Clumio adds DynamoDB to backup-as-a-service portfolio
The number of AWS databases protected by Clumio grows with the addition of Amazon DynamoDB, providing air-gapped backups and more granular restorations for users.
Clumio Inc., a cloud data backup and recovery vendor, has expanded its repertoire of protected AWS databases with a new service for Amazon DynamoDB.
Clumio Protect for Amazon DynamoDB, the latest backup as a service (BaaS) from Clumio, offers standard features and capabilities from its Clumio Protect line such as granular recovery, protection and separation of backup data from production data. It also includes Clumio SecureVault capability and data auditing capabilities when coupled with the included Clumio Discover, the company's AWS backup service that provides data transparency and reporting capabilities.
Native restoration capabilities for DynamoDB provide full restorations, potentially bogging down infrastructure and important workloads. Partial and granular restorations from backups made available through services such as Clumio Protect are a useful tool for the enterprise, said Vinny Choinski, senior analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group, a division of TechTarget.
"You might not want to always recover a full database," Choinski said. "Incremental is a big thing. That's going to give you better ability to meet service-level agreements."
Database dynamos
The Clumio Protect BaaS portfolio already supports major database and infrastructure services on AWS including SQL, EBS, EC2, S3 and VMware Cloud. The company also provides backup services for Microsoft 365.
The latest addition to Clumio Protect expands these capabilities to Amazon DynamoDB, a managed NoSQL, serverless database running on SSDs and designed for quick data processing and scalability.
Clumio Protect stores air-gapped backups on Clumio technology, outside of AWS, said Poojan Kumar, co-founder and CEO of Clumio. The air-gapped backups not only help protect against ransomware, but also provide clean data duplicates for compliance checks and audits.
While customers can manage backups and set backup policies within AWS themselves, Clumio's management console and policy settings can reduce recovery times and administrative headaches, according to Kumar.
"There are ways you can quickly recover from failures using the native technologies of AWS," Kumar said. "That's really useful for operational recovery. But once you go beyond that, if you really want to protect yourself from ransomware, you have to take the data into a service that is sitting outside [a customer's environment]. That's where the air-gapped backups are an important piece in any strategy."
Policy controls of Clumio Protect for DynamoDB and the visibility offered by Clumio Discover assist in monitoring and protecting the enterprise data sprawl across the cloud, according to Choinski. Restoration from a database backup can be time-consuming and often includes entire data sets rather than just what's needed to restore operations.
"When you want to recover, you want the right pieces," Choinski said. "You have to be granular."
A logically-separate air gap can be just as effective as a physical [one].
Vinny ChoinskiSenior analyst, Enterprise Strategy Group
While Clumio's air-gapped backups might not be as literal as removing tapes from a drive, Choinski said separating backups from other environments, a logical separation, can provide a similar level of protection.
Kumar said Clumio, which emerged from stealth in 2019, focuses exclusively on protecting AWS services, primarily due to the maturity of the platform's numerous products and its large cloud market share.
While AWS can offer backup capabilities and services, Choinski noted, they often lack the specific features third-party services such as those from Clumio can provide.
"AWS should be focused on delivering cloud services," he said. "They can't be everything to everyone."
Tim McCarthy is a journalist living in the North Shore of Massachusetts. He covers cloud and data storage news.
