Organizations choosing to implement a cloud-native IT environment must consider its implications regarding their data protection strategy. The cloud-native approach offers businesses many advantages over traditional cloud migration. Companies must focus on ensuring they have a backup plan to safeguard their valuable data in a cloud-native environment.
What is a Cloud-Native IT Environment?
A cloud-native environment leverages the full capabilities of cloud services to enhance scalability, flexibility, and automation. Cloud-native systems are explicitly developed to run in the cloud. This development strategy enables applications to utilize cloud features more effectively than those migrated from traditional data centers.
A cloud-native environment exhibits the following key characteristics, supporting agile, scalable, and resilient applications.
- Microservices architecture – Applications are built from small, independent services that each perform a specific function and communicate with each other through lightweight APIs. This architecture supports the development, deployment, and scaling of individual components.
- Containerization – Applications and their dependent components are packaged together in containers, such as Docker. Containers support rapid deployment, consistency, and portability across different environments.
- Dynamic orchestration – Container orchestration tools dynamically perform management functions such as load balancing, scaling based on demand, and self-healing of failed containers.
- DevOps automation – Automated processes support collaboration between development and operations teams, enabling faster recovery from failures and shorter release cycles.
- Enhanced scalability – Cloud-native environments enable automatic scaling up or down to reflect changing workload demands, resulting in more efficient performance and cost savings.
- Improved fault tolerance – The environment minimizes downtime and enhances availability through measures such as redundancy, load balancing, and auto-restarting failed services.
- Infrastructure as Code (IaC) – Infrastructure is managed using code, leveraging dedicated IaC tools to enable automation, version control, and repeatable deployments.
- Platform independence – Cloud-native applications are designed to run across multiple clouds or hybrid environments, providing enhanced flexibility and reducing vendor lock-in.
The Benefits and Challenges of a Cloud-Native Approach
A cloud-native environment and development approach provide companies with several benefits, including:
- Faster and more innovative application development;
- Enhanced scalability, flexibility, and resilience;
- More efficient resource utilization with related cost savings;
- Individual components are easier to maintain than sprawling applications.
These benefits may come with some challenges, such as:
- Navigating additional complexity in architecture and deployment;
- Organizational dependence on cloud vendors;
- Transitioning to a DevOps mindset from a traditional IT perspective;
- Some teams may experience a steep learning curve.
What Are the Cloud-Native Data Protection Risks?
Companies are not immune to risks by adopting a cloud-native approach. Decision-makers must understand their cloud service provider’s (CSP) shared security responsibility model. The CSP is typically responsible for the underlying infrastructure supporting the environment, and may provide some degree of data protection. Customers are ultimately responsible for protecting their data, even when using Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions.
Organizations must understand the following risks to their data that exist in a cloud-native environment. This knowledge is essential in developing a viable and reliable backup strategy.
- Cloud service outages – Cloud providers may experience outages and downtime despite their uptime guarantees. Customers who have data stored in a single region may lose access to mission-critical information, negatively affecting business continuity.
- Accidental or deliberate deletion – Trusted employees can unintentionally delete, overwrite, or corrupt cloud-native data. Data can also be compromised by malicious insiders who deliberately attack company resources.
- Ransomware and malware – Threat actors may launch a successful malware or ransomware attack on your cloud-native environment, often by utilizing a compromised cloud account.
- Limited retention – Many cloud-native platforms, such as Microsoft 365, provide basic backup functionality that includes limited data retention. They typically do not offer long-term archiving, immutable backup creation, or the ability to perform granular restores.
- Regulatory compliance issues – The built-in retention periods and recovery procedures for cloud-native environments may not be sufficient to meet compliance standards. Regulations such as HIPAA require long-term data retention and the ability to recover quickly to maintain availability.
Developing a Backup Strategy for Cloud-Native Infrastructure
Considering the potential risks to cloud-native data, companies must develop a robust backup strategy that accounts for the inherent dangers and deficiencies of the cloud environment. The strategy should focus on cloud-first, intelligent backup solutions. Decision-makers should incorporate the following key principles into their backup plans.
- Leverage third-party backup solutions – Organizations should adopt third-party backup solutions rather than relying on the native capabilities of their cloud platform. The backups should be stored independently of the cloud environment for enhanced protection against cyber attacks or data loss.
- Follow a modified 3-2-1 backup approach – Companies should maintain at least three copies of their data. The copies should be stored on two different platforms or using two types of media, with one copy stored off-site, isolated from the production environment.
- Create immutable backups – Teams must create immutable backups that threat actors cannot modify. Many ransomware attacks attempt to corrupt backup media, forcing companies to pay the ransom. Immutable backups protect against this scenario and may help demonstrate compliance with data security regulations.
- Review retention periods – Companies must ensure the retention periods of their cloud backups align with internal policies and regulatory compliance standards. Teams should never assume default retention parameters are sufficient for their needs.
- Test recovery plans and procedures – Teams must regularly test recovery plans and procedures to verify they can quickly restore data resources when necessary. The best backup strategy is useless if the company cannot recover its data efficiently.
How VAST Supports Your Cloud-Native Backup Requirements
VAST has your back when it comes to backup solutions for your cloud-native environment. Our strategic partnerships with advanced backup solution vendors, such as Veeam, Druva, and Cohesity, enable us to help you design a reliable cloud-native backup strategy aligned with your business objectives. We also provide our own backup and disaster recovery services to protect your cloud-native and on-premises data resources.
VAST’s Cloud-Backup-as-a-Service (CBaaS) is built on Druva’s innovative data protection technology, offering data protection for Microsoft 365, enterprise endpoints, public cloud environments, and hybrid data centers.
Our Disaster-Recovery-as-a-Service (DRaaS) leverages AWS Elastic Disaster Recovery, enabling you to quickly restore data resources to alternate regions if needed for enhanced resilience and improved business continuity.
Get in touch with our data protection experts and let us help you safeguard your valuable data in cloud-native environments.
