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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.

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Thinking of Paying Ransomware Hackers? You May Face Sanctions.

CMMA Blog

If ransomware wasn’t already causing IT professionals loss of sleep at night, a new advisory recently issued, just might. The U.S. Dept of Treasury has issued an advisory that focuses on the sanction risks associated with the ransomware payments related to malicious cyber activities. This means that not only do IT professionals need to ensure their network is secure, but if their organization solely relies on cyber insurance to get back to business quickly, they’ll need to be sure their company and their insurer or financial institution negotiating on their behalf are not funding terrorists organizations. The question is, how do companies and negotiators know who they’re dealing with? They don’t really know. Companies and their negotiators are still at risk of being held responsible regardless if the parties knew or had reason to know.

Making payments emboldens cyber criminals and perpetuates this vicious cycle of attacks and payments. Did you know there is a ransomware-as-a-service (RAS) offering and a help desk somewhere in the dark web? When your company pays the ransom, it is  funding these malicious operations. To protect your network, you pay top dollars to equip your data center with the latest in data protection. Next, you insure with the best cyber insurance policies available. All of this is good, but relying on cyber insurance to get back to business after a cyber event has become a national security issue. Enterprise organizations, whether private sector or government, need to step up their business continuity plans or they may risk violating OFAC regulations according to the U.S. Treasury Department. At the risk of sounding like a broken record (I’ve  blogged about this before), organizations need to turn the page on this chapter. Start by:

  1. Being pro-active in your data protection strategy – protecting your network comes in layers.
  2. Securing with an offline “air-gapped” copy (supplemental insurance).
  3. Organizations need to “unlearn” relying on cyber insurance to get back to business quickly.

Implementing point one and two from above will largely reduce your chances of having to pay ransomware, because you will be prepared with time-tested strategies that will help you get back to business quickly. For example, a solid backup strategy will include keeping a copy of your data disk (hot data), tape (offline) and offsite like the cloud (offsite). Put very simply, follow the backup rule of 3-2-1-1 , which means: 3 copies of your data, 2 different media types, one offsite, and one offline. The third point is behavioral, and it starts at the top by re-setting policies to get back online.

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The volume of ransom payments will continue to increase rapidly unless victim behavior changes. All reports point to more aggressive cyber spying and targeted attacks with insidious methods that bypass behavioral algorithms used by cyber software companies. If criminals have the funds, they will find a way to penetrate your network and disable your online backups. Quantum has designed a solution to protect organizations against ransomware that enables faster recovery. This offers a true air-gapped ransomware protection with an offline, in-library vault for onsite backups. The benefits are:

  • Archive, on-site, long-term vaulting, replaces external shelf storage
  • Backup, short-term vault prior to sending offsite
  • Removes the need of manual handling tapes
  • Recover from an off-line copy in minutes when your online copy is compromised

Let’s remember, a virus cannot bypass a physical barrier formed between your data and the network. It is and will continue to be the most cost-effective form of ransomware protection. As you evaluate ransomware data protection strategies, think about the losses associated with a successful attack to your organization: revenue, clients, reputation, and more. Increase your awareness. You could possibly be sponsoring foreign cyber-terrorism. A small investment can reap a great return.

Article cited: https://home.treasury.gov/system/files/126/ofac_ransomware_advisory_10012020_1.pdf )

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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. 

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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. 

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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. 

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This Week at the Q

Archive

Today sees the last day of Quantum’s amazing ‘Summer Hours’ program, but I’m getting ‘This Week at the Q’ live before heading out to enjoy it! It’s been wonderful to enjoy every other Friday off over the summer, and spend some time with my kids on our camping adventures!  So for this week’s Top 5 happenings…

1. We’ve been hearing from customers about the need to protect and retain data for decades, and in many cases the need for a ‘forever archive’ or ‘100-year archive’. Couple this with massive growth in unstructured data, and the need to be able to search and analyze this data, and building a modern data archiving strategy has become a key strategy for enterprises. This week, industry expert Fred Moore of Horison Information Strategies joined us on “The Anatomy of a 100-Year Archive for Unstructured Data” to discuss the scale of unstructured data growth, the applications fueling archive requirements, and the anatomy of the 100-year archive enterprises should consider. The replay is available here .

