Veeam Adds Veeam Backup For Google Cloud Platform

Veeam, a pioneer in protecting data in on-premises and cloud environments, Wednesday introduced a new addition to its offerings focused on backing up data natively to the Google Cloud Platform.

The new offering, Veeam Backup for Google Cloud Platform, follows earlier versions aimed at protecting data using Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure clouds, giving the company its third purpose-built offering for public clouds, said Danny Allan, chief technology officer of the Columbus, Ohio-based vendor.

Veeam Backup for Google Cloud Platform, like its AWS and Azure versions, takes advantage of all of the services of the specific public cloud, Allan told CRN.

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“It takes advantage of all the Google capabilities,” he said. “It does all the cost forecasting. It takes advantage of Google security controls. And it’s built for hybrid environments. Veeam recognizes that customers still have on-premises data.”

A key capability of all three versions of Veeam Backup is intelligent cost forecasting, Allan said.

“It doesn’t just forecast storage cost,” he said. “It provisions data movers as part of the process and forecasts the cost of all the compute and networking required as well. ... The more often data is backed up, the more it will cost. We show how the implementation impacts costs before it’s turned on.”

Veeam’s technology last year sent over 150 petabytes of data to AWS and Azure public clouds, Allan said. Veeam expects that to accelerate with the release of Veeam Availability Suite version 11, slated later this month, which will support native backups of data on the Google cloud, in addition to other major public clouds, he said.

“In a study we did, 72 percent of organizations support multiple clouds,” he said. “Customers have some things in AWS, some in Azure and some in Google. We let them support data wherever it’s needed. And with Veeam’s Kasten acquisition [in October], we support Kubernetes data, including data in GKE [Google Kubernetes Engine], AKS [Azure Kubernetes Service] and EKS [Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service].”

Having a Google Cloud Platform option is important for customers, said Paul O’Dell, managing partner at CPP Associates, a Clinton, N.J.-based solution provider and Veeam channel partner.

“The world is clearly hybrid,” O’Dell told CRN. “Customers want choices, and Google is a force for Infrastructure as a Service. But even more important, Google is becoming the go-to platform for AI, containers and analytics. Now look at Google’s lead in those areas in conjunction with Veeam’s acquisition of Kasten, and it makes a lot of sense. I can only think that Veeam is looking four moves down the road on containers. It’s a great move.”

CPP’s customers still do not typically count Google Cloud Platform in their top two cloud partners, but the use of Google is growing, O’Dell said.

“Last year we started an AI and analytics practice, and the Google conversations have grown,” he said. “Data scientists are big on the Google community.”