Cloud platforms offer various native and free backup solutions, such as AWS Backup and Azure Backup. These solutions provide basic data protection features, including automated backups, encryption, and recovery options. However, they often come with limitations too. Understanding these limitations is crucial for businesses who are looking to ensure robust data protection and compliance.
I. Compliance: An Inescapable Requirement
Compliance with regulatory standards like GDPR, HIPAA, and SOC2 is crucial for cloud data protection. Ensuring that your backup solution meets these requirements involves implementing robust security measures, regular audits, and continuous monitoring. Native solutions like AWS Backup and Azure Backup often lack comprehensive compliance features like detailed reporting and advanced encryption methods. In addition, the option to make frequent backups can be limited to as few as two backups per day.
Veeam Data Platform, with backup for Azure and AWS, offers comprehensive compliance support, including encryption, access controls, detailed reporting, and manually set backup frequencies. For instance, First Hospital of Qinhuangdao, by using Veeam for Azure, was able to meet HIPAA requirements more effectively than with Azure’s native tools. These features help businesses avoid hefty fines and maintain customer trust by ensuring data privacy and security
II. Your Modern Hybrid Multi-Cloud
A modern hybrid, multi-cloud environment combines private and public cloud resources to offer flexibility and scalability. Native solutions typically struggle with seamless integration across multiple cloud platforms, which leads to fragmented management and potential security gaps. Veeam Data Platform integrates seamlessly with hybrid, multi-cloud setups to provide unified management and protection across different cloud platforms under one easy-to-use solution.
This approach helps avoid vendor lock-in and ensures optimal performance and security for your data. For example, Hong Kong Maxim’s Group leveraged Veeam to manage its hybrid cloud environment, which helped them achieve better data protection and operational efficiency than with their native solutions alone. By leveraging a hybrid multi-cloud strategy, businesses can optimize costs, enhance disaster recovery (DR) capabilities, and improve overall IT agility.
III. Cloud Scale: #1 Benefits of the Cloud
One of the primary benefits of cloud data protection is scalability. Cloud solutions can easily expand to accommodate growing data volumes without requiring significant upfront investment. Native solutions often face challenges with scalability, such as hidden egress fees and inefficient replication. Veeam Data Platform contains cloud-native backup solutions that leverage the scalability of AWS and Azure, which allows businesses to dynamically adjust their storage and processing needs.
Scalability ensures that businesses can efficiently handle data growth and maintain high performance levels without having to overprovision resources. To better protect its Microsoft 365 environment, Northumberland County Council decided to deploy on AWS.
“Deploying on AWS gave us the added data protection of a multi-cloud environment,” [add name and position of who said this quote.]
This has not only allowed Northumberland County Council to scale and protect over 20TB of data but also back up their critical data at two onsite locations and a third backup offsite, all managed with one platform. This would not have been possible using the AWS- or Microsoft-native first-party backup solution.
IV. Resilience: The Yellow Brick Road to Success
Resilience in cloud data protection involves ensuring data availability and quick recovery from disruptions. Native solutions often lack advanced resilience features like immutable backups and air-gapped storage. Veeam Data Platform provides these advanced features, along with automated recovery processes.
Resilience helps maintain business continuity and protect your environment against data loss due to cyberattacks or natural disasters. Additionally, Veeam Data Platform offers granular recovery options to allow businesses to restore individual files or entire systems quickly and efficiently. For instance, CMG Financial in the U.S. used Veeam Data Platform’s resilience features for Azure to restore their production servers 96% faster to ensure online loan document access for homebuyers4.
V. Flexibility is Key to Your Future Planning
Flexibility in cloud data protection allows businesses to adapt to changing needs and technologies. Native solutions often have limited flexibility, with restricted support for various cloud environments and workloads. Veeam Data Platform offers versatile backup and recovery options to support various cloud environments and workloads. This flexibility ensures that your data protection strategy can evolve with your business.
Whether you’re migrating to a new cloud platform, scaling your operations, or implementing new applications, Veeam Data Platform provides the adaptability you need to support your evolving IT landscape. In fact, Ciox chose Veeam Data Platform — Advanced Editionwith Backup for Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure. The company was interested in the openness and interoperability of Veeam technology5.
Wrapping Up Your Options
Third-party solutions like Veeam can offer significant advantages over native cloud backup options since they provide enhanced security, compliance, and scalability features. In hybrid cloud environments, these solutions ensure seamless integration and unified management. Assessing your organization’s needs, budget, and technical expertise is essential to choosing the right solution.
Aligning your backup strategy with business continuity goals ensures that your data protection efforts can support long-term success. Additionally, third-party solutions often offer advanced features like ransomware protection, automated DR testing, and comprehensive reporting, which can further enhance your data protection strategy. Many organizations have reported significant improvements in data protection and operational efficiency when using Veeam compared to native solutions alone.
Conclusion
To recap, the five key considerations for choosing a cloud data protection solution are: Compliance, hybrid and multi-cloud integration, scalability, resilience, and flexibility. Native solutions often fall short in these areas, making third-party solutions like Veeam Data Platform a more robust choice. Making informed decisions based on these criteria will help you develop a stronger backup and recovery strategy.
Evaluate your options carefully to ensure they meet your specific organizational requirements and support your business continuity goals. By doing so, you can ensure that your data is protected, compliant, and available when you need it most. Remember, the right data protection solution is not just about meeting today’s needs, but about preparing for future challenges and opportunities too.
For more information, check out our competitive e-books for more context and criteria on how to choose the right AWS and Azure backup and recovery solution.
The post When to Choose a Third Party Cloud Data Protection Solution: A Quick Look at Key Criteria appeared first on Veeam Software Official Blog.
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