Veritas Intros CloudPoint 2.0 With Close Integrations With Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform

Veritas Technologies is expanding its multi-cloud data management capabilities with new versions of its CloudPoint snapshot-based technology that provide increased integration with Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform.

CloudPoint 2.0 for Azure improves the integration of the software with Azure's snapshot technology to add new cataloging capabilities to find and restore data down to a single file, improve data protection with multi-region capabilities and policy-based snapshots, and make search and restoring of data more available for used in compliance-focused environments, said Alex Sakaguchi, senior director for cloud solutions marketing at the Mountain View, Calif.-based company.

CloudPoint 2.0 for Google Cloud Platform now works natively with GCP to add critical enterprise data protection capabilities like granular search and recovery, agentless protection, and expanded workload support, all while improving disaster recovery and the ability to use GCP for compliance, Sakaguchi told CRN.

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CloudPoint is Veritas' next-generation data protection technology for cloud-native web applications, and is targeted at born-in-the-cloud workloads, and not at on-premises applications, Sakaguchi said.

Enterprises are running a mix of on-premises and cloud-based workloads, and cloud providers like AWS, Azure, and Google provide integrated data protection, he said. "But most enterprises are running multiple clouds, and each one has its own replication and snapshot technologies," he said. "You need different tools for each cloud. Add to that separate tools for the data center."

CloudPoint is a multi-cloud offering that provides automated policies, recovery of workloads, and the ability to identify important information like personally identifiable information, Sakaguchi said. It provides an intuitive, modern interface that lets an administrator address data protection across data centers and clouds, he said.

While CloudPoint and Veritas' NetBackup work together, they are still different tools for now, Sakaguchi said.

"We have integration of NetBackup and CloudPoint coming," he said. "But the buyers are different for cloud environments and on-premises environments. There's still typically no single role for all things data protection. But for single backup administrators across the entirety of data centers and clouds, we absolutely have an integration path."

That integration, Sakaguchi said, is probably coming with the next month.

It will be a welcome integration, said Shahin Pirooz, chief technology officer at DataEndure, a San Jose, Calif.-based solution provider and long-time Veritas channel partner.

For the next decade or more, enterprises will be living in a hybrid world, and Veritas has responded by supporting both data center and cloud data protection with the ability to use NetBackup appliances in the cloud, leverage the cloud as a backup target, and take advantage of cloud gateways, Pirooz told CRN.

"Integrating NetBackup and CloudPoint and making them look like one product is the way to go," he said. "It's clear today that you are using two products. But the new CloudPoint 2.0 is a step in the right direction.

"Some people back up data to AWS and want CloudPoint, while data center administrators may back up data with NetBackup," he said. "And born-in-the-cloud companies don't need NetBackup because they have no on-premises infrastructure. Startups leverage the cloud first, while older companies have on-premises infrastructure. So it's not as simple as saying, 'Let's move this server to the cloud.'"

While cloud providers already have integrated data protection capabilities, most users don't realize that those capabilities are limited, which is why it is important to have offerings like CloudPoint 2.0, Pirooz said.

"Companies that look at Microsoft Office 365 don't realize that Microsoft does not provide real data protection," he said. "Microsoft allows users to recover files up to 30 days old. But people don't realize that after 30 days, there's no way to recover data. But that's an important requirement for data retention, especially in regulated environments."

CloudPoint 2.0 for now offers integration with Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform environments, but not yet for AWS, Sakaguchi said. "But integration with AWS and other clouds is coming," he said. "We're working on AWS certifications. AWS has different processes. But we support CloudPoint for use on AWS."

A multi-cloud data protection technology like CloudPoint 2.0 is important because customers do not use only one cloud, Sakaguchi said.

"With other vendors, you might need separate instances for each cloud which increases operating expenses related to different compute, memory, and storage environments," he said. "That can destroy the cloud economics. CloudPoint gives customers all the benefits of multi-cloud data protection without separate instances."

CloudPoint for now is a bring-your-own offering available via Veritas' channel partners and from the company's direct sales teams, Sakaguchi said. The company is also looking at how to do transactions for CloudPoint via the cloud service providers' marketplaces, but Sakaguchi said details as to how that would work for channel partners have not yet been decided.

About 85 percent of Veritas' North American sales go through indirect channels, he said.