Analyst GigaOm has released two Sonar reports looking at the state of ransomware protection in block and file-based primary storage, with Infinidat first in block and fifth in file, the highest-placed vendor overall.
Sonar reports provide overviews of suppliers in an emerging product technology class, and places them in a semi-circular space divided into feature play and platform play quarter circles and two concentric half rings overlapping them. The outer ring is for challengers and the inner one for leaders. The closer suppliers are placed to the central point of the semicircle, the more innovative they are. Suppliers are divided into fast movers (black arrow) in terms of their product and market development or forward movers. It all becomes clear when you look at a Sonar diagram so here is the one for primary block storage suppliers:
There are 10 block storage suppliers, the top three being Infinidat, Dell, and Pure Storage with platform plays. IBM, Hitachi Vantara together with challengers Nutanix and StorONE form a more dispersed group of platform players, with HPE and NetApp plus DDN forming a feature play threesome.
File-based ransomware is the most pervasive and uses a combination of techniques to remain unnoticed and spread silently. Block-based ransomware is less common, but encrypts entire data volumes, making recovery much harder than file-based attacks. The suppliers are ranked in terms of their timely identification, alerting, and mitigation of attacks.
The report authors, Max Mortillaro and Arjan Timmerman, say:
- Infinidat offers a complete and balanced ransomware protection solution with InfiniSafe technology included, which has been enhanced this year with InfiniSafe Cyber Detection, an ML-based, petabyte-class, proactive ransomware detection solution.
- Dell Technologies’ PowerMax solution offers solid ransomware protection capabilities, while PowerStore and PowerFlex are gradually being improved by inheriting some of PowerMax’s features. These are augmented by Dell CloudIQ’s AIOps platform’s proactive detection capabilities, propelling the company forward in the Sonar.
- Pure Storage provides ransomware protection through its SafeMode snapshots (now enabled by default) and strong multifactor authentication (MFA), while it has added security posture features to its solution. It also delivers a ransomware recovery SLA, an add-on service that helps customers recover faster in case of an attack.
The file report focuses on NAS offerings and it looks at 16 suppliers:
There are four closely placed fast-moving leaders, Racktop, Cohesity, NetApp and infinidat, with a platform-focused approach, and then CTERA with a more feature-focused product. It’s in front of slower-moving Nasuni, also a leader, and challenger Panzura, which is crossing into the leader’s area. Nutanix is the trailing platform play leader.
Dell, Pure, and StorOne are platform-oriented challengers while Hitachi Vantara and WEKA trail them with less of a platform focus. We see DDN, IBM, and Hammerspace as feature play-oriented challengers.
The report authors note:
- RackTop’s system intertwines file storage and data security within its BrickStor SP software-defined solution, embedding a comprehensive set of ransomware protection capabilities delivered through a zero-trust approach.
- Infinidat offers a complete and balanced ransomware protection solution with InfiniGuard CyberRecovery, which has been enhanced this year with InfiniSafe Cyber Detection, an ML-based, petabyte-class proactive ransomware detection solution.
- Cohesity continues to deliver on the cyber resiliency promise with proactive ML-based detection, on-premises and cloud-based immutability capabilities, and strong zero-trust and anti-tampering features, augmented with data protection and data management features inherent in the platform.
- NetApp delivers a strong set of ransomware protection capabilities at multiple layers, while also working on rationalizing and better integrating its portfolio of cyber resiliency features.
- Nutanix Data Lens offers a commendable SaaS-based data security solution for ransomware resilience and global data visibility with features such as proactive threat containment and alerting capabilities.
- CTERA recently released Ransom Protect, a homegrown AI-based proactive ransomware detection solution that completes the company’s cyber resiliency feature set.
- Nasuni’s ransomware protection includes fast recovery, mitigation with plans for automated recovery orchestration, and a proactive ransomware detection solution that is being actively improved.
There is much more detail on each supplier and its offerings in the two GigaOm reports than we have highlighted here. You can download the two reports from Infinidat’s website – block Sonar here and file Sonar here – to pore through the details at your leisure.
