Veeam Software boosted its backup for AWS and Microsoft Office 365 data. Both of the cloud-based platforms are trending up in the data protection market.
Veeam cloud backup products expanded platform support this month in key areas of customer demand.
Veeam's Backup for Microsoft Office 365 added purpose-built Microsoft Teams protection and its Backup for AWS update included support for Amazon's Relational Database Service (RDS).
Microsoft reported in October that Teams had 115 million daily active users, up from 20 million just a year ago, because the pandemic forced organizations to collaborate remotely. In addition, RDS was the most requested service to back up in Amazon, according to Rick Vanover, senior director of product strategy at Veeam.
There's a need for third-party products to provide additional data protection and recovery capabilities beyond what cloud platforms offer natively, said Krista Macomber, senior analyst at Evaluator Group.
"Veeam is really being mindful of the fact that customers are turning more to cloud-hosted applications and databases," Macomber said.
How Veeam enhanced its Teams backup
Veeam previously offered more basic protection of Microsoft Teams. Version 5 of Veeam Backup for Microsoft Office 365, which became generally available last Thursday, specifically built backup and recovery for Teams data.
"Prior to version 5, Veeam only backed up the backup data entity where the Microsoft Teams data lived. So there is no metadata in the old backups to do restoration back to Teams," Vanover said. "Everything that is in Microsoft Teams today will be within the backup going forward for Microsoft Teams."
Critical data in SaaS-based platforms like Microsoft 365 have long-term retention and recoverability requirements, Macomber said. In Teams, internal and external communication is important to protect.
Veeam Backup for Microsoft Office 365 puts native Microsoft Teams restore capabilities in line with other services.
The Veeam cloud backup update protects Teams applications, channels and tabs.
Teams data is complex because it is spread throughout Exchange Online, SharePoint Online and OneDrive for Business. Microsoft aided protection with APIs that helped capture data, Vanover said.
The new Veeam Explorer for Microsoft Teams provides granular recovery and includes e-discovery. Users can find and restore Teams data, including groups, channels and settings.
The Teams support makes Veeam's 365 protection more comprehensive and reflects where the market is headed, Macomber said. She cited Commvault, Veritas, Rubrik and Clumio as top competitors in Microsoft 365 backup.
The cloud products are going to have cloud cadence.
Rick VanoverSenior director of product strategy, Veeam
Veeam had a plan to enhance its Teams protection before the pandemic hit. While the increase in remote work made this Veeam cloud backup update a priority, Veeam's execution was generally unchanged, Vanover said.
Teams is a source of record for many organizations, sometimes more so than email, as it's how employees collaborate. Files within those collaborations, for example, are important to protect.
"Organizations have to maintain control of their data," Vanover said.
Veeam is already working on the next update of its Backup for Microsoft Office 365 product. With an update historically every six to 12 months, Vanover said customers should expect a new version in 2021.
"The cloud products are going to have cloud cadence," Vanover said.
Veeam part of 'early wave' with RDS support
About a year after launching its original Backup for AWS, Veeam released the third version of the product on Tuesday.
The update provides AWS-native backup and recovery of RDS databases. Users can automate backups of Amazon RDS with policies and scheduling. Veeam claims users can restore entire databases from an exact point in time in seconds.
Customers heavily requested the additional support because RDS is one of the most common production application services used in the cloud, Vanover said.
Fewer data protection vendors support RDS than Office 365, Macomber said. She pointed to Clumio, Druva and Rubrik as those who support RDS. In addition, AWS offers some backup for RDS.
"It's smart to try to be part of this early wave of vendors that are supporting RDS," Macomber said.
The product update includes support for backup and recovery of Amazon Virtual Private Cloud settings, across accounts and regions, for troubleshooting, disaster recovery, and test and development. It also provides role-based access control and support for AWS Outposts.
The new Veeam cloud backup support and feature set is available in the standalone Backup for AWS product or integrated in the more comprehensive Veeam Backup & Replication.
Veeam Backup for AWS could have multiple updates in 2021, Vanover said.
