Overview
The NetApp Cyber Resilience Suite delivers comprehensive recovery assurance against any disruption—whether caused by human error, infrastructure failure, or cyberattack. Built on three complementary pillars—Backup & Recovery, Ransomware Resilience, and Disaster Recovery—the suite empowers enterprises to safeguard their most critical data with confidence.
In this blog, we spotlight NetApp Backup & Recovery, the next evolution in NetApp’s data protection journey. Expanding beyond SnapCenter, it supports a broader range of workloads and modern deployment models. Designed for unified, scalable, and future‑ready protection, it secures mission‑critical environments including NAS volumes, Kubernetes, OpenShift, VMware, Hyper‑V, KVM, Microsoft SQL Server, and Oracle databases.
With active innovation, simplified workflows, built‑in 3‑2‑1 backup compliance, and enhanced cyber resilience, NetApp Backup & Recovery helps enterprises move beyond the limitations of legacy frameworks. It enables organizations to embrace a next‑generation data protection strategy with confidence.
Let’s explore the latest features that were released this month for VMware protection.
- Seamless Integration with the New ASA Platform
The introduction of support for NetApp’s All SAN Array (ASA) platform marks a significant milestone in VMware data protection. ASA is celebrated for its high-performance capabilities, making it the go-to choice for enterprises managing demanding SAN workloads. With NetApp’s Backup and Recovery suite now fully compatible with ASA, organizations can:
- Effortlessly back up VMware datastores and virtual machines (VMs) across the ASA platform.
- Restore entire VMs or individual virtual disks with precision.
- Recover specific files or folders, saving time and storage space by avoiding full VM restores.
This integration ensures that enterprises leveraging ASA can enjoy unparalleled efficiency and flexibility in protecting their VMware environments.
- Automating Protection with Tag-Based Policies
Managing thousands of VMs across an enterprise can quickly become overwhelming, especially when it comes to ensuring consistent protection. NetApp’s tag-based protection simplifies this challenge by introducing automation into data protection strategies. Administrators can now create policies that automatically apply protection rules based on predefined VM tags.
Why this matters:
- Scale: Protect hundreds of VMs and datastores with a single tag selection instead of managing individual resources.
- Dynamic coverage: Newly tagged VMs/datastores are automatically discovered and included in future backups without editing protection groups.
- Reduced operational error: Eliminates manual per-VM/per-datastore selection, lowering the chance of missed or incorrectly protected resources.
- Familiar model: Reuses existing vSphere tag taxonomy that admins already maintain and understand.
- Centralized visibility: A dedicated Tags inventory tab surfaces protection status, associated policies, and protection groups per tag.
Tag-based protection is a game-changer for enterprises looking to reduce complexity and improve operational agility.
- Granular File/ Folder Recovery for Linux & Windows Systems
Granular file and folder recovery in VMware allows you to restore individual files, directories, or folders (depending on the OS) directly from VM / datastore backups without recovering the entire virtual machine.
Key Benefits:
- Quick & efficient Data Retrieval: Restore specific files or folders without a full VM recovery, significantly saving storage space by leveraging FlexClone technology for live mount.
- Minimized Downtime: Retrieve critical data in minutes, ensuring business continuity.
- Flexibility with Restore to Alternate location/ Storage
Disaster recovery is all about flexibility, and NetApp backup and recovery’s new restore-to-alternate-storage feature delivers just that. This capability allows organizations to restore VMs to different vCenter, ESX Host, and storage systems, providing greater control and adaptability during recovery scenarios.
Key Advantages:
- Disaster Recovery Preparedness: Restore backups to alternate storage systems in case of primary and secondary storage failure or data center disruptions.
- Testing and Validation: Use alternate location for testing purposes without impacting production environments.
This feature empowers organizations to build resilient disaster recovery strategies that can adapt to unexpected challenges.
- Support for Amazon Elastic VMware service
Customers running VMware workloads on Amazon EVS backed by FSxN datastores can now protect both their VMs and datastores with NetApp Backup & Recovery. This ensures enterprise‑grade backup, recovery, and cyber resilience for hybrid cloud VMware environments.
Key Benefits
- Unified Protection: Backup both VMs and datastores presented via FSxN.
- Cloud‑Native Integration: Seamless with AWS EVS and FSxN, leveraging NetApp’s native snapshot and SnapMirror technologies.
- Granular Recovery: Restore entire VMs or drill down to files/folders inside VM backups.
- Cyber Resilience: Immutable snapshots and 3‑2‑1 backup strategy protect against ransomware.
- Operational Simplicity: Same workflows as on‑premises VMware, extended to AWS EVS.
Conclusion: Elevate Your VMware Protection Strategy
Data is the backbone of business success, and protecting VMware environments is no longer optional. Yet as enterprises expand their virtualized workloads, VMware licensing costs continue to climb. Every additional core, socket, or VM protected without optimization drives up expenses. NetApp Backup & Recovery helps organizations break this cycle by reducing total cost of ownership. With built‑in technologies — Snapshot, SnapMirror, FlexClone, and SnapDiff — combined with granular VM recovery and seamless hybrid cloud integration, customers eliminate VM sprawl, cut storage overhead, and avoid costly licensing tiers. The outcome: faster recovery, lower infrastructure spend, and a smarter, more efficient way to safeguard VMware workloads without inflating licensing costs.
Next Steps
For tailored solutions that fit your business needs, connect with your NetApp representative. You can also explore on your own with a 30‑day free trial — offering unlimited capacity and full capabilities — by visiting the NetApp console URL at console.netapp.com and navigating to Protection → Backup and Recovery.
For any assistance, reach us at ng-backupservice-feedback@netapp.com.
In addition, we are running an exclusive campaign for existing SnapCenter customers, offering comprehensive transition support and special discounts when moving to NetApp Backup & Recovery. Register here to avail this benefit NetApp Cyber Resilience & Data Protection Program - Register your interest now!! – Fill out the form
