The digital landscape is evolving. Cyberthreats have become more sophisticated, data estates are growing, and IT resources are shrinking. Today’s organizations need a more proactive approach to protecting their data in an ever-changing threat landscape. And while traditional data protection solutions may play a pivotal role in recovering post-attack, they are reactionary, narrowly focused, and no longer sufficient.

Cyberthreats today are designed to silently bypass perimeter defenses and inflict pain in ways that traditional backup and recovery solutions cannot combat. The threat of data exfiltration, theft, and damage is now more prevalent than ever and can be devastating to businesses if not addressed.

Proactive, Layered Data Protection

To address these cyber threats, organizations must look beyond conventional security tools and take steps to ensure data resiliency. This requires a proactive approach with layered protection, also known as defense in depth. It is the practice of implementing multiple tools and measures to protect against a wide range of threats. Each layer has a specific function, working in unison for multi-faceted protection for your environment. Commvault applies this very principle to data protection, uniquely delivering the right breadth of detection, security, and recovery capabilities to actively secure, defend, and recover data broadly across production and backup environments.

Layered protection that actively defends data and its recoverability across the industry’s
broadest set of workloads

Innovative Data Protection with New
Products and Services

We are pushing the boundaries of data protection in this modern world, and redefining how businesses of every size combat risk, minimize threats, secure entire data estates, and drive better business outcomes. We are setting a higher standard for customers’ security posture and delivering the best value in data protection. New products and features include:

• Commvault Auto Recovery delivers complete cyber recovery and business continuity, both on-premises and in the cloud, providing secure, reliable, and near real-time cyber resiliency.
  • Recovery orchestration with one-click recovery of clean copies across workloads to production after validating and sanitizing recovery points.
  • Recovery validation to continuously validate backups, demonstrate recovery readiness, and reduce recovery testing complexities.

• Commvault Cloud Command provides customers global visibility and actionable insights across SaaS, cloud, and on-premises through a SaaS-delivered unified platform. It enables standardization of security postures and simplifies data risk management to make optimal decisions for recovery readiness.
• Commvault Risk Analysis identifies, categorizes, and classifies sensitive data such as personal, financial information, and intellectual property to prioritize security efforts and take action to reduce data exfiltration.

Delivering a proactive and reliable recovery across the industry’s broadest workload coverage is proven to reduce downtime, thwart data loss, and accelerate response times. Businesses will benefit from our end-to-end insights and observability across the entire data protection lifecycle to anticipate risk, proactively minimize threats, control data (and its access), and drive more informed recovery outcomes.

Organizations of all sizes can feel confident that with the help of Commvault’s advanced data protection and recovery solutions, you can become the face of the next generation of data protection: Data, Secured. Data, Defended. Data, Recovered.

To learn more, use our buyer’s guide to map your current cyber security protection and recovery capabilities and determine how best to optimize your readiness plan across hybrid, cloud, or SaaS workload environments.

Watch our video on Data Protection Redefined as our mission is to secure, protect, and recover all your data with the world’s only unified data protection platform, which has the lowest TCO of any solution that even comes close.

Visit our web page to learn.

We live in interesting times, don’t we? Data has reshaped business, how organizations operate, and what customers expect. It’s a hybrid cloud world, where companies have more data in more places, on more apps and different platforms than ever before. And AI is on the verge of changing everything in profound ways. 

All of which makes data the most critical asset you own, the heartbeat of your organization. In short, there’s nothing more important than ensuring its security and protection. 

Too bad the space is full of hype and me-too claims that all sound alike. To make smart decisions requires clarity. But some vendors seem more dedicated to throwing shade than grasping the dimensions of the problem. Trying to convince you that the only answer is a volume play—multiple solutions, more tools, more backup or a new partnership marketed heavily as solving a customer problem, but in reality, is only solving a gap in vendor capability or a workload coverage issue.

But are these claims really true? Or are they just relying on a lot of flashy buzzwords to make up for the shortcomings in their own offerings? It’s kind of insulting if you think about it—as a smart tech buyer, aren’t you going to see through this stuff?

