The threat of ransomware looms larger than ever before, with AI and “Ransomware Attacks as a Service” making exploits easier than ever for expert and novice attackers alike! For storage professionals, safeguarding enterprise data and production workloads in the cloud is not just a job—it's a mission-critical endeavor fraught with complexity and challenges. Visibility into data stored off-premises can be murky, and the task of reporting and auditing the protection posture of your cloud-based workloads can turn into a herculean effort. But there's good news on the horizon: NetApp's BlueXP ransomware protection has extended its capabilities to Cloud Volumes ONTAP (CVO) in Azure, and now also supports backups to Azure Blob storage. This release also includes the ability to add tamperproof snapshots on primary storage to your protection policies.
As attacks get easier for those with malicious intent, defending workloads against them to minimize data loss and bounce back quickly is now easier for you thanks to BlueXP ransomware protection.
Enhanced Cloud Workload Protection
With this enhancement, enterprises with workloads in Azure can now fortify their cloud (and hybrid cloud) data against the persistent threat of ransomware. Through its single control plane, BlueXP ransomware protection intelligently orchestrates a comprehensive, workload-centric ransomware defense. It brings together the powerful cyber resilience features of ONTAP with BlueXP data services, while delivering:
- Complete visibility of workload protection posture and risks
- Intelligent recommendations to improve ransomware protection posture
- One-click workload protection
- Alerts, investigation, forensics and reporting, with SIEM integration
- Guided, fast, application-consistent and crash-consistent workload recovery
This strategic move by NetApp is vital for organizations that have been wrestling with the complexities of cloud data security. The ability to back up data by workload to Azure Blob further enhances the flexibility of an organization's data protection strategy.
Visibility and Control at Your Fingertips
One of the most significant hurdles storage teams face is the lack of clear visibility into their workloads’ security postures, especially when workload data is stored outside their data centers. BlueXP ransomware protection addresses this challenge head-on by providing a dashboard that offers a comprehensive view of each workload's protection status. The dashboard is not just informative; it’s actionable. It shows information like what’s protected and what’s not, what and how many Snapshot copies you have, and what recovery points are available. It highlights potential security gaps and offers recommendations to bolster your defense against ransomware attacks, ensuring that you're never left guessing about your vulnerabilities or if you’ll be able to meet your SLAs.
A Comprehensive Approach to Ransomware Defense
BlueXP offers a holistic approach to ransomware defense that is designed to minimize data loss and ensure rapid workload recovery in the event of an attack. By employing AI-powered anomaly detection and immediate, automated responses to secure a safe recovery point, it actively reduces the blast radius should an attack occur. Post-attack, fast, easy, and complete restoration of affected workloads is possible, allowing businesses to bounce back quickly with ease without succumbing to ransom demands.
Simplified Operations for Storage Teams
What stands out about BlueXP ransomware protection is the simplicity it brings to operations. The single control plane allows for the coordination and execution of a comprehensive, workload-centric ransomware defense strategy, covering all functions of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) cybersecurity framework 2.0. This ease of management means that storage professionals can implement and oversee robust protection policies at the workload-level with just a few clicks (rather than having to do this volume-by-volume) and execute frictionless workload recovery when every second matters.
The expansion of BlueXP ransomware protection to support workloads on CVO in Azure and enable backups to Azure Blob is a significant step forward in cloud data security. It provides the visibility, control, and comprehensive defense mechanisms that storage professionals need to protect their enterprise workloads against ransomware threats effectively.
For storage professionals seeking to secure their workloads in the cloud and/or hybrid cloud, BlueXP ransomware protection's latest capabilities are a beacon of hope in the fight against ransomware.
To learn more about the BlueXP ransomware protection capabilities:
- Start a 90-day free trial
- Take a 3-minute product tour
- Read the product docs
No ransomware detection or prevention system can completely guarantee safety from a ransomware attack. Although it’s possible that an attack might go undetected, NetApp technology acts as an important additional layer of defense.
