Short Overview of How Veritas Alta SaaS Protection (ASP) Extra Data Backup Works

Description

Veritas Alta™ SaaS Protection (ASP) customers often require an additional copy of their backup data stored separately for redundancy and disaster recovery purposes. ASP addresses this need by introducing the Extra Data Backup feature. Extra Data Backup allows customers to create an air-gapped copy of their backup data in a geographically-separated secondary location (see below for an explanation of air gaps).

Understanding Extra Data Backup:

Extra Data Backup can be considered as a mechanism for keeping a copy of SaaS application data in escrow. This isolated and secure copy is stored separately from the primary backup data. The secondary copy remains in escrow, only to be accessed and utilized when necessary.

Extra Data Backup is a paid service that can be implemented on a per-workload basis, covering all workloads supported by Veritas Alta SaaS Protection.

How it Works:

Veritas ASP consists of four main components:

1. Administration Portal: This is the management interface where customers configure ASP and set scheduling policies.

2. Connector Service (CS): The CS includes virtual machines running data connectors for each data source. These connectors capture data changes from the SaaS application's API.

3. Backup Data Storage: This immutable storage holds the data captured by the data connectors. ASP creates separate storage buckets, called Stors, for different types of data.

4. Indexing and Search Cluster: A group of virtual machines responsible for performing full-text indexing on stored data and handling search queries.
 

While the benefits remain the same, there are some logistical differences in how Extra Data Backup works based on whether the ASP deployment model is Veritas-hosted or customer-hosted.

1. Veritas-hosted deployments utilize Veritas-owned storage as the replication target for Extra Data Backup. The Veritas Operations Center copies the backup data to Azure Blob Storage in a different cloud region using the ASP export service.

2. Customer-hosted deployments allow customers to choose their own replication target. Supported options include on-premises & Cloud.

On-premises

• Veritas NetBackup™ Access Appliance
• Cloudian HyperStore
• Dell ECS 3.8
(Other platforms are undergoing compatibility testing and will be added to the supported list in the future)

Cloud
• Microsoft Azure Blob Storage
• Amazon Web Services S3 

For customer-hosted deployments, the Veritas Operations Center is responsible for initiating the copy of the backup data using the ASP Export Service, as seen below.

Note: The customer is responsible for management and maintenance of the replication target.

Benefits for Customers:

1. Long-Term Retention: Extra Data Backup enables customers to retain their backup data for extended periods, even indefinitely, without being affected by retention policies that may apply to other copies of data.

2. Data Redundancy: By adopting the Extra Data Backup feature, customers can comply with the 3-2-1 backup rule, a best practice for data protection. This rule recommends having at least three copies of data, stored on two different media types, with at least one copy stored off-site. Extra Data Backup provides an additional off-site copy, meeting this requirement.

3. Ransomware Protection: Extra Data Backup creates an air-gapped copy of backup data, isolated from the production environment and protected from ransomware. Immutable storage prevents any changes, overwriting, or deletion of data, safeguarding it from ransomware attacks.

Understanding Air Gap:

An air gap (sometimes called an air wall) is a data security measure that employs physical or logical separation of networks to ensure that activity on one network has no effect on the other. The air gap keeps the secured network isolated from unsecured network traffic such as the internet or an unsecured LAN. This isolation prevents ransomware or other malware from leaping from one copy of the data to the backup copy.

Summary:

Extra Data Backup is configured on a per-Stor-type basis, so you can choose which data you are copying. For each Veritas Alta SaaS Protection Stor type you select, Extra Data Backup will copy all backup data associated with those Stors.

When customers choose to adopt the Extra Data Backup feature for a particular workload, an exact copy of everything stored in Veritas Alta SaaS Protection in those Stors is copied to the target Extra Data Backup location. Extra Data Backup is an all-or-nothing copy of the exact contents of the specified Stors.

As an example, to have an extra copy of all Exchange data, Extra Data Backup would copy all Exchange Stors to the replication target. To have an extra copy of all Teams data - chats and sites - Extra Data Backup would copy all Teams chat Stors and all site collection Stors to the replication target.

Note: The copy process is a one-way trip for the Extra Data Backup data, and the process is not manageable, visible, or monitorable from within the ASP Portal. Should it ever be needed to recover from the Extra Data Backup copy of the data, please open a request with Veritas Support.

Service Charges

Extra Data Backup is a paid service. Management and monitoring of this feature is handled by Veritas, even for customer-hosted deployments of ASP. Costs are metered by front-end terabytes (FETB) of data copied.

How to Enable Extra Data Backup for your environment:

To enable Extra Data backup please open a support case with ASP support. Please provide on of the following replication target you intend to use for Extra Data Backup.