Questions well worth asking. I did when I first joined Commvault. My take on marketing technology is simple: you find out what your product does better than your competitors and find a smart, compelling way to talk about it. You don’t lie. You don’t exaggerate. You explain.

Let’s start by explaining that Commvault protects the broadest range of workloads of any vendor. As the ultimate data protection for today’s hybrid cloud world, we cover on-premise, private and public cloud, SaaS, and almost anywhere your data lives.

So, when some new competitor starts labeling us as “legacy data protection”, you’re smart enough to know that really means they’re trying desperately to keep up with our multi-cloud SaaS Data Protection, cloud air-gap, and integrated threat deception technology. 

When they call our protection of a broad range of workloads  “complex”, you’re not about to confuse flexibility with complexity. Flexibility, good. Complexity, bad. Ironically, the same vendors doing this are also forcing customers to adopt and manage separate point solutions. And what does that bring with it (in addition to cost and risk)? Say it with me: complexity.

Now let’s talk about security. I’ve seen companies sell their products as the “only” or “best” Zero Trust security. Well, for one, Zero Trust is a comprehensive approach. Not some bolt on capability. In a hybrid world, data security only works, as it does in Commvault, when it’s built in, pervasive, has the capability to also defend beyond breaches, and guards backups, as well.

Which brings me to my last point. A lot of what some competitors label as “unique” to them—immutability, zero trust, backup monitoring—are actually just table stakes in a robust data protection solution, like Commvault.

Don’t just take our word for it. Listen to what our customers have to say:

We were looking for an offering that could protect the many key platforms deployed across our environment, and Cohesity couldn’t check either of those boxes.

– Jeffrey Day, IT Security Architect at Nevada Department of Transportation

We hear this a lot actually; “To scale you need more boxes, more, more”.  But in data protection, bigger doesn’t mean better, and it certainly doesn’t mean smarter.  It adds more of the things you don’t need: cost, complexity and risk via a bigger cyberattack surface. 

With something as critical to the success of your business, there really isn’t room for fuzzy claims and fudged execution. A hybrid cloud world demands comprehensive data protection that gives you options (not complexity), delivers proactive security, active data defense, and rapid recovery through a single, gap-free platform. Without add-ins, bolt-ons, and upsells. It’s time to cut through the noise and deliver effective solutions, so you can focus on what really matters—running your business.

Visit www.commvault.com/questionit

Sources:

1. ESG research (From Data Backup to Data Intelligence, January 2022)

“We’re #1! We’re #1!”

When the dust settles on championships, that chant is heard in stadiums worldwide. High score wins, the trophy is held aloft (tossed, if you’re Tom Brady), and the celebration begins alongside Queen racking up more well-deserved royalties.

But how do you determine who’s at the top of the mountain in the data protection world? Ensuring the integrity of your crown jewels in the cloud or on-prem is not a game that ends after a preset period – it’s an ongoing battle that rages 24 x 7 and is fought by CISOs, IT Managers, Database Administrators…the list goes on. It’s complicated, requires adaptable strategy, dedication to the cause, and relentless ambition to best bad actors.

As a result, it’s always an interesting exercise to unpack claims of dominance in this market. Some are true (but come with asterisks), some are highly debatable, some are false, and others are flat-out hyperbole. Let’s look at how one vendor positions their claim of being the best.

Subjective vs. Objective…vs. the Real World

Right out of the gate, we need to understand that many cloud claims rely on two dimensions: subjective (open to opinion) and objective (factual). However, let’s not forget about what we call “real-world” claims – this is what directly impacts your business, and how you use the cloud to run it. Examples:

• Objective claim: “81% of the Fortune 500”
  • Assuming this is correct in some capacity, there is no context to support it. 81% tried the product? Bought the product at one time? Have been using it for more than a year?
  • Is your company in the Fortune 500? If not, the message is “If it’s good enough for them, it’s good enough for you.” See? Now it’s become a subjective claim.
  • Do you have the resources/budget of a Fortune 500 company? If not, how does this help you?
• Subjective claim: “We protect everything”
  • Everything means every single kind of data in existence, from every vendor. Which certainly encompasses every cloud workload.
  • In this case, the vendor making this claim actually does not backup certain workloads for Azure databases.
  • Are you in the Azure cloud? If so, how does that statement sit with you?

