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Scality hardens Artesca in 2.0, deepens Veeam connections
Artesca 2.0, the latest update for Scality's object storage service, includes new security features, such as login MFA, and greater support for Veeam's data protection APIs.
Scality is looking to harden the security and expand the Veeam integrations of Artesca, its cloud-focused object storage service, with the first significant upgrade in two years.
Artesca 2.0, which goes live at the end of May, will integrate multifactor authentication for login, S3 object locking and a customized version of Linux meant to reduce possible hacking vectors.
Such security improvements make Artesca more enterprise compliant, according to Randy Kerns, senior strategist at Futurum Group.
"All those things are highly valuable for security," Kerns said. "Artesca is going to be more adaptable."
In addition, integrations with Veeam and VMware target what Kerns considers popular enterprise standards for data protection.
Shifting focus
Scality launched Artesca in 2021 as "object storage for the Kubernetes era," according to the vendor. The Artesca product offers modern, cloud-focused features including a graphic management console and customer support starting at $3,700 per year for less than 50 TB capacity.
Despite the Kubernetes and cloud-first for DevOps pitch, Scality customers started using Artesca for protecting and moving their workloads in a hybrid environment both on premises and in the cloud, said Paul Speciale, chief marketing officer at Scality.
"At the time, we were focused on going after the cloud-native audience," Speciale said. "The truth is, the demand for normal data protection grew rapidly."
A direct competitor to Artesca is MinIO, which offers a similar object storage product as open source, but sells additional support and capabilities. Scality competes with other legacy storage vendors as well, such as NetApp, IBM and Dell Technologies.
Scality's two products are Artesca and Ring, and the vendor sees them as serving opposite ends of the same market -- enterprise and SMB customers that want the flexibility of object storage for hybrid cloud, but want to keep mission-critical applications on premises.
"We're serving the market that feels this data is so critical they want to keep it on premises," Speciale said. "That's what you learn in storage -- you can't do it all."
Scality Ring is aimed at storage environments of at least 5 PB with multiple backup workloads. Artesca, meanwhile, is positioned for environments using only a single backup application with data demands that vary from a few terabytes to several petabytes.
Artesca focuses on providing object storage for local tier 1 and tier 2 storage applications rather than Ring's more comprehensive support for colder data and the overarching enterprise storage infrastructure. Tier 1 and tier 2 storage houses data that needs to be accessed frequently.
Partner integration
Beyond hardening the software's OS and adding immutability capabilities and login credentials, the company is also expanding Artesca's interoperability with Veeam.
Artesca 2.0 will include integration with Veeam Backup & Replication v12 (VBR 12), enabling automatic enforcement of access control policies and integration with Veeam's Smart Object Storage API. Released as part of VBR 12, the API offers Veeam's partners a way to automate security and provides access to other capabilities from Veeam products on object storage.
Support for a popular backup vendor such as Veeam is an important consideration when companies adopt new storage products, said Ray Lucchesi, president and founder of Silverton Consulting. Modern IT architecture tends to be a hodgepodge of the technology stacks and capabilities of acquired and merged companies, which can result in a mix of backup products. Support for Veeam can simplify the decision.
"As companies acquire other companies, they acquire the infrastructure as well," Lucchesi said. "Backups tend to be pretty sticky."
Tim McCarthy is a journalist from the Merrimack Valley of Massachusetts. He covers cloud and data storage news.
