In this blog, we’ll discuss the business risks of storing data at one location, advantages of using cloud backups, why is Veeam cloud connect the best cloud backup, and why should you get it from StoneFly.
Business Risk of Storing Data at One Location (Why use cloud backups)
One of the biggest risks for businesses is having all their data stored in one place. This makes them vulnerable to ransomware attacks – which can cost your business thousands or even millions of dollars per attack if you don’t have a backup plan (and that’s not including time lost).
Data stored in one place is vulnerable to human error and ransomware. If you have all your important data stored in on-premises server(s), there’s a chance that you could lose it all due to a malware or because of some other human error such as accidentally deleting files or formatting the wrong hard drive(s).
With cloud backup and disaster recovery, no matter what happens to your data, whether it’s due to an error on your end or because of a ransomware attack, you know that at least one backup copy will remain safe as long as you’ve set up proper safety precautions. It also means convenience because instead of purchasing and installing hardware, you can simply use a service of your choice – which takes care of the bulk of the management overhead.
Advantages of using Cloud Backup and Recovery
In addition to decentralized backup data storage, here are a number of advantages of cloud backups that can help you with your data protection and compliance concerns:
- Cloud backups are more accessible and affordable than on-premises solutions – they’re also easier to set up and manage since many services take care of most of the hardware and software challenges in managing these systems.
- Most cloud backup services are available on a pay-as-you-go model, which means you only have to pay for what resources your business requires. For example – if you don’t require an offsite data center every day of the year, there’s no need to spend money on one when it’s not needed.
- Cloud backups work with all kinds of devices and operating systems without having to worry about compatibility issues since most service providers handle that aspect as well. This makes them great for small businesses who want their employees (and themselves) to be able use multiple devices while still being confident in the safety of their data.
- When dealing with compliance concerns such as GDPR or HIPAA moving part or all of your data to the cloud is relatively easy and can help protect your business from data loss, downtime or leaks.
- Cloud backups ensure that you always have at least one backup copy of your important files so no matter what happens with any servers (whether it’s due to ransomware attack or accidental deletion), there will still be a backup copy in another location which means less stress for both managers and employees.
- If your primary production environment becomes unavailable, due to a ransomware attack, hardware failure, or another disaster, you can restore directly to the cloud and restore operations quickly.
Why use Veeam Cloud Connect to Azure for Cloud Backups
Veeam Cloud Connect (VCC) is an affordable and one of the best ways to leverage cloud backup. Veeam’s service allows you to back up your data directly into Azure, which means that even if on-premises hardware fails or becomes unavailable due to ransomware attack, there will still be at least one copy safe in another location – which reduces stress for IT managers as well as employees.
Veeam also offers some great features such as instant VM recovery, full VM recovery, granular file-level recovery (which are especially useful during ransomware attacks) so no matter what happens with your servers (due to human error or malware), you can quickly restore operations without having downtime affect productivity too much.
In addition to supporting industry standard applications and workloads, Veeam ensures backup data integrity, and simplifies data management with a centralized management GUI capable of managing all your workloads across on-prem, cloud, and virtual environment(s).
For example, Veeam SureBackup is an automated feature that systematically checks Veeam backup data and makes sure that it is not corrupted and can be used at any time to recover your critical IT system(s).
Furthermore, Veeam cloud connect enables users to automate backup jobs, define policies to which reduces human errors and guarantees effective and reliable data protection for your critical workloads.
Overview Veeam Cloud Connect Backup and Replication
Veeam cloud connect is available with three deployment options:
- Veeam Cloud Connect Backup – Set up backups for your entire storage volume, and physical/virtual server(s) and store Veeam backup data in the cloud. The first backup job takes longer. Once it’s completed, the successive backup jobs create backups for the changed files only, which makes the process a lot faster. VCC backups help reduce recovery point objectives (RPOs) – depending on how often the Veeam backup jobs are configured.
- Veeam Cloud Connect Replication – Replicate your critical VMs and workloads to a secure offsite storage repository. In the event of a disaster, restore in the cloud and continue operations with minimum downtime. VCC replication is purpose-built for disaster recovery (DR) purposes and ensures reduced recovery time objectives (RTOs).
- Veeam Cloud Connect Backup and Replication – As the name suggests, VCC backup and replication is a comprehensive backup and DR solution that enables you to set up data protection for your hot and cold-tier workloads.
VCC backup can be set up using public cloud storage, such as Azure, AWS, as target storage but VCC replication can only be set up with private cloud such as StoneFly private cloud.
If you decide to leverage Veeam cloud connect replication to set up cloud disaster recovery, then you need to make sure that you have adequate network speed and bandwidth as it will decide how quickly you can replicate to and restore from the cloud.
Why buy Veeam Cloud Connect from StoneFly
As a Veeam Gold value-added reseller, StoneFly’s expertise with Veeam is trusted by market leaders worldwide. One of the reasons why our customers choose our services with Veeam is that we offer a complete solution that includes:
- Veeam Cloud Connect
- Management server with encrypted tunnel for data transfers to and fro your on-prem to public or StoneFly private cloud.
- Secure, scalable, and immutable storage in Azure and/or in StoneFly private cloud for replication and direct restore (cloud DR).
As opposed to other Veeam resellers who offer blob storage only, StoneFly offers a complete solution in addition to professional services that include installation, configuration, training your IT staff, optimization to reduce RTOs and RPOs, and more.
Furthermore, as an authorized Azure Government Cloud Service Provider (CSP), we can also help government department(s) and contractor(s) to store backup copies of sensitive workloads in secure Azure cloud storage repositories – doing so also simplifies compliance.
StoneFly Offers Additional Data Protection Features with Veeam Cloud Connect
In addition to the backup and recovery features of Veeam cloud connect, StoneFly offers the following data protection features to enhance the data security for your critical workloads:
- Air-gapped backups: Isolated ransomware-proof target storage repositories in public cloud(s) or StoneFly private cloud for your critical backups, replicas, and snapshots.
- Delta-based Immutable Snapshots: Schedule regular snapshots of your entire storage volume. Delta-based snapshots are quicker as they take snapshots of the changes rather than the complete volume. As a result, they require less performance resources and consume less storage capacity.
- Write-Once Read-Many (WORM) Volumes – Provision read-only volumes in public clouds such as Azure, AWS, or in StoneFly private cloud. Data stored in WORM volumes cannot be overwritten, deleted, or edited for a user-defined period of time. This makes the Veeam backup data stored in these volumes safe from threats such as ransomware, accidental/malicious deletion, and human error.
- Encrypted Tunnel – StoneFly secures data transfers to and fro your on-prem to the cloud environment(s) using a secure encrypted tunnel. Data is rest is also secured using advanced AES 256-bit encryption. As a result, your critical data is safe from cyber-threats such as hackers.
Conclusion
It’s risky to store all your data at one place because your business becomes vulnerable to ransomware attacks. Cloud backup & DR offers an affordable and reliable solution to that problem. With cloud backups, users can store backup copies offsite and set up backup strategies such as 3-2-1, 3-2-1-1-0, 4-3-2.
One of the best ways to leverage cloud backup is to use Veeam cloud connect with Azure cloud – and the most hassle-free way of using both Veeam and Azure is by using StoneFly’s solution which offers Veeam cloud connect, a management server, and secure storage in public/private cloud.
Get started protecting your critical volumes today! Contact us for a demo or more information about how we can help you protect against downtime risks.
