without requiring extensive data recovery processes, enhancing operational agility and user satisfaction.
Q: How can organizations ensure the affordability of NAS NDMP backup solutions without compromising functionality?
A: Catalogic Software’s solution is designed to deliver cost-effective yet robust NAS NDMP backup capabilities, empowering organizations to achieve comprehensive data protection without straining their budgets.
Connecting with Catalogic Software
Are you ready to take the next step in fortifying your enterprise’s data protection strategy? Reach out to Catalogic Software today to explore how our NAS NDMP backup solutions can empower your organization to safeguard critical data, all while ensuring affordability and seamless file-level restore capabilities.
Navigating the complexities of LTO Tape migration, including the transition to advanced generations like LTO-9, presents various challenges. This blog discusses these challenges, the strategic approaches for successful migration, and delves into the role of Catalogic DPX in enhancing tape backup strategies.
The Intricacies of Migrating to LTO-9 and Legacy Tape Challenges
The migration from older LTO generations, such as LTO6 or LTO7, to LTO9 involves several complexities, including compatibility issues and potential data loss. Additionally, migrating legacy tapes to newer solutions like LTO-9 requires careful planning to ensure data integrity. This becomes especially crucial with LTO-9’s increased capacity and speed, demanding a nuanced understanding of its backward compatibility and hardware requirements.
Risks and Complexities in Using Backup Software for Tape Migration
Employing backup software to restore data from old-generation LTO tapes to disk, followed by backing it up to new-generation LTO tapes, is a complex and risky approach. This method requires careful planning to maintain data integrity and is fraught with challenges like data loss, corruption, and compatibility issues. Additionally, it requires extensive manual intervention and can be time-consuming.
Evaluating Migration Approaches: Managed Services and Beyond
Choosing the right approach for LTO tape data migration involves considering both managed services and hands-on methods. Managed tape services offer simplified solutions, but may not be suitable for all types of data or organizations. Alternatives like the restore option and the sundown approach require extensive planning and carry potential risks to data integrity.
Catalogic DPX Tape Backup Technology: Facilitating Tape Migration and Twinning
Catalogic DPX plays a vital role in LTO tape migration and tape twinning. It supports the seamless transfer of data across different tape generations, which is crucial for updating backup hardware while maintaining access to historical data. In the context of tape twinning, Catalogic DPX allows for simultaneous data backup to different tape drives, akin to a RAID1 setup in tape backups. This functionality is particularly beneficial for organizations requiring high-level data duplication and robust backup strategies. Real-world applications in sectors like finance demonstrate Catalogic DPX’s effectiveness in both migration and twinning scenarios.
In the same time, DPX can help users move backup data from older generation LTO tape to newer ones with intuitive interface like below
The tape migration process can also be helpful for moving media types of type DISKDIRECTORY* over to physical tape. If for example, you had many months of DISKDIRECTORY volsers that you would like migrated over to a physical tape device, you can do so simply by defining a migration job. The DPX catalog will be able to track the location of your data backup once the media has been migrated.
In addition to these features, Catalogic DPX offers multiple avenues for tape migration, catering to diverse business needs. While the manual process described is ideal for companies transitioning a significant volume of data to newer tape generations (such as from LTO6 to LTO9), our automated migration solution streamlines the process for ongoing operations. This automated approach is especially useful for scenarios where data is initially backed up to a DISKDIR and then archived to tape. In this setup, the retention period for archived data can be configured flexibly. For instance, if the primary backup on DISKDIR has a 10-day retention, the migrated data on tape can be set for an extended period, such as 100 days (10 days on DISKDIR plus an additional 90 days on tape). This dual approach—manual for bulk migrations and automated for continuous operations—ensures that Catalogic DPX can adapt to varying organizational requirements, making it a versatile solution for both immediate and long-term data migration and storage strategies.
Conclusion of LTO Tape Migration
LTO Tape Migration involves navigating a series of challenges that require strategic planning and technical support. From the complexities of moving to advanced tape generations like LTO-9 to implementing effective backup strategies using Catalogic DPX, organizations must tackle these challenges to ensure data security and accessibility. Understanding the nuances of LTO tape migration and the capabilities of Catalogic DPX is key to successful data storage management in a digital world that constantly evolves.
*DiskDirectory. Term of DPX. A virtual tape device that uses traditional media agents to save data into proprietary formatted files hosted on a device server. DiskDirectories are used with file mode backups and do not benefit from features such as Bare Metal Recovery. Backups to DiskDirectory are often used in cases where clients need to stream data to faster disk devices and later move the data to tape.