Which brings us to the real-world aspect. We know that 80% of all enterprises have a hybrid cloud strategy¹…and once you are in the cloud, you’re going to stay in the cloud. You may be multi-cloud, public cloud, or hybrid cloud, but make no mistake, you’re invested. So why do broad claims like the above exist?

Because assurance is hard to come by in the real world.

And because trusting is easier to do than verifying.

14M M365 users? Ever wonder how many of those are using the free version of the app? It’s a significant number – which means you’re not being given the complete picture.

Fact: peace of mind means different things to different businesses. Different clouds, different workloads, different skill sets, different levels of security in place. They all come together to form your personal cloud strategy. And at the end of the day, what matters is that your data can be restored to its pre-attack/incident state and is 100% intact, regardless of where it resides or what workload(s) are being made whole again.

That’s the claim that matters. That’s the real-world cloud claim. Full stop.

At Commvault, we make assertions about how we stack up very, very seriously. Any claims we make are objective and rooted in 3^rd-party validation, and of course, fact. There’s no better way to be transparent, and we’ve been doing so for over 26 years. Our customers and partners rely on that to defend, secure, and protect their data, day in and day out.

Are you making decisions that impact your business based on claims that at best, are not applicable to you, and at worst, completely false?

“Just the Facts, Ma’am”

The concept of Data Protection has evolved. It’s no longer sufficient to just provide backup – data protection solutions/services/platforms must now include features such as data security, analytics/insights, governance, compliance, data management, data mobility/migration, transformation, and of course, recovery. Many less capable vendors have been forced to approach this via acquisition partnerships/OEM, or via other more fragmented approaches with multiple tools.

Commvault is different.

There is an extensive list of achievements in the data protection space pioneered by us as the first to deliver on them – and in some instances, still the only vendor to do so. Consider the following:

• First to launch fully managed DPaaS offering supporting multiple clouds (Metallic®).
• First to launch cloud air-gapping (Metallic® Recovery Reserve™).
• First enterprise data protection solution to support containers and Kubernetes (2017).
• The only vendor with support for many cloud-native applications (AuroraDB, CosmosDB, OCI, more) that other vendors cannot protect.
• The only vendor to support protecting all Azure PaaS databases.

Being #1 Means Cloud Security is Built-In–Not Bolted On

Many vendors overplay their support for immutability (either directly or via third parties) as sufficient data security, but if you don’t know you even have corrupted data, how can you truly be “protected”?

Immutability is table stakes, but it’s not enough. Without air-gapping, detection, and other layers of data security you end up with ransomware-infected immutable files. You need more than just immutability as part of your solution – things like:

• Metallic® ThreatWise^TM cyber deception and early warning solution.
• Support for the air gapping, – to include tape.
• Granular “clean” recovery, ensuring ONLY the bad data is “purged,” but the good data is still available.
• No additional tools or third-party support required.
• Cloud extension for immutability without the need for appliances.
• No need to LOCK the entire backup copy when corrupted data is found – which means that good data is getting thrown out with the bad, which equals data loss.

Being #1 Means Reducing TCO (or “Show me the money”)

Finally, let’s cut through the marketecture and jargon/rhetoric around TCO used by some vendors to lay claim to that #1 positioning. Today, TCO is a close second to security in terms of what you need. So, while saying things like “1.1M average cost savings” is (again) highly subjective depending on your company size, consider what real TCO looks like in any given situation:

• True SaaS means zero infrastructure to manage; a control plane in the cloud does not mean SaaS.
• Deduplication saves data ingress/egress charges.
• Compression means less data mobility and more savings.
• The ability to scale your solution up AND down depending on need – not just scaling up if demand is reduced or workloads shift to other clouds/platforms.

Being #1 Means Complementing Cloud Native Capabilities

The cloud offers data resilience, which is important to ensure that your data and applications are always available, but does not protect you from data corruption, malware, or other related incidents – you end up with highly resilient “bad data.” Data protection is critical for cloud native and SaaS-based applications.

