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How Veritas Protects Microsoft Azure Stack, the Modern Enterprise Way

AlexSakaguchi
Level 2
Employee

Veritas recently announced that more than half of enterprise organizations globally (56 percent) operate with a “cloud-first” mentality when it comes to deploying new applications and managing workloads.  

But, not in all regions.

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Less than half (47 percent) of European organizations report operating with a “cloud-first” mentality. The majority (53 percent) operate with an “on-prem-first” strategy – mostly due to a fear of security vulnerabilities (60 percent), compliance/regulatory concerns (53 percent), and giving up control of company data (43 percent.)

And while some of these concerns are not even close to the levels they once were (i.e. cloud security is more robust than what most on-prem data centers can accomplish), fighting against the public perception is still very much an uphill battle.

Microsoft recognizes this. Veritas recognizes this too.

Globally, but particularly in Europe, enterprise organizations are still very much aligned to a hybrid-cloud strategy for the foreseeable future. Of course, they want all the flexibility, scale, and agility the public cloud offers, but they want all of that in their data center.

Meet Microsoft Azure Stack. 

Microsoft Azure Stack extends the agility and fast-paced innovation of cloud computing provided by Azure public cloud to on-premises environments in a way that allows organizations to gain a truly tailored hybrid-cloud experience.

With Azure Stack, application development is consistent, Azure services are available on-premises, and the entire delivery experience is integrated.

But as with many new technologies that are allotted a footprint in the data center, inevitably administrators might question how to backup all the applications and data in Azure Stack.

Meet Veritas.

Veritas is a global leader in data protection and has been named a “Leader” in Gartner’s 2017 Magic Quadrant for Data Center Backup and Recovery Solutions. 1 In case you’re wondering, Veritas has been a Leader 15 consecutive times since the inception of the report in 1999.2

Over the last year, Veritas has announced new technology integrations geared at helping Azure cloud-bound buyers improve the management and protection of their applications and data.

These integrations extend the same data protection capabilities for organizations looking to capitalize on the best of both worlds by deploying one or many Azure Stack integrated systems in their data center. 

Why does that matter?

In the enterprise world, new technology replacing old technology is never a 1:1 ratio. In fact, more likely than not, new technology simply gets added to old technology. And the IT staff in the data center is then responsible for working the magic to manage it all under the same roof. Many enterprises, have already entrusted data center backup and recovery operations to Veritas NetBackup. So, while Azure Stack will likely sit next to a legacy Dell/EMC Isilon stack in your data center, you won’t need to stand up another backup application to protect it!

NetBackup has you covered whether you have just a single Azure Stack integrated system, multiple systems, or are using Azure Stack in conjunction with Azure public cloud. Veritas has tested several backup and recovery scenarios that are in line with Azure Stack in guest-only, agent based protection process, to save you money and streamline operations without added risk.

Options for protecting Azure Stack

“In-Stack Protection”

We make adding backup and recovery services to Azure Stack extremely easy.  Through the use of the Azure Marketplace, an Azure Stack administrator can download the NetBackup template and quickly deploy it into an Azure Stack tenant resource.

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Once deployed, virtual machines can be protected using the NetBackup client which allows for file, folder, disk, and application recovery from a single backup.  Using this method keeps all data in the Azure Stack environment, and if the stack experiences failure, recovery from the backup will be impacted. This may be acceptable for dev/test or for optimization of data hydration, but for production workloads it is desirable to push data off the stack as fast as possible. The following methods offer a balanced approach of data protection for optimized recovery for an Azure Stack environment.

 “From-Stack Protection”

Now for those of you who practice a separation of duties, you will want to use this method. An Azure Stack administrator who may not want to run data protection services within Azure Stack has the freedom to run NetBackup as a stand-alone system and protect both Azure Stack VMs, as well as other data center workloads.

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Data transport can be optimized so that backup traffic can flow from Azure Stack to NetBackup without impacting virtual machine network communication.

“Azure Stack to Azure Stack”

Organizations that have multiple Azure Stack integrated systems can utilize NetBackup to offer local data protection and recovery across these environments, while enabling disaster recovery or failover of data protection services to a secondary Stack.  

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Replication of backup information between the two Azure Stack integrated systems ensures data can be recovered in the event of a Stack failure. 

“Backup to Azure public cloud”

Whether NetBackup is installed in Azure Stack or backing up from Azure Stack, protected data can be efficiently moved off to Azure Cloud Hot or Cool BLOB storage.

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Customers can easily utilize the NetBackup Azure Cloud connector to migrate on-premises Azure Stack backup to Azure public cloud without having to configure multiple policies or utilize multiple virtual machines. Using NetBackup’s unique ability to scale, a single server deployment can protect multiple Azure Stack integrated systems while simultaneously sending optimized, deduplicated data to the Azure public cloud. 

Helping Drive Digital Transformation

Both Veritas and Microsoft recognize that most enterprise organizations are going through their own data center transformations. This includes accelerated adoption of multiple cloud services, including SaaS, IaaS, or PaaS. Azure Stack and Azure public cloud are at the heart of this transformation for so many joint enterprise customers and Veritas aims to be right there, delivering data protection services that allow companies to move fast while controlling risks and improving data management overall. Veritas NetBackup + Azure Stack is the latest solution that supports the our vision.

For  more information about how we deliver data protection and management capabilities for Azure Stack and Azure public cloud environments here: https://www.veritas.com/solution/microsoft-cloud

 

 

 

1 Source: Gartner, Inc., Magic Quadrant for Data Center Backup and Recovery Solutions, Dave Russell, Pushan Rinnen, Robert Rhame, July 31, 2017

 

2 Previous titles include Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Backup Software and Integrated Appliances (2014-2015), Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Backup/Recovery Software (2011-2013), Enterprise Backup and Restore Magic Quadrant (2001-2005), Enterprise Backup Vendor Magic Quadrant (1999-2000). In 2006 and 2008, Veritas Technologies was given a Positive and a Strong Positive designation in the MarketScope for Enterprise Backup/ Software. From 2005-2015, Veritas Technologies was known as Symantec.