A long-delayed post, I was invited by Patrick Redknap for vRetreat virtual event earlier this year, I look forward to these sessions as they are technical and have a good opportunity to get in touch with some other vExperts virtually of course. Speaking of virtual events Patrick organised a VR Walkabout Mini Golf session which was an amazing experience.

In this vRetreat Session, we had Cohicity and Progress

The Cohesity presentation was by Vic Camacho, principal technologies discussing how increasing attacks have had an adverse effect on businesses in every industry – from small businesses to all the way up to multinational corporations. While some victims can recover after their systems get encrypted; others may not know what happened until it’s too late.

So the question remains on how do we stay protected, unfortunately, there is not a single answer as we are seeing that ransomware is getting evolved

Ransomware is a type of malware that encrypts files on your computer, making them inaccessible unless you pay a ransom to the attacker. These attacks are becoming more common, as they are a quick way for attackers to make money. It was very interesting to find out that we have 3 different versions of ransomware out in the wild. The first is Locky, which encrypts files with a .locky extension. The second is CryptoLocker, which encrypts files with a .crypto extension. The third is Petya, which encrypts the entire hard drive.

These attacks can be devastating, as they can render your data unusable. This is why it is important to have a backup and recovery solution in place. With Cohesity, you can quickly recover your data in the event of an attack. This solution also provides you with the ability to roll back to previous versions of your data, so that you can avoid paying ransom to the attackers.

Initially, we saw that the attacks was on systems to encrypt the data then we saw that they started targeting the backup and recovery systems, which would stop any IT administrators to try doing a recover the impacted system.

We are also seeing that ransomware attackers are also stealing customer data and threatening to expose it on the dark web or competitors which can be really bad reputational risk for any business.

Cohesity can help you protect your data with their backup and recovery solution. With this solution, you can quickly recover your data in the event of an attack. This solution also provides you with the ability to roll back to previous versions of your data, so that you can avoid paying ransom to the attackers.

A survey conducted by Cohesity shows that 95% of the customers want to detect the threats earlier, 80% of the customers told Ransomeware is changing how IT and Security collaborate, and 82 % of customers are changing the data management strategy in response to the threats like ransomware. So we can see clearly that customers are taking this very serious and are making changes to their IT Security.

Cohesity way of combating Ransomeware 1.0 is making sure the data is resilient using Access control and (Multifactor Authentication ) MFA. finally, the outer ring is where you can see for detection and analytics.

Cohesity way of combating Ransomeware 2.0 The ransomware account has changed from version 2.0 and they started targeting the data. which is combated by keeping multiple copies of data and snapshots and have MFA to even access the data. This is done by Encrypted Fault-Tolerant Immutable, along with this we have the detection and analytics.

Cohesity way of combating Ransomeware 3.0 with this version we found that Exfiltration has been happening very early before we detect the data anomaly. So a lot of organizations are trying to detect exfiltration sooner at the point when it begins.

It goes without saying that organizations need to educate their users about malicious attacks along with taking other measures.

Sometimes the bigger challenge is to know where the data is residing even before to start protecting the data.

The Cohesity Threat Defence Architecture: Cohesity’s mission is to protect data from all angles. They are redefining how organizations think about storage and protection with a single, unified solution for petabyte-scale environments that provide unparalleled visibility into application activity across your environment as well as stark differentiation against future attacks through automation (such as RollBack), built-in risk assessment tools like Machine Learning offering context-aware policies based on behavioural patterns uniquely identifies malicious domains before they harm infrastructure or patient safety

Overall Cohesity gives you the option to instant Mass restore, and detect anomalies to better protect your organizational data.

Cohesity provides a comprehensive and easy-to-use backup and recovery solution that helps you protect your data from ransomware attacks. With this solution, you can quickly recover your data in the event of an attack, as well as roll back to previous versions of your data if necessary. If you are not already using Cohesity for backup and recovery, now is the time to start. This solution can help you protect your data from ransomware attacks.

you can request a free trial at the following link https://www.cohesity.com/dm/free-trial/

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You can check out the recorded session here for Progress and Cohesity, hope you enjoy watching the session.

Last month I was invited in vRetreat 7, this was the second Virtual Edition of vRetreat. Thanks to Patrick for inviting me @PatrickRedknap. On this vRetreat Session, we have two products and their demos, the first one was from Snapt called Nova and then Datrium DR as a Service. It was great to see a lot of great bloggers and vExperts.

#vRetreat with  @SnaptADC  @GarethEdwards86  @VirtualisedReal
@DathBrun  @alburns73 @aldershotchris @husseintaqi86 @jabenedicic @NerdBlurt @ibrahimquraishi
@thecloudxpert  @daveblakeyza  @sazzala  @SimonLong_

As always we have an amazing time on Zoom session.