And because being able to protect any application is the name of the data protection game, how does one claim to be #1 in modern data protection without that? Commvault offers best-in-class data protection for traditional, hybrid, cloud, modern, and containerized applications as part of a unified service and console – eliminating the need for multiple, overlapping tools. Offering the broadest spectrum of workload coverage in the industry, Commvault drives “hard cost savings for Microsoft customers” according to ESG. And the Gartner Magic Quadrant? A leader the last 11 years in a row. Add to that leader status for the most recent GigaOm Radar Hybrid Cloud Data Protection report, and you know you’re in good hands.

Wrapping up, we’re not here to debate our position on the data protection leaderboard, although we do think our case for sitting at the top is strong. The way our 100,000+ customers see it, with over 3.8EB having been moved to the cloud, Commvault is the global leader in hybrid cloud data protection. We’ve been doing this for 26 years, nearly all of it with our foundational partner Microsoft.

The TL; DR? Ask your vendor if your data is being secured, defended, and recovered with 100% efficiency, for the right workloads, in the right places, by the right vendor – both now AND in the future. You might be surprised by what you find.

Take a test drive of Commvault today https://www.commvault.com/request-demo

Reference
1. State of the Cloud Report, Flexera, 2022

In today’s world, data is your most valuable asset, and organizations are constantly collecting, processing, and storing massive amounts of data. Kubernetes is a container orchestration tool that has become increasingly popular for managing and deploying applications in a scalable and innovative way. In a recent survey, we learned that more than 75% of organizations use containers. However, organizations adopting containers and Kubernetes must consider data protection and security concerns.

In this blog, we will explore the various challenges organizations face when protecting data in their Kubernetes environment. Additionally, we will dive into tools and techniques to ensure data protection for your entire Kubernetes environment.

Kubernetes is no longer something that is coming or on the roadmap – it’s here. In fact, among those organizations that have adopted containers, nearly all (94%) use Kubernetes, and most (86%) even find it critical to their operations. This doesn’t come as a surprise since we also learned that Kubernetes is helping drive effective cloud migration and flexibility, container orchestration, and workload mobility. Organizations also see improved scalability, availability, and DevOps processes when implementing Kubernetes.

Now that we know organizations truly embrace Kubernetes and will continue to use it more moving forward let’s look at what they primarily use it for. On average, over half of an organization’s data (59%) is orchestrated with Kubernetes, and nearly all organizations (94%) plan to utilize Kubernetes more in the next five years to protect their data. However, most organizations (89%) also expect to do more work to protect their data in Kubernetes in the next five years.

Assessing your Kubernetes protection needs

As with any change or disruption, organizations face issues with identifying vulnerabilities and fully understanding their systems and needs when using Kubernetes. When moving to cloud-native applications, customers must be aware that backups and data protection are not always guaranteed. Most cloud service providers follow the Shared Responsibility Model, where they are responsible for securing their service infrastructure, and customers are responsible for securing their data and applications within the cloud environment. About half of organizations currently face challenges with identifying vulnerabilities (52%), assessing backups (49%), scaling based on the scope of operations (49%), and understanding system complexity (48%).

The survey also revealed the top features for organizations when implementing Kubernetes.  Two-thirds of organizations (64%) believe ensuring data security is important in a full data protection system for Kubernetes. Additionally, flexible levels of recovery (56%) and ransomware protection (52%) are important features to more than half of organizations. Additionally, nearly all organizations (95%) find it important that they can back-up data in Kubernetes.

