Many companies view a disaster recovery plan as an insurance policy — something that is needed but never used. With the work landscape changing and the increase in cybersecurity attacks, disaster recovery plans are sensibly being dusted off and revisited. For many, that means finding the right solution to support an infrastructure that encompasses virtual, physical, and cloud environments — for many, that means finding Veeam.
Veeam’s solutions enable service providers to offer the following:
Who is Veeam?
When founded in 2006, Veeam focused on simplifying backups for virtual machines. Since that time, Veeam has become a leader in backup and data recovery in virtual environments. Their platform ensures that data is available and protected, no matter where it is located — virtual, physical, or cloud. From the start, Veeam has supported open solutions with its Technical Alliance Partners. Together, Veeam and its partners deliver reliable backup, data centre transformation, infrastructure modernisation, and cloud solutions worldwide. With over 400,000 customers, Veeam continues to grow. Today, headquartered in Switzerland, Veeam has offices in 35 countries and customers in over 160.What are Veeam products?
Veeam has a suite of products to assist in data backup and recovery across multiple platforms. The products range from enterprise solutions such as their Availability Suite, to free backup and replication versions for companies that are new to data management and recovery.Availability Suite v11
Veeam® Availability Suite™ combines the data protection features of its Backup & Replication solution with the monitoring capabilities of Veeam ONE™. Together, these products give customers the ability to protect their data while gaining insights into the configurations for better business agility. With the added functionality of Veeam continuous data protection (CDP), the Availability Suite offers a comprehensive solution for today’s cross-platform operations.Backup and Replication
Veeam® Backup & Replication™ v11 is a 4-in-1 solution that combines backup, replication, storage snapshots, and continuous data protection (CDP) into a single platform. The latest version ensures resiliency for any size business by offering advanced features such as:- Immutable backups on a hardened Linux repository to eliminate ransomware
- Instant recovery for NAS, Microsoft SQL, and Oracle to reduce downtime
- Lower cost for long-term archive-to-cloud storage on Amazon S3 Glacier and Azure Blob Archive
- Cloud-native workload protection with AWS and Azure
- No VM snapshots. All write I/O is captured, removing the need to create WM snapshots.
- No workload or hardware dependencies. CDP protects any operating system or application that runs in a vSphere VM.
- Asynchronous replication. The solution can be used across significant distances at lower bandwidth.
- Policy-based protection. CDP policies perform sync cycles based on user-defined RPOs.
- Flexible retention. Short-term retention provides an added layer of protection.
Veeam ONE
Through intelligent monitoring and automation, Veeam One delivers the visibility customers need to identify and resolve issues before they impact operations. Veeam One includes the following features:- 24/7 monitoring.
- Intelligent diagnostics
- Capacity planning
- Remediation actions
Cloud Data Management Platform
This platform is designed to protect data and ensure resilience across data centres, in the cloud, and at the edge. Some capabilities include:- Backup flexibility: Single solution for multiple environments
- Recovery: Instant recovery of workloads
- Portability: Works with AWS, Azure, and GCP
- Storage: Automated data retention to the cloud
- Cloud flexibility: No vendor lock-in
- Monitoring: Built-in AI monitoring
- Forecast: Project utilisation rates and resource requirements
- Orchestrate: Ensure continuity and resilience
- Ransomware: Use the highest level of backup isolation
- Control: Mitigate risks through built-in auditing and data control
- Reporting: Ensure compliance requirements with rigorous reporting and actionable documentation.
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Product Add-ons
In addition to its core products, Veeam provides solutions to help maximise its product capabilities: Disaster Recovery Orchestrator v4. Veeam Disaster Recovery Orchestrator is a business continuity solution for automating disaster recovery plans and tests. Reports enable organisations to prepare for disaster scenarios. DR Orchestrator pairs with Backup & Replication™ to deliver a tool for testing capabilities. Service Provider Console (SPC) The console is designed for service providers, and enterprises that need a centralised location for deployment, monitoring and managing Veeam solutions. Its design supports Backup-as-a-Service and Disaster-Recovery-as-a-Service deployments. Enterprises can use the console to streamline multi-location implementations. Service Provider Console offers the following capabilities:- Automated deployment, configuration and management of Veeam backup agents.