Snapt introduced there new product called NOVA, with this product we can deploy, scale and security manage any number of ADC’s across multiple location and environments.
You may ask what exactly is NOVA, Nova is a cloud-based system for deploying and managing ADCs in different environments. Because today’s modern-day application are hybrid application which are mostly deployed on-prem or on the cloud, some time in multiple locations.

ADC?

You may ask what is ADC Application Delivery Controller.

An ADC or Application Delivery Controller is a Layer 7 Load Balancer with HTTP and SSL acceleration, Web App Firewalling and other security features. This is used for Securing east-west traffic.

NOVA currently supports VMware, DigitalOcean, AWS and Azure, Nova currently supports the following 4 functionality.

• Load Balance
  
• Web Accelerator
  
• Web App Firewall
  
• Telemetry
  

The application ADC needs to be available everywhere.

Introducing ADC 2.0

This is Service-based not a server-based. Control-pane /data-pane, DC needs to be everywhere. The network must drive itself.

And DC needs to be available on all the sites and environments even on developers systems.

Destinations ( DNS)

Nova Destinations are highly available DNS endpoints for you to direct traffic to. They serve several purposes, from the ease of use to allow you to deploy highly available systems.

In short, Nova allows Centrally managed, Scalable multi-platform per-app or per-environment ADC.

It is for companies who want flexibility, to avoid login-in to enable Next-Gen deployment methodologies and scale their apps across multiple locations.

If you are interested in watching the recorded session of vRetreat you will find it here, Patrick has given me access to publish this on my blog. You can see the live demo of NOVA to get a good feel of the product.

If you want to try this out you can request for an NFR licence to try it out.

If you are interested in attending vRetreat session reach out to Patrick on twitter @PatrickRedknap

Datrium was invited to vRetreat last month on Virtual Editon it was great to see a lot of great bloggers and vExperts. #vRetreat with @SnaptADC @PatrickRedknap @GarethEdwards86

@VirtualisedReal @DathBrun @alburns73 @aldershotchris @husseintaqi86 @jabenedicic @NerdBlurt @ibrahimquraish i@thecloudxpert @daveblakeyza @sazzala and @SimonLong_

A recording of the session for Datrium can be found on the YouTube channel by @Patrick link at the end of the blog.

Sazalla was presenting Datrium, He is the CTO & CO-Founder of Datrium. So, as it says on the tin pretty much Datrium provides On-Demand Disaster Recovery as a service with VMware Cloud on AWS.

DR has become Critical for every business. You can see the top of the threat is Ransomware these days. Backup is very critical to any business as we can not afford downtime, however, what has been noticed during the past couple of years is the DR process is complex and brings very little value to the table, quite often they are out of date and does not fit the purpose due to the complexity of modern application these days.

Disaster Recovery has been Expensive and Complex with multi tire application and the ongoing cost of 2^nd DR site can easily add up. Often even if we have this in place it turns out to be unreliable and as an affect its left untested and becomes out of date.
Datrium has found this problem and has engineered a simple cost effective DR Solution offered as Distar Recovery as a Service.

Although we have backup solutions which offer some recovery and we have come a long way from Tapes DR as a Service is going to be the next transformation, which will enable a business to failover to the DR site in minutes as-oppose to days and weeks of work.

Datrium DRaaS offers Cloud DR and Backup on-demand with VMware Cloud on AWS. Leveraging VMware Cloud on AWS

You will like all the features

• Cloud Backup
  
• Instant RTO
  
• Ransomware Recovery
• Continuous compliance

Historically we know that the challenges organization have is to enable DR and keep it updated the DRaaS offers continuous compliance.

You might be thinking how long will it take to failover the site and how difficult is it to setup?

They suggest 10 Minutes to DRaaS as shown in the slide below, it starts by

1. Downloading the VM
   
2. Create global backup /DR policies
   
3. Store backups on S3
   
4. Pay-On-Demand VMware Cloud on AWS.
   

Once you are setup you will have 1- Click Instant Failover when you have a disaster scenario when disaster strikes.

And you can also failback that simple with 1-Click Failback.

Hence when the Disaster is Resolved you can failback and stop paying VMware Cloud on AWS by Shutdown of VMware Cloud.

Keep things simple with Datrium single point of billing and support

Conclusion: Disaster Recovery as a Service is an amazing offering we can use our favourite vCenter Server to configure this services and as it’s going to VMware on AWS we do not need to worry about the maintenance of your infrastructure.

This gives you Global Backup and DR Strategy for your Business with VMwae Cloud on AWS, along with Centrally controlling all your Backup /DR sites, Reduce your Capex cost, Reduce the Opex and Instant RTO.