2. Like the webinar? We have a new white paper to go with it! Read “Anatomy of the 100-Year Archive” , by Fred Moore of Horison Information Strategies, to learn when data reaches archival status, data classification guidelines, the role of blocks, files and objects, and the various capabilities that enable an archive for the ages.

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3. Another topic we’re hearing from customers more and more, is ransomware protection. For every ransomware attack we see in the news, there are hundreds of others that don’t get reported. Virus strains and cyber criminals have become increasingly insidious in their attempts to penetrate networks and take control of all digital assets, including backups. A virus cannot bypass a physical barrier formed between your data and the network nor a logical barrier based on data immutability. A solution doesn’t have to be expensive or complex to be effective.  Register for our upcoming live webinar on October 22, “Protect Your Data with a Layered Ransomware Approach.”

4. Having a contingency plan in the event of unforeseen operational disruptions is good business. Whether it’s to deal with the current COVID-19 pandemic or in anticipation of a potential natural disaster, our customers build continuity plans with the technology needed to keep business operations afloat, as well as ensuring employees are trained in using remote working technologies. Quantum’s Diana Salazar covers the “Top Three Data Continuity Techniques Businesses Need to Adopt Now” in her recently published byline in Data Centre Dynamics.

5. We love hosting industry friends at our Executive Briefing Center! It was great to spend time with Philippe Nicolas, founder of Coldago Research and Storage Newsletter editor, in our Englewood, Colorado offices to tour our labs and talk roadmap. So good to start reconnecting in person again, even if we are masked up and touring 6 feet apart!

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

Natasha

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The Best Ransomware Protection Comes With Physical Layers

Archive Storage

For every ransomware attack we see in the news, there are hundreds of others that don’t get reported. Strains and cyber criminals have become increasingly insidious in their attempts to penetrate networks and take control of all digital assets, including backups. With a successful attack comes downtime, millions of dollars in revenue losses, and damaged reputation. Every time an organization pays for ransomware, more demand is created making recovery more complicated and time consuming.  Quantum has designed a solution to protect organizations against ransomware and enable fast recovery.

Like many others who have fallen victim to ransomware, they experienced many of the most common consequences, such as:

  • Loss of revenue, clients and trust
  • Damaged Reputation and Shaming
  • Paid large sums to attackers and incurred costs of recovery
  • Threat of data and privacy breach
  • Exposing clients and partners to ransomware threats as well as sensitive information that may lead to blackmail, loss of credibility, and compromised positions in society and market
  • Recovery may take a lot time, thus interrupting business and affecting operations for months and potentially years.

Bad actors are getting more invested in data theft and shaming tactics, including engaging in partnerships to produce larger more effective ransomware campaigns against your network and backup environments. The whole scheme is to eclipse any ability to recover and thus, payout the ransom. This means that you have the duty to understand the implications and to defend your network by eliminating their strength, which is the ability to spread a virus through network connected devices. However, if you only rely on your cyber security software or your cyber insurance policy to pay ransom, then you are leaving a big gap in your ransomware protection strategy.

Why not make tape’s offline copy part of your insurance policy? Today, disk is the de facto for ransomware recovery efforts, but it has several disadvantages, here are four:

  1. Backups will always remain online – high chance it will get compromised
  2. Expensive once you add up soft costs
  3. Disk solutions are not designed to protect backups against ransomware
  4. Network connected copies are always at risk; they are a bullseye for hackers

Disk is designed to be efficient, reduce footprint and meet your SLA requirements; For protection against ransomware, disk lacks the ability to truly airgap, so it remains vulnerable and accessible for criminals to encrypt, steal, and use it to your organization’s detriment. Cloud storage on the other hand, can be used as an offline service or “cold storage” but it comes with limitations:

  • No control of your data
  • Egress charges if you need access
  • Recovering from cloud can take weeks or months

It’s long past time for organization to have a true ransomware protection plan that includes an offline copy readily available on prem or in the cloud as part of an insurance policy.

