Computer Security and Compliance Consulting

ProSight Data Protection Services (DPS) - Hornetsecurity Altaro VM Backup
Hyper-V and VMware Virtual Server Backup
ProSight DPS Hornetsecurity Altaro VM Backup is a managed subscription service designed to provide small and mid-size businesses a robust and low-cost option for backing up and recovering Hyper-V and VMware-powered VMs. Altaro VM Backup can be deployed on-premises, offsite, multi-location, and hybrid cloud network models and also supports budget-friendly backup to a Microsoft Azure Blob storage account.

Key features of ProSight DPS Hornetsecurity Altaro VM Backup are advanced Augmented Inline Deduplication to cut storage requirements, Continuous Data Protection with backup spacing as low as five minutes for reducing your window for data loss, military-grade data encryption, flexible restore alternatives for entire virtual machines or for individual files, full integration with Windows Server Cluster Shared Volumes (CSV) and VMware vCenter and vSphere, and support for Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service technology to back up live VMs without downtime.

Progent is a certified Hornetsecurity Altaro partner and can provide a broad range of services to assist you to plan, implement, test and debug a backup/restore solution based on Altaro's VM Backup platform. Progent also has developed ProSight Data Protection Services Altaro VM Backup as a managed service to deliver remote management of your data protection solution. Progent's Windows Hyper-V experts and VMware specialists can help your organization to design and maintain VM environments that use on-premises or remote virtual machines or that use a hybrid network that combines on-prem and cloud resources. Also, Progent offers disaster recovery preparedness consulting to assist you to rebound from catastrophes such as ransomware assaults and widespread disasters.

Key Capabilities of Altaro VM Backup
Altaro VM Backup is built to fulfill the backup/recover needs of typical small and medium-size organizations and provides simplicity of operation as well as a rich set of features usually found only in enterprise-class products. Altaro VM Backup backs up widely used releases of Microsoft Hyper-V and VMware and supports most backup hardware:

Altaro VM Backup comes with powerful features in vital areas of backup includung backup replication, prompt recovery, and centralized management.

Backup and Replication
Altaro VM Backup offers rapid, efficient, and safe backup for data protection plus offsite data replication for reliable recovery. Top backup and replication capabilities include:

• Ransomware Protection via Immutable Cloud Storage: Immutability for cloud object storage allows tamper-proof data for a set duration so that backup data cannot be erased or modified by anyone including administrators. Immutable storage provides an extra level of security and recoverability in case of a successful ransomware attack.
• Augmented In-Line Deduplication: In-line deduplication saves only changed data to backup storage devices, conserving bandwidth, cutting storage requirements, and enhancing throughput. Altaro's deduplication works with data on single virtual machines and on multiple VMs.
• Continuous Data Protection (CDP): Rather than performing daily backups, you can schedule backup intervals to as brief as five minutes to lower your RPO.
• Concurrent Backups: You can back up many VMs simultaneously, which makes it possible to conduct backup operations during briefer low-activity time windows while more network bandwidth is available and workload performance is less critical.
• Live Backup: Integration with Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) permits you to back up virtual machines without going offline.
• Cluster Shared Volumes and VMware vCenter: The ability to back up VMs running in a Windows Hyper-V Failover Cluster (with or without CSV) or in a vCenter system supports larger implementations.
• Remote Replication: To facilitate disaster recovery, you can set up Altaro's Offsite Server utility on an external server for storing a copy of your backups at a different location.
• Flexible Scheduling and Retention Policies: You can set different backup schedules and retention policies for individual VMs.
  
  Backup scheduling and retention options for Altaro VM Backup are easy to set up, review and edit

• Workload Specific Protection: Altaro can use Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service and any VSS Writers running inside the protected VM when making a backup. Applications including Microsoft Exchange and Microsoft SQL will be aware the backup has happened and automatically proceed with the appropriate maintenance jobs such as truncating transaction logs.
• Military-Grade Encryption: Prior to copying data to a backup destination, you have the option of encrypting it using the 256-Bit AES standard.
• Virtual Disk Exclusion: You have the ability to specify which Virtual Disks to include or ignore in your VM backups.
• Grandfather-Father-Son Archiving (GFS): Besides your continuous and daily backups, you can set up a special backup schedule to make and archive a backup copy every week, month and year.
• Cloud Backup to Microsoft Azure: Altaro VM Backup supports backup to an Azure Block Blob storage account, which is the lowest priced storage alternative available on the Microsoft Azure cloud.
  