So what does this mean for the future of Kubernetes and ensuring you have a robust data protection strategy for your new stateful K8s applications? You need to recover from all challenges you face today and in the future, such as:

• Operator error
• Hardware and software failure
• Targeted ransomware/malware attacks

Commvault and Kubernetes – protect K8s containers without getting boxed in

Commvault provides K8s-native protection for your stateful (and stateless) K8s applications in a convenient SaaS-based backup and recovery solution. Safeguarding K8s applications includes protecting all configuration data (pods, manifests, secrets, CRDs) and the persistent application data (persistent volumes, persistent volume claims). Protection of K8s configuration and data allows granular recovery of application configuration, persistent data, or the entire application to the original or a new cluster. Recovery to on-premises or cloud locations provides your business with application mobility and the agility to adopt the K8s distribution and operational model that works for your developers. Full data protection of your Kubernetes cluster means recovery of any/all applications can be ensured in a data loss event. And with Commvault, you won’t get boxed into using a single-purpose tool. Our K8s protection is part of Commvault’s strategy to secure, defend, and recover all data distributed across the hybrid cloud. Here’s how GigaOm describes this in its recent Kubernetes Data Protection Radar Report:

Read about Commvault’s leadership in Kubernetes data protection https://www.commvault.com/analyst-reports#gigaom.

Source: Hanover Research, Kubernetes Attributes and Usage, February 2023

Spring is a time of renewal and rejuvenation – when we can finally shed the weight of winter and start anew. As flowers bloom and trees bud, it’s the perfect time to reassess and enhance your data protection and recovery plans.

Like planting a garden, taking stock of what you have and what you need is important. Just as you wouldn’t plant a flower in unsuitable soil or without sufficient water, you wouldn’t secure your data with the wrong tools or without a plan. As the saying goes, “fail to plan, plan to fail.” This is especially true when it comes to safeguarding your organization’s data.

The ramifications of a data breach or loss can be catastrophic, ranging from lost revenue and productivity to reputational damage and legal consequences. Minimizing the impact of such events requires a comprehensive readiness plan to prepare for and respond to potential outages.

Being recovery ready means having the confidence and ability to quickly recover any data across your environment.

Routine maintenance is key

One of the most important aspects of a successful garden is tending to it regularly. The same is true of data protection. You can’t simply set it and forget it. Regularly reviewing and updating your plans will ensure they remain effective and continue to meet your business needs. And with the growing frequency and sophistication of ransomware attacks, conducting regular assessments of your infrastructure and readiness plan has never been more crucial.

Fortunately, having a comprehensive data protection solution supported by expert resources can be a game-changer to help reduce the risk of ransomware and ensure a rapid recovery from an attack. You have the most robust data protection capabilities and access to expert support at every step during your data protection journey with Commvault® Professional Services.

Additionally, having a data protection solution that offers a robust set of continuously updated and expanded features is vital in your review efforts. Implementing a regular maintenance schedule to manage your data protection environment allows you to incorporate and update valuable capabilities. Visit our What’s New Page for Platform Releases to explore our latest features and enhancements.

Be ready for anything

Maintain a state of readiness so you can respond to any data-compromising event. Whether your organization needs more support in designing your ransomware recovery readiness plan, maintaining it, or recovering from an attack, with Commvault Readiness Solutions, you choose the service level that best aligns with your business requirements. Service offerings include:

Ready helps you align Commvault’s technical capabilities with your recovery objectives.

Steady assists you in monitoring and maintaining a state of recovery readiness.

Respond helps accelerate your return to normal business operations in the event of an outage or disaster.

Harvest data protection success

Just as a well-tended garden can bring happiness, a robust data protection and recovery plan can provide peace of mind. So, take advantage of the spring season to plant the seeds of a strong data protection and recovery plan and watch as it grows and flourishes in the months ahead.

Chat with a representative to learn how Commvault can help prepare your ransomware response plan.

We know that data protection can be a serious matter, but we’re here to put a fun spin on it for World Backup Day! Are you ready to evaluate how you secure your sensitive information and ask the tough questions about the products you’re using?

At Commvault, we understand the importance of data protection, and we’re here to provide you with the answers you deserve. Join us on a journey as we tackle six of the most frequently asked data protection questions, and we’ll show you how to keep your business secure.

Data breaches and privacy violations can be a real headache for businesses. Not only can they lead to legal and financial repercussions, but they can also harm your reputation and customer trust. That’s why it’s crucial to be informed and vigilant when it comes to your data protection strategies.

It’s time to separate fact from fiction when it comes to data protection. Don’t fall for those fancy marketing claims without doing your research first. Are these companies innovating at the same pace as your data growth? Are they helping you make the most out of your IT budget? Are they selling you a product when what you really need is a platform? These are the questions you need to ask!

