facebookpixel

A Trifecta of Veeam-Ready Solutions

ActiveScale

They say the most interesting things in life come in sets of threes. Certainly, some sets are more interesting and simpler than others, such as live, love, laugh, or rock, paper, scissors, or my favorite, the good, the bad, and the ugly. While not super philosophical, they are easy concepts to remember and, in some cases, simplify our daily lives. When we think of things that we need to simplify in a data centric environment, we think of data management, data security, and data protection. Quantum has made a commitment to provide leading solutions that simplify; this is clearly apparent as we continue to work with Veeam offering solutions around data management, security, and protection. Quantum has been a long-standing partner of Veeam and has been certified as Veeam Ready, a program that ensures compliance with functionality and performance standards put forth by Veeam.

As the evolution of Big Data continues, the three core topics of concern to date are protect, secure, and manage data. The industry has done a decent job of providing data protection. Data Management is an emerging market segment focused on unstructured data. Recent hacking and ransomware attacks have brought concerns around data security to the forefront of people’s minds. Quantum has been a Veeam partner for a long time, since Veeam 9.5 Quantum DXi deduplication appliances and award-winning Scalar tape libraries have been certified with Veeam. Quantum’s most recent addition to the portfolio, Active Scale Object Storage , has also been Veeam Ready (v10) certified. Here is the full portfolio that is Veeam 10 Ready certified:

Veeam Integrated DXi Deduplication Appliance

DXi backup appliances offer cost-effective, fast backup and restores for mission-critical product data. Our customers love our DXi for many reasons, but feedback we often hear is that the DXi replication starts just after the first file is backed up without waiting for the end of the Veeam task, so the period of risk—the gap between when a backup is done and a copy is safely off site—is incredibly short, unlike some competitor’s solutions that start the replication only when the Veeam task is done. In v10, Fast Clone feature improves synthetic full performance by referencing existing data blocks on volumes instead of copying data blocks between files and copying those blocks only when files are modified. We have seen up to 15x improvement in our test labs and customer deployments in the speed and in some cases reduced the creation time from hours to minutes.

Veeam Ready Scalar Tape Library

Quantum Scalar tape solution for compliance, long-term retention requirement and ransomware protection. Quantum Scalar library is the only tape system in the market that uses Active Vault, a hands-off approach to managing media between an active and vaulted partition that is completely disconnected from the network. This enables our customers to fully airgap their data and thwart the effects of ransomware or other malware.

Veeam Ready Object Immutability – Active Scale Object Storage

ActiveScale is Quantum’s object storage system that provides a data-forever storage infrastructure. The ActiveScale system architecture accommodates storing primary copy of multi-petabyte-scale datasets that are highly durable and facilitates long-term data retention with minimal administrative overhead. With a Veeam Ready Object Immutability certification, Quantum solutions offer clients the ability to leverage our appliances efficiently through the Veeam GUI.

For more information on testing criteria or detailed information about how Quantum’s portfolio can help you achieve your data protection requirements, visit us our Quantum & Veeam web page or talk to one of our solution representatives.

To view our Partner blog, click here

DXi9000 Has a New Big Brother – Welcome DXi9100!

CMMA Blog

Quantum has been busy this year rolling out new products and product enhancements that offer amazing benefits and value particularly around data management. And speaking of data management, one solution that we couldn’t leave untouched this year as it reduces the data volume to help you manage your data efficiently, is Quantum’s DXi backup appliance . The DXi offers value in its data reduction, data protection, and data recovery capabilities. We understand the pressure IT professionals are under. The C-level executive is always looking through the lens of cost optimization, so if you’re looking for the most cost-effective solution that enables you to do ultra-fast ingests and restores, then look no further. The backup appliance provides a uniquely powerful solution for meeting your backup needs and SLA requirements while staying under budget. Perhaps you are familiar with DXi9000, the most efficient backup appliance in the market. Well, it got bigger! Let’s jump right into what was announced earlier this month.

Launching One of the Most Efficient Backup Appliances to Date

On December 4th, we rolled out the new DXi9100 . With this new model, we doubled the capacity of the DXi9000, scaling from 204 TB to 2 PB in 102 TB increments, and same performance as the DXi9000 Ultra, which is +99 TB/h with Accent. We added 21 TB SSD for ultra-fast metadata management, added additional memory and storage allowing the scalability of up to 40 PB of logical storage (@20:1).  Restores can now be done in a fraction of the time compared to the previous model. This new backup appliance builds upon the DXi9000, offering enterprise performance and scale, requiring less footprint, providing some relief to your budget. DXi continues to have industry-best density which these days is ultra-necessary as data growth continues to explode and is projected to continue to grow as more digital transformation takes place across many data centers.

