Modern computing environments are complex entities. Many companies operate with a multi-cloud or hybrid infrastructure. Environments can encompass multiple cloud instances and on-premises data centers in close proximity or spread around the world. It can become extremely challenging to manage and protect these diverse components effectively.
It’s difficult to maintain the visibility, security, backup, and control of data across cloud environments required to keep it protected from cybercrime, natural disasters, or human error. The tools offered by cloud service providers (CSPs) do not provide the necessary functionality to protect the data and applications spread out across a complex, multi-faceted computing environment.
Business and regulatory concerns make data security and management a top priority for all organizations. CSPs necessarily focus on their proprietary infrastructures while an organization requires leveraging tools that address all of its cloud, on-premises, and edge systems and data. Third-party solutions are often employed to address the gaps between a company’s ability to manage and secure its valuable data and the available capabilities of its CSPs.
What is Veritas Alta?
Veritas is a respected name in data protection, management, backup, and recovery with over 30 years of experience in the industry. They have identified the need for comprehensive data management and protection across all parts of an organization’s complex computing environment and have developed an effective solution.
Veritas Alta is the company’s new unified cloud data management and protection platform. Alta consolidates Veritas’ portfolio of cloud offerings to provide the broadest array of enterprise-class data services in the industry. The platform melds the technologies and functionality from Veritas products like:
- Enterprise Vault and Merge1 which are used to collect and archive high-risk data from across the environment;
- Advanced eDiscovery that locates, classifies, analyzes, and reviews your data;
- Veritas Advanced Supervision compliance framework;
- NetBackup 10 and Cloud Scale for data protection.
Alta offers flexible deployment options that include on-premises, IaaS, hybrid, virtual, and SaaS. Veritas is also introducing Veritas Alta View, a cloud-based management console that provides a unified view and control of the data environment from a single pane of glass. Alta and Alta View are slated for release in late 2022 to beta testers with general availability scheduled for early 2023.
Veritas Alta Features and Functionality
The responsibility for protecting cloud resources is shared between customers and CSPs. The CSP is expected to protect the cloud infrastructure and ensure its resiliency and compliance with regulatory standards. Customers are responsible for the security, resiliency, and compliance of the data they store in the cloud. Based on the cloud delivery model, customers may also be responsible for securing and managing the applications they use in the cloud.
Alta is built with multi-layered security and a zero-trust approach that provides visibility into your environment and reduces its attack surface. Security features include:
- System hardening for enhanced protection from cyberattacks;
- AI-powered anomaly detection to identify suspicious activity;
- Malware scanning to identify and eliminate dangerous software;
- Immutability to prevent malicious actors from modifying backups;
- Automated and intelligent recovery to get systems back online quickly;
- Non-disruptive recovery rehearsal to verify enterprise recovery procedures.
Veritas Alta focuses on three key aspects of protecting enterprise data and applications.
Data protection and ransomware resiliency
The dangers of ransomware are well-documented. Reported attacks nearly doubled between 2020 and 2021 with some high-visibility incidents affecting important industries and societal infrastructure components. Organizations need to take the appropriate precautions to guard against a successful ransomware attack before it occurs. Additionally, data protected from ransomware should be able to withstand damage attempted by other types of destructive malware.
Veritas Alta is powered by the company’s cloud-native Cloud Scale Technology and offers customers multiple deployment models which include on-premises and as-a-Service. The solution employs automation, artificial intelligence, and an elastic architecture to deliver optimal and cost-efficient cloud data protection. In conjunction with Alta View, customers have a unified interface from which to protect and control data across on-premises or cloud environments.
Application resiliency
Application reliability and resiliency are critically important to modern businesses. Veritas Alta delivers enterprise-class availability of up to .99999% uptime to cloud applications. Additional features that aid resiliency include promoting application portability across clouds, providing enhanced performance, and optimizing storage consumption.
Regulatory compliance
Complying with regulatory data privacy and security standards has become increasingly important in the age of ecommerce. Virtually all businesses store and process some type of regulated data that needs to be protected by following specific guidelines. Veritas Alta offers compliance-as-a-Service that performs functions such as automated content-based data classification to identify sensitive data resources so they can be appropriately protected.
Benefits of Veritas Alta View
Veritas Alta View is a cloud-based management console. It employs a single plane of glass interface to reduce the complexity of using multiple tools to manage and achieve visibility into all components of a cloud and on-premises environment.
Alta View makes use of the Veritas analytics engine to deliver actionable insights, comprehensive reporting, and full visibility into data resources. The tool uses AI and machine learning to perform data management activities autonomously, enabling IT team members to devote their time to more value-added pursuits. The Veritas analytics engine can help companies reduce management costs and cloud resource usage.
Optimizing Your Veritas Implementation
VAST IT Services is a Veritas Partner with extensive experience in deploying, supporting, and providing managed services for the full suite of the company’s appliances and software solutions. They can help your company make the right choices when developing an implementation path that aligns with its goals. VAST’s experts will help determine the most efficient consumption model for Veritas Alta based on your unique computing environment.
Combining Veritas Alta’s innovative approach to cloud data management and protection with VAST’s technical expertise is a winning combination that will enable your company to securely manage and protect its valuable data. Get in touch with VAST today and see how they can help you make sure your data and applications are well-protected.