Partner with a trusted data protection provider, like Commvault, to ensure that your sensitive information is always safe and sound. Contact us today to learn more about our data protection solutions, and let us help you protect your business and your clients’ information.

Remember, data protection doesn’t have to be boring. With the right attitude and a little bit of fun, you can stay informed and secure while making sure your business thrives!

Follow Commvault on Social Media for more insights on #WorldBackupDay!

Data protection is a team sport. We pride ourselves on our alliance and technology partner community, and there is no question that partnering to provide more deeply integrated and effective solutions adds value for our customers.

But one thing we don’t do (unlike some we could name….) and that is to partner to fill and hide gaps and then position it as a benefit to customers.

There’s no integration, no added value, just PR and additional complexity… And it’s the customer who suffers.

What does that mean for the customer?

Let’s be honest, most vendors in the backup market are good at a limited or select set of things:  Good at VM backup, good at big backup appliances, good at protecting Salesforce, good at protecting M365, or Oracle or Kubernetes, but rarely are they good at LOTS of things…which leaves them with gaps in their solution capabilities, a few bricks shy of a load, lacking cohesion, or just plain green with envy – take your pick on the saying that applies.

This problem really rears itself when customers find themselves and their business has evolved to need new data protection capabilities such as protection of Azure Active Directory, Oracle Cloud, or more proactive data security. 

Not every vendor has the vision to anticipate these innovations and changing business needs and incorporate them into their solutions, meaning they’ll be left trying to catch up or be left behind.  This forces, the vendor to look in the mirror at their own technology stack (or tech debt) and realize the change is too big or will take too long for them to deliver it on their own, and in that case they have to either give up on addressing that need or go in search of someone they can buy or partner with to bolt-on that functionality.  

Despite the marketecture, at the end of the day you are left with two or more completely different solutions, with little to no integrations between them, supported by multiple account teams, and ultimately get more of what you don’t want in your environment:  Cost, complexity, friction, and risk. 

Now you’re faced with more questions:

• Who do you even call if something breaks?
• How can you consolidate or automate when you keep adding more pieces into the puzzle?

So what is “THE WAY”?

We can agree that more products = more cost = more complexity = more risk, right?

Well, fixing that is something pretty obvious – and much simpler:  Tackle data protection with a single unified solution.  Multicloud, on-prem, SaaS, hybrid — One solution to rule your data! 

[Commvault enters the chat]

Rather than rely on others to do the work for us, we’ve built the Commvault platform from the ground up, which has allowed us to easily grow the solution to meet new challenges and demands such as data governance, transformation, and multi/hybrid cloud evolutions in customer environments.   

We’ve been listening to our customers and anticipating their needs for a long time. 

Just to name off a few examples:

Owning the Code

OWNING the code also makes it easy for us to pivot and expand the services of the platform to encompass new workloads such as cloud, DBaaS, SaaS and allows us to leverage the latest infrastructure innovations like object storage, containers, and cloud compute/storage technologies (e.g.: AWS Graviton) to efficiently deliver those services how you need to consume them.   

This unified approach also enables a higher degree of automation across the environment and provides greater observability to potential risks and threats to the data.  Automate. Secure. Respond.  These all get easier when you can consolidate and reduce the friction by reducing the tools and touch points needed to manage your diversifying data landscape.

So, if your environment was all virtual and physical systems yesterday – Commvault has you covered.  And you added cloud and M365 into it today – Commvault has you covered.  And then when you need to add containers, new cloud-native apps, and more in tomorrow, guess what?  Commvault still has you covered.  No need to reinvent the wheel or bolt on more point products to cover the changes in YOUR data needs – you can trust Commvault to provide that consistent data protection across whatever your data is and wherever it lives.

In Conclusion

QUESTION IT – When you’re digging into HOW a vendor or vendor(s) are actually going to deliver their solution and meet your business needs, to see if it’s all just more talk or if it can really do everything it says it can. 

Ask yourself: Should you really be using a data protection provider that can’t protect your SaaS data?”