  Altaro Virtual Machine Backup enables you to back up virtual machines hosted on-site, remotely or in the cloud

• Cloud Backup to Amazon S3 and Wasabi: Altaro VM Backup allows seamless backup to Amazon S3 and Wasabi. No additional resources operating in the cloud are necessary to provide storage for backup.
• Back up to multiple offsite locations: For improved robustness, you can create copies of VMs on multiple off-premises locations including multiple public clouds such as Microsoft Azure and Amazon S3.

• Recover as Clone: You can restore a virtual machine backup to a new destination with a new name, allowing the cloned virtual machine to operate beside the original virtual machine. This eliminates the necessity to write over active VMs.
• Recover to Different Host: You can recover a virtual machine backup to a new or different Hypervisor. The virtual machine can be recovered from the local backup location, or directly from the remote copy location. (You cannot cross-recover between Windows Hyper-V and VMware Hypervisors.)
• Boot from Backup: You can instantly boot any VM copy from the backup device either for verification or to create a significant improvement in RTO during a disaster recovery scenario.
• File-Level Recovery: You can quickly recover individual files and folders from any VM copy.
• WAN-Optimized Replication: You can make continuous backups of your virtual machines to a remote location and switch instantly to the backup site in case a disaster takes out your primary virtual machines. This can significantly reduce your RTO and get your organization back online quickly.
• Exchange Item-Level Restore: You can recover specific emails and attachments from within the Exchange Mailbox.
  
  Altaro VM Backup permits you to recover specific emails from an Exchange Mailbox database

• Recover Various Versions: You can recover from different periods rather than being restricted to the latest copy.
• Sandbox Restores and Testing: You can schedule or run by hand tests to confirm the integrity of your backup data. You can validate backup folders without connecting the virtual machine to your Windows Hyper-V or VMware host, or you can run a full test recovery to a replicant and ensure that the restored virtual machine can boot.
• Backup Health Monitor: Backup copy accuracy can be monitored proactively and repaired automatically as a component of the subsequent backup process.

Download ProSight Altaro VM Backup Services Datasheet
To see a datasheet describing the key capabilities of ProSight Altaro VM Backup Services, click:
Progent's ProSight Altaro VM Backup Services Datasheet. (PDF - 310 KB)

How Progent Can Help You to Get the Most from Altaro VM Backup
Progent's Microsoft-certified Windows Server Server Hyper-V planning and deployment experts and VMware-certified vCenter consultants can assist you to design, deploy and manage a backup/recover solution based on Altaro VM Backup. Progent's Exchange experts can assist you to utilize Altaro VM Backup to safeguard your Exchange system, and Progent's Microsoft Azure hybrid cloud consulting experts can help you to use your Azure Block Blob storage service with Altaro to back up your virtual machines.

Progent's disaster recovery preparedness consultants can help you to use Altaro VM Backup's replication features and remote backup options to protect your mission-critical data and enable you to resume your vital services rapidly in the event of a calamity.

Periodic validation, testing, and enhancement of data recovery are crucial and often underappreciated components for proper disaster readiness. In the event of a disaster such as a ransomware attack, these restoration drills can make the difference between a temporary period of downtime and a life-or-death threat to a business. Progent's Altaro VM Backup experts can help you to create a workflow for regularly verifying, testing, and improving your restore procedures in order that you can keep your backup solution current and contain the damage of a disastrous event.

Progent's GIAC information assurance experts can gauge the security posture of your data protection solution and can assist your company to deploy advanced technology and follow industry leading practices for operating safely in the modern threat environment.