- Centralized monitoring and management of Veeam Backup & Replication. Resource management and monitoring for Veeam Cloud Connect.
- Centralised license management and usage reporting.
- Streamlined billing, chargeback and reporting.
- Alert Statistics
- Alert History
- Performance
- Management of distributed architecture
- Automatic failover and load balancing
- User-configurable parameters
What solutions does Veeam provide?
Veeam products can operate separately, or combined to deliver an enterprise solution for multiple ecosystems under a single license. These solutions are designed to provide unique solutions for enterprise clients, small businesses, and service providers.Enterprise
With Veeam’s Availability Suite, enterprises can address key issues that detract from their ability to achieve digital transformation. For many large organisations, legacy systems are a drain on resources. Moving to a modern backup and replication platform reduces the time employees spend maintaining a legacy backup system. Whether it is operating tape drives or offsite backup servers, legacy systems take employees away from more essential tasks. A ransomware attack occurs when hackers encrypt business data and ask for a ransom to decrypt the files. Having backups was one way to avoid paying for the data — however, cybercriminals have become more devious. They now look to encrypt all production and backup data to ensure the ransom will be paid. Hackers often start with backup information which often is not not monitored for cyber intrusion. With a cloud-based solution and security safeguards, the impact of an attack can be avoided. Remote workers have created another use case for backup and replication solutions. If there isn’t a backup policy in place, data at the local level, such as an employee’s laptop, will have business data that is never secured. Deploying a cloud-based solution that allows automatic backup for remote workers ensures that business data is not lost. Organisations are faced with a myriad of use cases where the lack of a reliable backup and disaster recovery solution places them at risk. For example, hybrid environments increase the attack surface while separating backup processes unless a multi-platform solution is implemented. Even multi-cloud configurations can increase digital risks if separate solutions are used to back up each deployment.Service providers
Whether it is data management or disaster recovery, Veeam has solutions to help its partners be successful. You can use Veeam’s products to offer Backup-as-a-Service or Disaster-Recovery-as-a-Service to your clients. Veeam Cloud Connect provides a fully integrated, fast, and secure way to allow clients to access a service provider’s cloud repository.
- Infrastructure Protection
- Public Cloud Data Protection
- Off-Site Backup and Disaster Recovery
Small businesses
Veeam knows that small businesses have the same needs for backup and replication solutions as do enterprises — just not at the same scale. Veeam® Backup Essentials™ provides a single platform for physical, virtual, and cloud backups. Essentials includes Veeam’s Backup & Replication and Veeam One for secure data protection and monitoring. Finding ways to protect data and ensure business continuity can be challenging for small businesses that lack time and resources. Backup Essentials provides businesses with the ability to consolidate their data backup and replication processes into a single platform that can support a range of workloads — including Windows, Mac, AWS, and more.How does Veeam stack up against the competition?
Choosing the right solution for backing up, recovering, and managing data can be overwhelming — especially if the data is spread over multiple ecosystems. Veeam, through its partner program, provides access to specialists in the area of data storage and management to help navigate the landscape. The following listing includes the top vendors in the data recovery, backup, and management space. A link is provided for more detailed information.Zerto
Zerto’s IT Resilience Platform supports disaster recovery, backup, and workload mobility for virtual and cloud environments. Zerto and Veeam both offer fast backup speeds, seamless integration, and scalability. Zerto’s solution provides more granularity in backup frequency, but it lacks the visibility provided with Veeam One, which affords administrators complete visibility of their virtual environments. Suggested reading: If you want to learn more about how Veeam stacks up against Zerto, check out our blog — Veeam vs Zerto.Dell
Dell is known for its hardware. Its EMC Networker software is ideal as a front-end for hardware deployments. It has selection options that define types of backups and storage space usage. The recovery process is straightforward. But, Veeam’s solution connects to data domains natively and allows files to be saved to different locations, which EMC does not. Suggested reading: If you want to learn more about how Veeam compares to Dell EMC, check out our blog — Veeam vs Dell.Datto
Datto’s product is designed for small businesses with different packages tailored to their needs. Veeam offers a small business solution Backup Essentials, and an enterprise product, Availability Suite, for large corporations. Veeam focuses on end-to-end solutions for the data management lifecycle, whereas Datto is focused on data protection and continuity. Suggested reading: If you want to learn more about how Veeam stacks up against Datto, check out our blog — Veeam vs Datto.Veritas Backup Exec