Value-Added Features Provide Layers of Data Protection

Whether it’s because you have a need to consolidate, be compliant to GDPR or CCPA, or you need more performance, DXi offers some of the coolest features without additional licensing required. Features like encrypting data without impacting performance – DXi includes self-encrypting drives and provides encrypted replication, crucial as part of the layers of protection you need in today’s cybercrime environment. In the DXi9100, we continue to offer an easy to scale model with capacity-on-demand, all-inclusive licensing. This licensing model is a big differentiator to alternatives and makes the users world a little less complex because your backup appliances shouldn’t add more complexity to your life. That is why with the DXi, you can add TB’s quickly and easily with a license key which can also futureproof your system; and now with the DXi9100 you can grow up to 2 PB of capacity in a 22U!

If you haven’t had a chance to dive deeper into our new DXi9100 model, and how we can help you meet or exceed your SLA’s make sure to check us out or speak to your authorized Quantum representative. Check out our DXi9100 Datasheet here .

To view our Partner blog, click here

Cyber Insurance Market is Evolving Due to Ransomware Demands

CMMA Blog

The cyber security insurance market is evolving amidst an increase in ransomware demands and payments. Insurance companies have been taking on unmitigated risk, but as we begin to better understand the threats, insurers are moving the risk over to the subscribers, requiring stricter controls.  

Cyber Security Insurance Companies Requiring Stricter Controls

Cyber security insurance companies are changing their approach in dealing with ransomware. ZDNet claims that ransomware accounted for 41% of all cyber insurance claims in the first half of 2020 with claims ranging in size from $1,000 to over $2 million per ransomware incident. Out of all the cyberattacks in 2019, the attacks from the malicious malware known as ransomware have increased to 62% up from 56% the previous year. Latest studies indicate there is one attack every 39 seconds with demands for payments increasing year-over-year and at a high volume especially since RaaS (ransomware-as-a-service) adopted big-game hunting tactics (BGH = targeting enterprises). Whether a small business or a large enterprise, attackers have had an 80% rate of success. These statistics are alarming to the insurance industry and they should be.

Today, cyber insurers have not had strict requirements to underwrite a policy. This is very different from, let’s say, insuring an office building or your home from fire. It is best practice to have fire insurance, but to get coverage, the building owner/managers need to mitigate fire risk and install a sprinkler system. If they don’t, the insurer will demand the system be installed to accept the risk and provide the coverage needed. Similarly, cyber insurance brokers are further examining the risks they take and are beginning to push additional control measures to help mitigate ransomware risk. Underwriters are catching up with the myriad of changes happening in the data center and just like the security professional, they too are at a critical moment as this landscape evolves. “The cyber insurance market has rallied around the need for more sophisticated ways to mitigate ransomware,” said Mr. Maher, North America Cyber, AXIS Insurance (Insurancebusinessmag.com/us/ib-talk ).

What does all this mean for the IT professional?

Cyber insurers see the value of claims rise because of malicious attacks, especially because of RaaS, and are seeking to impose changes, such as a set of minimum standards, to underwrite cyber insurance. If you don’t have the minimum to meet their required control, they won’t grant the policy until you have. Accordingly, to mitigate effectively, the following standards are being proposed as a good start:

blog table

This list is not exhaustive; cyber security best practices recommend implementing anti-virus protection and encryption as techniques to enable controls. Check out the cybersecurity & infrastructure security agency for ransomware guidelines CISA.GOV for a complete list.

Savvy Security Professionals Keep Copies of Data Offline and Offsite

Some of these standards are in addition to what is a customary approach to data protection and network security. Based on forensic data available, we know that more network and backup controls are necessary, because criminals are penetrating networks going undetected for many days, even months using sophisticated methods that could be resolved using known security techniques. It’s not a straightforward formula for insurers either. They also have OFAC requirements and advisory that must be met and depending on who the threat actor is or what country they’re operating from, they may exclude coverage. This is bad news for the insured and is more reason to understand why savvy security professionals keep copies of data off-line and off-site and understand that mitigating ransomware risk requires more than buying a cyber insurance policy. How can brokers and cyber insurance underwriters help stop this vicious cycle? Demanding stricter guidelines for coverage.

Quantum Solutions Help Organizations Mitigate Ransomware Risk

Quantum offers solutions to help you mitigate the risk of ransomware. You can rely on our ActiveScale object storage platform to secure data in flight and at rest with encryption and to further protect data against ransomware with Object Lock capability. Object Lock policy for retention and immutability, once set, can’t be modified, even with administrative permissions. 