File-Level NAS NDMP Restores: Your Nightmare or Our Solved Problem?
If budget-draining licenses, endless training sessions, and sluggish, unreliable restores define your NAS NDMP reality, you’re not alone. Let’s dive into the file-level restore challenges plaguing storage admins and unleash the power of Catalogic DPX as your ultimate data recovery hero.
Forget complexity and downtime. DPX slashes costs with transparent pricing, simplifies workflows with automation, and delivers consistent performance with a user-friendly interface. We’re talking streamlined backups, rock-solid security, and robust reporting – all without breaking the bank.
So, ditch the data recovery drama and explore 11 ways Catalogic DPX turns your restore woes into triumphs.
Complex Licensing Models:
Some solutions have complex and convoluted licensing models, making it challenging for administrators to understand and manage costs effectively. Catalogic DPX simplifies licensing with transparent and straightforward models, enabling administrators to understand and manage costs effectively without confusion.
Inadequate User Interface:
Poorly designed user interfaces can hinder administrators’ efficiency in navigating and utilizing file-level restore functions, leading to delays in data recovery. Some interfaces’ absence of search capabilities renders the file-level restore function virtually useless. Catalogic DPX boasts a well-designed user interface that enhances administrators’ efficiency in navigating, searching and utilizing file-level restore functions, ensuring a smooth experience.
Extended Downtime:
The complexities and inefficiencies in file-level restore processes contribute to extended downtime, negatively impacting business operations and user productivity. Catalogic DPX: Efficient file-level restores in DPX contribute to reduced downtime, positively impacting business operations and user productivity.
Increased Risk of Data Loss:
Cumbersome procedures and potential errors during file-level restores elevate the risk of data loss, posing a significant threat to the organization’s critical information. Catalogic DPX: The streamlined processes in DPX minimize the risk of errors during file-level restores, enhancing data recovery and reducing the threat of data loss.
Resource Overhead:
Administrators spending excessive time on manual tasks and troubleshooting file-level restore issues diverts resources from other essential IT responsibilities. Catalogic DPX minimizes manual tasks and troubleshooting efforts, reducing resource overhead and allowing administrators to focus on essential IT responsibilities.
Higher Total Cost of Ownership (TCO):
The combination of high licensing costs, training expenses, and increased downtime contributes to a higher overall TCO for existing solutions. Catalogic DPX: With competitive pricing, streamlined processes, and reduced downtime, DPX contributes to a lower overall TCO than existing solutions.
Negative Impact on User Experience:
Sluggish file-level restore processes negatively impact user experience, leading to employee frustration and potential dissatisfaction with IT services. Catalogic DPX: Enhanced efficiency in file-level restores positively impacts user experience, reducing employee frustration and enhancing satisfaction with IT services.
Missed Recovery Time Objectives (RTOs):
Inefficient file-level restores can result in missing RTOs, impacting the organization’s ability to meet recovery commitments. Catalogic DPX’s optimized file-level restore processes contribute to meeting RTOs consistently, ensuring timely recovery commitments.
Reduced IT Agility:
Cumbersome processes and limitations in file-level restore functionality hinder IT agility, making it challenging to adapt quickly to changing business requirements. Catalogic DPX’s streamlined processes and enhanced functionality in DPX promote IT agility, allowing organizations to adapt quickly to changing business requirements.
Compromised Data Security:
Prolonged downtime and potential data loss due to file-level restore challenges compromise the overall security of sensitive information. Catalogic DPX’s reliable and efficient file-level restore processes contribute to maintaining the overall security of sensitive information during data recovery.
Limited Affordability:
Many leading software solutions that offer file-level restore for NAS NDMP data come with high licensing costs, making them financially burdensome for organizations with budget constraints. Catalogic DPX offers competitive pricing without compromising on robust features, providing an affordable option for organizations with budget constraints.
Broadcom’s Strategic Acquisition of VMware: Navigating the Evolving Technology Landscape
Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware signifies a major shift in the tech industry, focusing on streamlined products, subscription models, revised pricing, and improved customer support. This strategy, emblematic of Broadcom’s adaptability, emphasizes flexibility in the changing market. CEO Hock Tan’s decision to divest VMware’s non-core units including EUC (end-user computing), further aligns with this approach, prioritizing their core cloud services.
From Perpetual to Subscription: A New Era for VMware
Transitioning from traditional perpetual licenses to subscription models, Broadcom confronts customer and partner concerns regarding predictability and financial implications. To ease this transition, Broadcom is offering robust support and incentives, aligning with broader industry trends. However, this shift also raises questions about future pricing and support strategies, highlighting Broadcom’s strategy to establish predictable revenue streams through subscription licensing.