Why Quantum and disk + tape (online and offline copies): Backup appliances like the DXi ® are purpose built appliances essential to meet your RPOs and RTOs, not only do you get ultra-fast performance and security with hardware based encryption technology, you also maximize savings with its ultra-dense drives to help you reduce footprint.  DXi also has a fine-tuned replication engine that enables multi-site DR protection. This means, that as soon as your data hits the DXi, it immediately begins to replicate data offsite and then to tape. Many customers do not want to wait to airgap tape. As soon as its done writing, they want to airgap it.

The complexity around tape is well known and Quantum’s Active Vault technology resolves those issues. It provides a solid and secure airgap for ransomware protection. Here are some of the benefits:

  • Offers True air-gap ransomware protection with offline in-library vault for onsite backups.
  • Archive, on-site, long-term vaulting, replaces external shelf storage
  • Backup, short-term vault prior to sending offsite
  • Removes the need of handling tapes
  • No network, host, or drive connectivity; Only admin account has visibility and access via multi-factor authentication (MFA)
  • Use of unlicensed slots make active vault very economical
  • Reliable and secure enhancements you can combine: Encryption AES 256-bit, WORM and MFA

Scalar libraries with its offline capabilities and active vault are the most secure, automated libraries in the market for ransomware protection; A virus cannot bypass a physical barrier formed between your data and the network. With a relatively low investment, the ransomware protection you get with the active vault feature is unmatched. No other provider has this level of security and automatization in their libraries. When a ransomware attack bypasses your security endpoints, chances are high your online copies will get compromised. This is where the offline copy can be your best last line of defense and your insurance policy. As you evaluate ransomware data protection strategies, think about the losses associated with a successful attack to your organization…Revenue, clients, reputation, etc.

Consider adding offline storage with active vault as an additional security layer for ransomware protection – It is the most cost-effective alternate solution to expensive disk or paying ransom that by the way, funds the criminal market that you are also protecting your data from.

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This Week at the Q

Archive

1. This week we published a new customer case study, Max Planck Society. Scientists from across the globe work and research at the Max Planck Institute in various scientific fields across natural sciences, life sciences, social sciences, and the humanities. Max Planck Institutes are involved in more than 4,500 cooperation projects in over 100 countries.

The Joint Network Center (GNZ) at the Fritz Haber Institute (FHI) provides technology services for Max Planck Society. To better protect large volumes of scientific data, the GNZ needed to accelerate their storage backup process and improve their archiving. Read this new case study to learn how they were able to shrink their backup window, reduce costs, help ensure the long-term integrity of their data, and gain scalability to support fast-growing scientific data volumes.

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2. We also announced the release of new DXi software with advanced features and capabilities for DXi backup appliances to significantly improve backup and restore system performance, as well as monitor systems remotely utilizing cloud-based analytics.

IDC’s Phil Goodwin, Research Director, Infrastructure Systems, Platforms and Technologies Group: “Traditional backup and recovery software remains strong, even as organizations add cloud-based backup to their data protection strategies. The combination of a Quantum DXi appliance and Veeam V10 shows great potential for enterprises seeking to protect their vital hybrid-cloud environments. Faster synthetic full backups enabled by this release means that organizations can backup more often, thereby reducing the risk of data loss and delivering a better RPO.”

Read more about this announcement in this Enterprise Talk press coverage .

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3. Check out this new blog by Eric Bassier, Quantum’s Sr. Director of Product Marketing, “Are You Experiencing Unstructured Data Sprawl?” He outlines how “unstructured data sprawl” is the emerging problem that many CIOs and large enterprises are dealing with, and the need to classify the data, how to work with it when you need it, and how to store it safely when you are not actively working with it. 

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4. Speaking of unstructured data sprawl, the need for an archive strategy has never been greater. Check out this in-depth video with industry expert, Fred Moore of Horison Information Strategies, with Dave Vellante on theCUBE, covering the topic of “Reinventing Archives.”

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5. This new SearchStorage article, “On-premises STaaS Shifts Storage Buying to Opex Model,” is a great overview of the growing field of STaaS, and discusses the benefits of a pay-as-you-go subscription model, the flexibility STaaS offers, and the simplified management for customers.

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