Our Scalar tape libraries with Active Vault technology protects data against ransomware true air-gap protection and multi-factor authentication. The tape library with Active Vault creates an offline partition with an automated robot moving tape cartridges from a network connected partition to a vault partition. Quantum’s solutions have been designed to help organizations mitigate ransomware risk and comply with new cyber insurers’ demands. With that in mind, Quantum created simple and complete Ransomware Protection Packages that include all the security features needed to air-gap and securely vault your data, making your backups and long-term storage immutable. Check out our Ransomware Protection Packages here .  

To view our Partner blog, click here

Considerations for Protecting Large Scale-Out NAS Clusters

CMMA Blog

We recently published a solution page that focuses on a new way to protect large scale-out NAS clusters.  As with all solutions we develop, this one started with a customer – two customers actually.

In both cases, these customers were storing Petabytes of data on large Isilon systems, but their protection approaches were different.  In one case, the customer was replicating between two Isilon clusters, using a second system as a ‘target.’  In the other case, the customer was using a more traditional backup application to back up to tape.  And while these approaches had worked for years, data growth in both cases forced both companies to look at refreshing their secondary storage architecture, and their backup methodology.  And of course, a strong desire to reduce infrastructure costs provided some extra business case incentive. 

image

Backing Up Massive Amounts of Data Everyday

In both cases, these customers had some stringent performance requirements for their backups, needing to back up massive amounts of data every day.  And when I say massive, in one case, the need was 2 PBs per day of throughput required, eventually being stored on a 200+ PB archive.  Backing up that amount of data in such a short period of time requires a number of technologies – an efficient data mover, ways to balance the backup loads across the cluster, and a storage target with very fast streaming performance to be able to stream the data in. 

image 1

Answering the Challenge

It was a unique challenge, and our team of solution architects and engineers put together a solution that leverages one of the data services of our StorNext File System , FlexSync.  FlexSync scans the ‘source’ file system, and make copies to the secondary storage target, in this case our StorNext File System.  Then once the data has been copied and streamed to a StorNext disk cache, StorNext offloads the data to a lower cost secondary storage target.  For these customers – that secondary storage was tape, but the other alternative we are positioning and recommending is an ActiveScale object storage system , or a public cloud object store, with a StorNext disk cache sitting in front of it.  Regardless of your requirements of preference for that long term storage repository, StorNext has you covered. 

Meet Backup Targets and Reduce Costs Up to 50%-75%

This solution enabled these customers to meet their backup performance targets, while reducing their costs anywhere from 50% to 75% versus their current approach.  How?  Well the most common approaches to protecting Isilon clusters are replicating to another Isilon (which doubles both primary storage costs, and primary storage support costs), or use a batch backup application, which typically involve expensive licensing fees.  By using a small StorNext disk cache, sized just large enough to handle the necessary ingest requirements, then offloading those files to low cost storage like tape or object storage, we are able to help our customers save both on their secondary storage costs, and on their data management / backup costs. 

How Much Will You Save? Find Out Using our TCO Calculator

If you’re interested in learning more, check out our Scale-Out NAS Protection solution page for more details where you’ll find a TCO calculator and a link to speak to one of our solution architects. 

To view our Partner blog, click here

This Week at the Q

Archive

Welcome to another entry of ‘This Week at the Q’! On a personal note, it felt like a busy week juggling back to school, with schools here in San Diego still 100% virtual, as I took on my second job as teacher, but as I close out the week with our top 5 happenings I realize it may have just been a busy week all around!

  1. It’s great to see one of our sports production customers featured in ProductionHUB! For Nemeton TV, an increased demand for streaming services, a rising number of corporate sponsors streaming sporting events on their corporate websites, and distributing clips through social media, created a whole new area of business. Read here how a new storage infrastructure enabled new business opportunity.
blog nemeton

2. Storage Newsletter also ran a great article covering our new DXi software. Read more here on how the features and capabilities in this new software release improve enterprise data protection.

3. Speaking of our new DXi software, Diana Salazar, Product Marketing Manager, published this new blog: “Looking for Faster Backups? From Hours to Minutes? Look No Further.”  Read for deeper insights into how our new DXi 4.1 software release enables the lowest-cost, scalable, durable storage, that meets service-level agreements and security requirements for data protection.

4. We have a new webinar coming up, “The Anatomy of a 100-Year Archive for Unstructured Data” , featuring industry expert Fred Moore of Horison Information Strategies. Join us on Sept. 22nd @ 8am PT to learn how to protect and manage rapidly growing unstructured datasets for decades to come.

5. And to close out the week, we published a new StorNext file system datasheet, including more detailed information on features and functionality, and new architecture diagrams. You can learn more in this new StorNext datasheet here .

sn data sheet 2

Leave a comment if there are topics you’d like to see added to our weekly top 5 happenings!