Exploring Alternatives: Hyper-V, Nutanix, and Proxmox
Amidst VMware‘s licensing model change, users are actively evaluating alternatives such as Hyper-V, Nutanix, and Proxmox. Hyper-V, a Windows-based hypervisor tightly integrated with Microsoft Azure Cloud, provides cost-effective and scalable solutions. Nutanix stands out for its hyperconverged infrastructure, offering ease of management and cloud-like capabilities. On the other hand, Proxmox VE, an open-source platform, is renowned for its scalability, flexibility, and cost-efficiency.
Hyper-V is a Windows-based hypervisor that offers integration with Microsoft Azure Cloud. It is a cost-effective option, as it is a bare-metal hypervisor that does not require new hardware. Hyper-V also provides high availability and scalability.
Nutanix is a hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) platform that offers simplified management and cloud-like capabilities. It also provides financial incentives for migration, such as discounts on its software and hardware. Nutanix Cloud Clusters facilitate the migration of apps and workloads to the cloud without the need for re-architecting or replatforming.
Proxmox VE is an open-source hypervisor that provides scalability and flexibility. It can support up to 32 nodes and 16,000 virtual machines in a single cluster. Proxmox VE also offers licensing cost savings.
The choice of platform depends on the specific needs and existing infrastructure of the organization. Organizations that need tight integration with Microsoft Azure Cloud should consider Hyper-V. Organizations that want simplified management and cloud-like capabilities, and that are willing to pay for these features, should consider Nutanix. Organizations that need scalability and flexibility, and that are budget-conscious, should consider Proxmox VE.
Catalogic’s Role in Seamless Migration
As a data protection leader with over 30 years of experience, Catalogic has helped numerous customers navigate the migration process. While there are various third-party and vendor-provided migration tools available, backup remains a critical step in ensuring data integrity and business continuity during the migration journey. Catalogic’s DPX solution offers a streamlined approach for VMware backup through its Agentless VMware Backup feature, eliminating the need for agent installation and management on individual virtual machines. For Microsoft Hyper-V environments, Catalogic provides both DPX Block and Agentless options, simplifying backup processes and minimizing impact on production systems. DPX vPlus, an agentless backup and snapshot-management solution, caters to virtual environments and cloud, enhancing backup performance and automation, enabling efficient recovery testing, and delivering significant resource, time, and cost savings. With its agentless design and ability to integrate into Nutanix clusters, DPX vPlus optimizes backup performance and seamlessly integrates with Nutanix’s Changed Region Tracking feature, ensuring comprehensive data protection throughout the migration process.
Remember Luke Skywalker setting out to destroy the Death Star with only one set of its plans stored in a little droid’s head? Losing them would likely have doomed his mission to save the galaxy. Similarly, in our digital world, safeguarding data is crucial. The 3-2-1 backup strategy is a vital defense against data loss. This article gives a basic overview of the 3-2-1 backup rule as well as explains advanced tactics that may be used to make data even more secure.
This is what you will learn in the next few minutes:
How to implement the 3-2-1 backup method effectively?
The role of off-site backup in the 3-2-1 strategy
What is the 3-3-2-1-1 Rule, and how is it applied in its specific context?
What is a 3-2-1 Backup Strategy?
The 3-2-1 backup strategy is a foundational approach in data management and protection, widely advocated for its effectiveness in securing data against loss or corruption. The strategy’s name itself outlines its three core components: three copies of data, stored on two different forms of media, with one copy kept offsite.
The first component of the strategy involves creating three separate copies of your data. This means having the original set of data plus two backups. This triad of copies offers a robust safety net against data loss. For instance, if one backup fails or gets corrupted, there is still another backup available. The idea is to eliminate the single point of failure, which is a common risk in data storage and management.
The second and third components of the strategy focus on the method and location of storage. Storing data on two different types of media(e.g. Tape) or platforms reduces the risk of simultaneous loss due to a single type of failure. For example, you might have one copy on an internal hard drive and another on an external SSD or in cloud storage.
The last principle, keeping one backup offsite, is a guard against physical disasters like fire, flood, or theft that could destroy all local copies. Offsite storage can be as simple as a physical drive in a secure, remote location or as modern as cloud-based storage. This geographical diversification of data storage further solidifies the data protection strategy, making the 3-2-1 rule a gold standard in data backup and disaster recovery planning. You can request a demo of 3-2-1 Backup here.
