Storware and Rubrik – Technology Synergy

An overwhelming number of tools, which facilitate the functioning of the business, often boil down to unnecessary complications. Instead of optimizing costs and management, companies get multi-level, distributed systems that consume countless time orchestrating and patching gaps through custom scripts.

Virtualization and its gaps

Server virtualization, based on simplifying management, saving time and resources, and even a step towards green IT, cannot exist in a vacuum today. It would be best if you had components, more pieces of the puzzle that will support it in places where there is a threat to data and the entire area of ​​cybersecurity.

Technology companies often use between 2 and 4 different hypervisors. Flexibility is important, but virtual machines are vulnerable to corruption, and ransomware can show up when you least expect it. According to IBM research, it took an average of 287 days to identify a data breach in an organization at the cost of $ 4.87 million.

How does Storware handle data security?

• RBAC for administrative accounts
• Audit-log for administrative actions
• Customizable logging configuration for external SIEM support
• Data-at-rest encryption for file system backup destination
• Ransomware protection:

– Immutable Backup (XFS-based backup destination) that protects backup data from being encrypted by ransomware.
– Air-Gap Data Protection with: Rubrik Managed Volumes; Catalogic vStor; isoLayer – using remote Red Hat based host and NFS.

Companies such as Storware or Rubrik make every effort to enable companies to fully protect data: virtual machines, cloud and container environments, applications, storage providers, and endpoints. And what is even more worth emphasizing is that it is possible to use these two solutions simultaneously, without duplicating actions, to implement the backup strategy of the “impenetrable fortress.”

Storware meets Rubrik

Business is relational. Sometimes, you should not perceive potentially competitive solutions as alternatives but as a new dimension of synergy that gives the user new integration opportunities and functionalities while simplifying management.

So what happens when we put Storware and Rubrik together? Rubrik defines itself as a cloud data management and data security company. It supports data protection for commercial solutions under VMware, Hyper-V, or Nutanix.

Storware Backup and Recovery also supports data backup and recovery for the above environments, adding a dozen others, such as KVM-based or Xen-based environments.

With Storware supporting a wide range of sources (virtualization platforms or storage providers), one can easily expand Rubrik capabilities by integrating both solutions. Storware supports file-based backup destinations with a mechanism to run custom pre/post storage access integration scripts. Rubrik, on the other hand, can expose Managed Volumes which can easily be used as snapshot-driven file system backup destinations. Storware initiates backups for all supported virtualization platforms or storage providers.

It means that you can use Rubrik as a backup destination. But the stream of benefits also flows the other way. With Storware, you can easily extend Rubrik’s data protection capabilities for environments that Rubrik does not support, but Storware does.

In summarizing, it’s possible to:

• extend Rubrik’s capabilities to secure new sources supported by Storware
• deploy an Air-Gap data backup using Rubrik Managed Volumes
• use Rubrik as an Enterprise Backup Provider for Storware Backup and Recovery

Air-Gap Data Protection

Not surprisingly, the number of ransomware attacks is increasing year by year. One of the more reliable solutions used against cyber threats is to use an Air-Gap backup strategy.

Rubrik Managed Volumes allow you to easily connect to your Rubrik environment and, with each backup, dynamically create a managed volume for each protected entity (which corresponds to a Virtual Machine, application, or storage instance) and attach such volume on the fly during any task that needs to access backup storage for this entity. Rubrik Managed Volumes is mounted over NFS only during backup, restore, etc., and is not accessible all the time.

When ransomware attacks the node, even if it manages to reach the data during backup/restore – you still have an additional layer of protection – Managed Volumes are based on the snapshot concept. Each change on the volume is a separate snapshot with the Rubrik SLA specified in the configuration file for the Rubrik pre/post access integration module.

That’s how Storware allows you to build an effective Air-Gap Backup Strategy for the company’s resources. The backup stored on the storage infrastructure is unavailable from an external connection or the Internet. IsoLayer plays an essential role in the 3-2-1 backup strategy. This strategy requires three copies of the data, on two different media types, with one off-site copy.

Read more – Air Gap Data Protection with Storware Backup and Recovery

Conclusion

A sign of our times is that business disruptions are often not due to internal problems of the company, lack of tools, or managerial incompetence but due to malicious behavior from outside. The inevitable digitization of the business opens it up to many new threats that it has to deal with if maintaining business continuity is a priority. And that – let’s be honest – usually comes first.

A data center is not an immutable, solid rock. Smaller companies often introduce changes immediately, and new solutions are tested in production environments. These changes are inevitable even in corporations that usually have a longer period of making the necessary improvements and updates.

However, both variants need flexibility. If not in structures, then certainly in tools that support or create key organizational processes. Such as creating, distributing, processing, and securing data.

Storware and Rubrik solutions’ compatibility offers business owners and IT administrators new opportunities. Instead of investing in several solutions that meet modern business expectations, it is worth limiting the expenses and time needed to manage complex platforms to those that complement each other and are compatible.

A “marriage of convenience” benefits are much more significant and future-oriented because any changes in the data centers in test or production environments do not pose new challenges for administrators.

If you’d like to now more, feel free to contact us!