Natasha

To view our Partner blog, click here

Looking for Faster Backups? From Hours to Minutes? Look No Further.

CMMA Blog

Last week was fun and exciting here at Quantum with news breaking out about our latest feature rich software release for DXi backup appliances. You may have already seen the announcement that the new DXi 4.1 software is improving backup and restore system performance, but I want to mention a few features in greater detail. Our new DXi 4.1 software with advanced features for our DXi backup appliance enables fast clone synthetic full backups with Veeam 10, cloud-based analytics support, and improved overall performance, helping customers backup faster, manage resources efficiently, and, deliver a stronger TCO than competing offerings.  We know you have many choices, but if you want performance, scalability, and efficiency then look no further; Let’s dig into some of these features:

Improved Backup Performance in Veeam Backup & Replication v10 Environments

I am most excited about the significant improvements we have achieved with the new release of DXi software and Veeam. Think about your backup window going from hours to minutes. The fast clone backup feature uses an incremental backup strategy that is commonly used but creating a traditional synthetic full backup on a backup appliance is taxing on the system’s performance and on the network. To ensure we did not tax the system unnecessarily, Quantum DXi 4.1 software leverages Veeam Backup & Replication v10 Fast Clone technology to impressively accelerate synthetic full backup performance. This by the way, is the preferred backup method with Veeam 10.

The fast clone feature enables data accessibility without the need to rehydrate first.  Rehydrating data requires additional disk space and consumes performance resources; rehydrating as a task could take up to 5 hours. The new release, combined with Veeam V10, no longer needs to re-hydrate data to create a new clone. The feature looks at existing data blocks on volumes instead of copying data blocks between files and copying those blocks only when files are modified. This enables the software to read off the metadata and the result is a dramatic increase in performance shrinking the backup window to 15 minutes (compared to 5 hours) – that is 15x improvement. Therefore, Fast Clone increases the speed of synthetic backup creation and transformation, reduces disk space requirements, and decreases the load on storage devices delivering an improvement that will deliver performance in line with your desired RPO; We encourage you to see for yourselves. Our earliest customers have seen amazing results backing up and restoring large virtual machines.

Remotely Monitor DXi System Health with Quantum Cloud-Based Analytics

Quantum DXi systems are now able to connect to Quantum’s Cloud-Based Analytics (CBA) software, a cloud-based services tool that enables end-to-end integrated communication between Quantum systems and Quantum product and service experts. CBA software allows administrators to monitor system health remotely via a secure cloud-based portal. This means that telemetry and log data, which is sent to the Quantum CBA software, provides administrators with a central portal they can use to monitor and track system and environment health and statistics, giving you the ability to be proactive with your backup environment.

There are more enhancements in this software release than I can write about in this blog, though I would love to. If there is one thing you could remember is that the combination of these software features, particularly fast clone with Veeam V10 can greatly improve the ability to protect your hybrid environment. Here are additional ones that you may find valuable, the rest of the software enhancement you can find here .

Support for NetBackup OpenStorage (OST) customers, Targeted Automatic Image Replication (AIR). This feature is supported with a new OST plug-in and simplifies air/image replication.

Improved replication fan-in capabilities – up to 50:1 fan in for DXi9000 systems, and up to 30:1 fan-in for DXi4800 systems compared to 10:1 before this release. This is an important feature for larger customers with many remote sites because you can now send more concurrent backups/schedule jobs.

DXi Accent path optimization to reduce network loads. New Quantum technology to route data from an NBU server to a single DXi over multiple interfaces. Allows for better use of DXi’s network interfaces.

More flexible system memory configurations. This flexibility empowers our customers to use RAM to run Veeam Data Mover Service (VDMS), Dynamic Application Environment (DAE) or enable Increased Stream Counts (ISC) directly from the DXi. The latter also supports the maximum allowed tape drives if you use VTL.

This release is designed to enhance your experience with a Quantum DXi and to help you make the most of your datacenter resources, so you can focus on your customer facing applications that drive your business. Your backups should be fast, simple, and efficient and we want to remove all the complexity around it. As you start looking through the lens of value and cost optimization, then you’ll want to shift your sights to a DXi backup appliance. Your infrastructure needs to be efficient – essentially lowest-cost, scalable durable storage, that meets your service level agreements (SLA) and security requirements for data protection.

Request a DXi Backup Appliance Demo

Be sure to contact us to request a demo , or contact your authorized Quantum reseller to more learn about these new enhanced features on the DXi9000 and DXi4800 .

To view our Partner blog, click here