A Sobering Picture Of Today’s Digital Landscape
On top of that, the 3-2-1 backup strategy is crucial in defending against rising hacker attacks. According to the research, there were 470 publicly disclosed security incidents in November 2023, involving 519,111,354 compromised records. The 3-2-1 backup strategy can largely reduce the risk of total data loss from cyber threats like ransomware.
“2023 has unveiled a stark reality in the digital realm: a surge of hacking groups exploiting vulnerabilities to launch attacks across numerous industries. Cybercrime, in all of its many forms, is here to stay. Too many organizations are making too much money for them to ever die. As we all know, ransomware and vulnerability incidents exemplify the daily threats that organizations face, leading to significant operational and financial repercussions,” said Ken Barth, CEO of Catalogic Software.
“These developments have made it clear that a comprehensive cybersecurity strategy is no longer optional but essential. As the market evolves, we are seeing more and more creativity as the attackers gain experience on how best to penetrate their targets,” he added.
Piecing Together Your 3-2-1 Backup Strategy
The 3-2-1 backup strategy is widely regarded as a standard in the realm of information security and data preservation. While this method doesn’t completely eliminate the possibility of data compromise, it significantly reduces the risks associated with backup procedures.
Here’s how data recovery works under the 3-2-1 approach:
If the primary (active) data is corrupted, damaged, or lost, the first step is to retrieve the data from an in-house backup stored on a different medium or secondary storage system.
Should the second data copy be inaccessible or compromised, the focus shifts to the off-site backup, which is then restored to the internal servers.
After successfully restoring data, it’s crucial to restart the 3-2-1 backup process immediately. This ensures continuous and effective protection of the data.
A Step Beyond the 3-2-1 Backup Strategy
The 3-2-1 backup strategy has proven effective over time as a data protection method. However, with the evolution of storage systems and services, certain aspects of this strategy may need adaptation to fulfill current data protection goals.
Managing the multiple data copies in a 3-2-1 backup framework can become complex, depending on the backup methods an organization employs within this strategy.
Moreover, many organizations find themselves customizing their backup policies further while still maintaining the core principles of the 3-2-1 strategy. This leads to a modified approach, often referred to as the 3-2-1-#-#-# rule.
Introducing Catalogic Software
Catalogic Software stands as a bastion in the realm of data protection and bare metal restoration. Functioning as a crucial layer in the cybersecurity ecosystem of their customers, Catalogic supplements existing endpoint solutions and feeds data into their SIEM systems. They recognize that data protection, including bare metal restoration capabilities, is a customer’s last line of defense against various causes of outages.
With three decades of expertise in data protection, Catalogic is incessantly working to counteract escalating cyber threats. Our flagship product, DPX, delivers a secure data protection solution with instant recoverability to help ensure you can protect your backup data set from ransomware and recover data in an instant when you need it. With DPX, you have integrated ransomware protection.
Support for the 3-2-1-1 rule that provides a robust data protection solution with verified scheduled recoveries for automated recovery testing,
3 copies of your data,
2 copies stored on different storage media types,
1 of the copies offsite or in the cloud(Azure, AWS, Wasabi, Backblaze B2, etc, you name it) on immutable media,
1 copy verified as recoverable.
Catalogic’s Variation: the 3-3-2-1-1 Rule
The 3-3-2-1-1 data protection rule offers a comprehensive approach to safeguarding data. Firstly, it emphasizes maintaining at least three copies of your data. Unique to this strategy, three of these copies are pre-scanned by GuardMode, adding an extra layer of ransomware protection. GuardMode actively monitors for suspicious activity, promptly alerts users, and prevents ransomware from encrypting backups.
Additionally, it’s advisable to keep these copies on two different types of media, enhancing data security by diversifying storage formats. Storing at least one copy in an off-site location, preferably air-gapped, further secures the data against local disasters or network breaches.
Finally, the rule includes maintaining one verified copy, specifically for recovery purposes, ensuring data integrity and swift restoration in case of data loss. This approach effectively blends traditional backup strategies with advanced, proactive security measures.
Closing Thoughts
Data is invaluable, and the 3-2-1 backup strategy is a key defense against data loss from cyberattacks, natural disasters, or human error. As a fundamental step in establishing a solid data backup policy, Catalogic collaborates with organizations to tailor backup solutions, accommodating any number of backups, choice of media, and storage locations, whether on-premises or in the cloud.
The tape migration process can also be helpful for moving media types of type DISKDIRECTORY