If you would like to see the full vRetreat session check out the YouTube recorded session

Introduction to Datrum

Jump to Demo  https://youtu.be/vZyAVHQn_4E?t=4538

Twitter https://twitter.com/ibrahimquraishi/status/1262764092244111362

Patrick invited me to vRetreat last month, this was my first time attending vRetreat event, with the current circumstances under which Patrick transformed the event into a virtual on Zoom. It was great to see a lot of wonderful bloggers just to name a few., Ather Beg, Amit Panchal,  Andy Nash Marco Broeken, Megan Warren, Barry Coombs and Kyle Davies

Steve Blow addressed Zerto’s session with the exiting Zerto 8.0 release on 24 March 2020, He is Systems Engineering Manager in the UK. Zerto Expand Disaster Recovery and Data Protection Across On-Premises and Cloud, with this release. Zerto also announces partnership with Google Cloud and Deeper Integration with Azure, AWS and VMware. Since we all know that everybody is thinking about multi-cloud technology, and others are still working on it, Zerto has done it already.

V

By now, it’s no secret that Google Cloud VMware Solution by Cloud Simple allows companies to run their VMware workloads in Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Better known as Good VMware Engine. GVE Enables customers to use Google Cloud Platform to run native VMware workloads. Integration of Zerto enables replication in Google Cloud, click to read more about Google Cloud VMware Solution

Zerto 8.0 supports VMware on Google Cloud, which allows users to protect and migrate VMware’s native workload on Google Cloud Platform (GCP)

VMware running on dedicated Google private cloud

Native VMware configuration

Replication to Google Cloud

VMware on Google Region to Region replication

One of the most common use cases are for Cloud disaster recovery (DR), transfer of workloads to and from Google Cloud and recovery from cyber attacks.

Zerto helps you to migrate and restore entire multi-VM applications to and from AWS in case of individual server failure, site-wide outage, or as part of a planned migration.

As we all know Amazons S3 is a really cheap option to store data for long term retention, so we have Zerto giving us the option to use the AWS S3 for long term retention.

Local cache for faster recovery

Deploy as a virtual appliance (VMware, HyperV) or physical

Utilize cost-efficient cloud storage

Deeper AWS integration

AWS Storage Gateway for data protection

Automated OS configuration

VM network settings orchestration at enterprise scale

Streamline VM settings for entire failover and failback cycle

Cost-effective Disaster Recovery: Make substantial cost savings by making Microsoft Azure a platform for disaster recovery and just pay for what you’re using with unlimited burst power. Zerto is moving applications and data to the cloud, easily, accurately, and without any effect on production environments. Deploy Zerto in any infrastructure you support.

Deeper Azure Integration

Cost-effective Disaster Recovery

Support for Azure Gen 2 VMs (UEFI Architecture)

VM network settings orchestration at enterprise scale

Streamline VM settings for entire failover and failback cycle

Azure Managed Disks available in all public regions

Let’s jump to my favourite VMware, Zerto is a few new features to announce in this new version.

Zerto brings additional benefits to vVols datastores

Providing continuous data protection (CDP) rather than snapshots

Enabling storage vendor-agnostic data protection

From/to/between vVols and non vVols datastores

In short Support for VMware VVOLs, with VVOLS being usable for protection and recovery

Conclusion:

Zerto provides the ability to replicate between not just private On-Premise cloud but to public cloud providers like AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform and IBM Cloud.

This makes Zerto a true multi-cloud Backup and DR solution, Zerto provides a single solution for protection, recovery, backup, and migration of data in the public cloud.

Zerto 8.0 has a lot of new enhancements, some of them are listed below:

• New Recovery User Interface
• Rapid Reverse Protection for Workload Mobility
• Freely migrate, conduct tests, and perform failovers with more availability.
• Optimizing VM to VRA Load Balancing

New Application-Aware Retention

Extending the value of virtual protection groups to long-term retention

• Consistent application recovery with write-order fidelity
• Simple, scalable and automated
• From seconds to years

I am sure after reading all these amazing capabilities Zerto can provide, you would wish to test Zerto? you can do so, by Access Zerto labs by visiting myZerto or visiting https://www.zerto.com/page/labs

Reference :

https://searchdisasterrecovery.techtarget.com/news/252480825/Zerto-8-opens-AWS-Storage-Gateway-supports-Google-Cloud

https://blocksandfiles.com/2020/03/23/zerto-8-google-cloud-platform/

https://www.vmware.com/uk/partners/strategic-technology-partners/google.html

https://www.zerto.com/modernize/aws-replication/

Logo: https://www.computing.co.uk/news/2427298/the-advantages-of-managing-dr-from-the-hypervisor-rather-than-the-storage-layer

https://www.zerto.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/zerto-for-microsoft-azure.pdf