Veritas is well-known in the security and technology market. Its Backup Exec product was acquired from Seagate Software in 1999 and offers a simple backup and recovery solution. Both Veritas and Veeam products are scalable, giving clients flexibility in their growth strategies. Both companies use cybersecurity technologies such as end-to-end encryption and ransomware protection. But, Veeam’s Availability Suite also includes real-time monitoring and analytics to help organisations manage their digital resources. Suggested reading: For more information on these top solution providers, have a read of our blog — Veeam vs Veritas Backup Exec.Rubrik
Rubrik is a relatively new entrant (2014) into the data backup and recovery landscape. Their user interface is simple and easy to use, and their daily management is flexible with a seamless way of expanding capacity. Rubrik targets enterprises that run hybrid cloud environments as the software runs on-premise and in the cloud. Veeam offers seamless integration into any environment — on-premise, multi-cloud, VMware, hybrid, public and private cloud. With its system console, Veeam’s solution provides a consolidated view of a company’s data along with monitoring and reporting of activity. Suggested reading: For more comparisons, check out our blog — Veeam vs Rubrik.Veritas NetBackup
Veritas added NetBackup to its product line after acquiring it from Open Technologies in 1999. It has more robust features than the Backup Exec, such as programmable retention times. These features make data backup easier to manage. Veeam’s solution duplicates data and files, unlike NetBackup, enabling IT departments to manage their failover plans for critical data. Veeam is an agent-less option that has minimal impact on a production environment. Suggested reading: If you want to learn more about how Veeam stacks up against NetBackup, check out our blog — Veeam vs Veritas NetBackup.Barracuda
Barracuda provides a quick and simple way to implement data backup — however, it is not designed for significant scalability. Its primary focus has been on physical servers, although it does support cloud products. Veeam’s solutions offer configurable products that are fast to set up — their products began in the world of virtualisation and offer cloud-native solutions. Veeam’s products have fast response times for backup and recovery, which is vital for mission-critical data. Whereas, Barracuda’s backup and recovery speed can be sluggish. Suggested reading: Get more information on these features and more in our blog — Veeam vs Barracuda.Commvault
Both companies offer automatic backup and data recovery. Commvault’s products are designed to streamline the process and make it easier for companies to understand their data management. The streamlined approach works well unless a business needs to deviate from the standard set up. With Veeam, companies have more options which means it may take longer to configure the system at installation, but they will have a system that meets all their requirements. Commvault caps their storage — this cap may be of concern as the indexing and deduplication processes have significant space requirements. With Veeam, file size is not a concern. Suggested reading: If you want to learn more about how Veeam compares to Commvault, check out our blog — Veeam vs Commvault.Arcserve UDP
Arcserve Unified Data Protection (UDP) is a data and ransomware protection platform that will backup and restore data as part of an effective disaster recovery plan. Like Veeam, Arcserve has a platform that consolidates data management into a single console, no matter where the data is stored. Yet, Veeam does provide a level of granularity in data recovery that Arcserve does not. Suggested reading: Find out how these solution providers compare in our blog — Veeam vs Arcserve.Others
The number of vendors entering the data backup and recovery market grows daily, making it even more challenging to find the right solution. Not only are there technical features to compare, but there are also customer support and brand reputation to consider. Having a specialist can help guide the evaluation process so nothing is missed.Best Practices
Finding the right solution for protecting data through backup and disaster recovery is essential to a company’s long-term viability. That’s why it’s important to pick the best solution for each implementation using the following best practices.- Determine requirements: Be specific when listing your requirements and set priorities for them to define a minimum acceptable solution.
- Identify solution: Using the requirement list, select a vendor who meets or exceeds your minimum acceptable criteria.
- Plan deployment: Deciding what will be backed up and at what intervals is just the start of the planning process. Taking the time to plan reduces delays during deployment and helps outline the process needed to support the plan.
- Develop processes: Processes are just as important as the solution. IT departments need a clear set of guidelines on how to operate Veeam products. Using a shared set of operating procedures makes it much easier to identify discrepancies in an operating environment.
- Maintain solution: Once installed, the solution needs to be maintained to ensure it matches changes in the production environment.
