Helix Cyber Resiliency Service
CSI can enhance DR plans by protecting critical servers through virtual machine replication in addition to providing core backups. Unlike backup files, replicas are stored in native format.
The Helix Cyber Resiliency Service uses the replication functionality within Veeam software to replicate snapshots of VMs from a primary cluster to replica VM instances in the IBM Cloud.
Once created these snapshots are stored as read-only immutable copies, enhancing the level of protection against the threat of ransomware and data corruption.
VM Replication vs Data Backup: There is a Critical Difference
Virtual machine replication and data backup may appear to be interchangeable, but they have different goals and both approaches should be considered when designing a data recovery plan.
- Data Backup – Backups are used to create copies of data for compliance and long-term record keeping. To reduce the amount of data storage required, backup software often leverages compression and deduplication. Data reduction lowers the cost of storage used but must be reversed before files can be restored. In the event of multiple VM failures or the loss of an entire site, recovery from backups is slow and often not practical.
- Virtual Machine Replication – Replication creates copies of a VM in native format. VM replicas are fully functional, so when a disaster strikes, restoring service is simply a matter of switching to the VM replicas. Recovery Time Objectives can be as low as a few minutes.