Disaster Recovery With a Single Command

According to the latest State of Ransomware report from security firm Sophos, most organizations (73%) use backups to recover from a ransomware attack. In fact, only 4% of victims who paid ransoms actually got all of their data back, so companies are likely using backups to recover after attacks whether they pay ransoms or not.

Still, Sophos found that it took ransomware victims a month on average to recover from an attack. The lesson here: Backups are vital as part of a disaster recovery plan, but the actual “recovery”—how you get your business back online using that backup data—is just as important. Few businesses can survive the hit of weeks or months spent offline.

If you use Veeam to manage backups, recovering from ransomware is a whole lot easier. Using Backblaze Instant Recovery in Any Cloud, you can consider your disaster recovery playbook complete.

Enter: Backblaze Instant Recovery in Any Cloud

Backblaze Instant Recovery in Any Cloud is an infrastructure as code (IaC) package that makes ransomware recovery into a VMware/Hyper-V based cloud easy to plan for and execute.

Disaster recovery and business continuity planning typically elude otherwise savvy IT teams for one of two reasons:

1. The lift of recovery planning is put on the back burner by more immediate demands.
2. Disaster recovery solutions aren’t rightsized for your business.

With Instant Recovery in Any Cloud, businesses have an easy, flexible path to as-soon-as-possible disaster recovery, putting fast, affordable disaster recovery within reach for any IT team.

You can run a single command using an industry-standard automation tool to quickly bring up an orchestrated combination of on-demand servers, firewalls, networking, storage, and other infrastructure in phoenixNAP. The command draws data from Veeam® Backup & Replication™ backups immediately to your VMware/Hyper-V based environment, so businesses can get back online with minimal disruption or expense. Put simply, it’s an on-demand path to a rock solid disaster recovery plan that makes recovery planning accessible and appropriately provisioned for your business.

We’ll explain the why and how of this solution below.

“Most businesses know that backing up is critical for disaster recovery. But we see time and again that organizations under duress struggle with getting their systems back online, and that’s why Backblaze’s new solution can be a game changer.”
—Mark Potter, CISO, Backblaze

From 3-2-1 to Immutable Backups to Disaster Recovery

For many years, the 3-2-1 backup strategy was the gold standard for data protection, and its core principles remain true—keep multiple copies of data, maintain on-site copies for fast restores, and keep off-site copies for disaster recovery. However, bad actors have become much more sophisticated, targeting not just production data but backups as well.

The introduction of Object Lock functionality allowed businesses to protect their cloud backups from ransomware by making them immutable, meaning even the administrator who set the lock can’t modify, encrypt, or delete files. With immutable backups, you can access a working, uncorrupted copy of your data in case of an attack.

But implementing immutable backups is only the first step. The critical second step is using that data to get your business back up and running. The time to get back to business after an attack often depends on how quickly backup data can be brought online—more than any other factor. That’s what makes disaster recovery planning so important, even though it’s one of those tasks that often gets put off when you’re putting out the next fire.

“For more than 400,000 Veeam customers, flexibility around disaster recovery options is essential. They need to know not only that their backups are safe, but that they’re practically usable in their time of need. We’re very happy to see Backblaze offering instant restore for all backups to VMware and Hyper-V based cloud offerings to help our joint customers thrive during challenging times.”
—Andreas Neufert, Vice President of Product Management, Alliances, Veeam.

Disaster Recovery That Fits Your Needs

If you’ve done any research into disaster recovery planning services, you’ve probably noticed that most plans are built for enterprise customers with enterprise budgets. You typically pay for compute functionality on an ongoing basis so you can quickly spin up a server in case of an attack. Those compute servers essentially sit idle as an “insurance policy.” Instant Recovery in Any Cloud opens disaster recovery to a huge number of businesses that were left without affordable solutions.

Instead of paying for compute servers you’re not using, Backblaze Instant Recovery in Any Cloud allows you to provision compute power on demand in a VMware and Hyper-V based cloud. The capacity is always there from Backblaze and phoenixNAP, but you don’t pay for it until you need it.

You can also spin up a server in any compute environment you prefer, allowing you to implement a multi-cloud, vendor-agnostic disaster recovery approach rather than relying on just one platform or vendor. The solution is written to work with phoenixNAP, and can be customized for other compute providers without difficulty.

Finally, because the recovery is entirely cloud based, you can execute your recovery plan from anywhere you’re able to access your accounts. Even if your whole network is down, you can still get your recovery plan rolling.

For busy IT teams, this is essentially a cut and paste setup—an incredibly small amount of work to architect a recovery plan.

How It Works and What You Need

Instant Recovery in Any Cloud works through a pre-built code package your staff can use to create a digital mirror image of your on-premises infrastructure. The code package is built in Ansible, an open-source tool which enables IaC. Running an Ansible playbook allows you to provision and configure infrastructure and deploy applications as needed. All components are pre-configured within the script. In order to get started, you can find the appropriate instructions on our GitHub page.

If you haven’t already, you also need to set up Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage as part of a Scale-out Backup Repository with Immutability in Veeam using the Backblaze S3 Compatible API, and your data needs to be backed up securely before deploying the command.

Check out our step-by-step instructions for more detail and save the code below for future use.

Prepare for an Attack Before Disaster Strikes

If you follow the latest ransomware developments, you know disaster recovery is something your business needs now more than ever. With tools like Object Lock and Backblaze Instant Recovery in Any Cloud, it doesn’t have to be complicated and costly. Protect your backups with Object Lock immutability, and keep the Ansible playbook and instructions on hand as part of a bigger ransomware recovery plan so that you’re ready in the event of an attack. Simply spin up servers and restore backups in a safe environment to minimize disruption to your business.

Want to Learn More?

• Check out our solution brief here.
• Read the full Knowledge Base article here.
• Watch the webinar here.