Data protector Veeam has announced Backup & Replication v12 with 500-plus new features and enhancements, including direct-to-object-storage backup, better immutability, cyber resiliency, hybrid cloud protection and a new ransomware warranty with a SWAT recovery team.
Veeam Backup & Replication (VBR) is the base layer in Veeam’s Data Platform which is offered in three editions – Foundation, Advanced and Premium – for protecting Cloud, Virtual, Physical, SaaS and Kubernetes apps across different IT environments. The Foundation edition contains the VBR product. The Advanced Edition combines VBR with Veeam ONE to provide monitoring and observability to locate and fix backup and recovery problems. Veeam’s Premium Edition adds Veeam Recovery Orchestrator (VRO) with automated recovery processes, near-zero Recovery Point Objectives (RPOs), automated testing and one click recovery.
Cyber resilience is a huge focus. Veeam SVP Product Strategy and CTO Danny Allan said: “Organizations are more vulnerable than ever. Over the past twelve months, 85 percent of organizations were attacked at least once; up from 76 percent… We understand IT leaders feel they aren’t sufficiently protected and … it’s now obvious that Modern Data Protection must be integrated into the overall cyber preparedness plan.”
VBR v12 adds:
- Trusted immutability for every workload: Comprehensive immutability options for on-premises object, block and file storage, hardened repositories and deduplicating storage appliances, cloud object storage and tape.
- Cyber resilience: Enable faster response to ransomware attacks by identifying, alerting and restoring only clean data. Zero-trust features include multi-factor authentication (MFA), password-less service accounts (gMSA) for Windows, single-use credentials for Linux, and Kerberos-only and IPv6-only environment support.
- Hybrid-cloud features: Immutable backups for cloud-native AWS and Azure workloads, new cloud-integrated agents for lift-and-shift workloads, and unified cloud monitoring and reporting.
- New APIs and direct-to-object storage backups: Veeam Universal Storage API 2.0 and Smart Object Storage API (SOSAPI) enable direct-to-object storage backups. Send backups directly to Veeam’s object storage partners on-premises, such as Cloudian, Pure Storage, Scality and Object First, without sacrificing performance, or backup edge locations directly to cloud object storage.
Premium edition customers can get the new Veeam Ransomware Warranty which covers the cost of data recovery, up to $5 million dollars, in the event of a ransomware or cyber-attack. This 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. The company will deploy its Veeam Ransomware SWAT team, a dedicated team of security support experts trained in ransomware recovery to help recovery in the event of an attack.
The Premium edition’s VRO automates recovery planning, testing and orchestrating the steps needed to recover from a disaster. By using VRO, the company says, businesses can simplify operations and prove backup compliance.
New monitoring and visibility capabilities include immutability reporting and data protection statuses for multi-cloud, and includes support for more backup offerings, including Veeam Backup for Microsoft 365.
The company says 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.
A December webinar discusses v12 features here and there is a stream for service providers here.
