DataGravity Brings Behavior-Driven Data Management to Veeam Environments

Intent and behavior are becoming two very important indicators for cyber-security solutions. However, those are probably the most difficult indicators to effectively judge and issues such as false-positives and miscues litter effective analysis. DataGravity is looking to put an end to those miscues and bring forth a platform that automatically responds to data exposure and security threats in a Veeam backup repository. DataGravity for Availability helps manage sensitive data to defend against insider threats while providing higher levels of visibility and availability.

DataGravity is looking to tackle the problems caused by sensitive data exposure by bringing a higher level of understanding by exposing what is in the data and who is accessing it. Those insights prove critical to meeting compliance requirements, company policies, and industry standards. DataGravity for Availability accomplishes that level of insight by monitoring user and file behavior and brings added protection to enterprises by identifying and stopping attacks against data such as ransomware. Halting an attack is just the first step for protection data, mitigating the impact of the attack requires rapid recovery with little to no data loss. DataGravity complements the restore capabilities native to Veeam to provide forensics-level recovery based on a full audit trail of all the changes that occurred within and across backups and by whom.

Whether you run DataGravity for Virtualization in production or DataGravity for Availability with Veeam, the two solutions work together seamlessly for complete protection of virtual machines. DataGravity for Availability includes:

• An orchestration framework: Customers can define a set of actions that are activated when specific content or anomalous user behavior is detected.


• Forensic-level recovery: IT and security teams get a full trace of user and file changes to guide fine-grain restores. These are triggered in real-time once an incident, such as an insider threat or ransomware, is recognized and halted.


• Seamless Veeam integration: Solution is specifically designed to visualize, secure and protect data in Veeam virtual environments.

“Since our university has people researching, studying and working 24/7 all over the world, we need faster access and visibility into the people, content, and activities related to our data,” said Sean Johnson, IT manager at the University of Florida. “As a higher education facility, we have an obligation to ensure we meet the restricted data policies regarding student records, health records, Social Security numbers and financial accounts while still maintaining the availability needs of our students, faculty, and staff. DataGravity is partnering with Veeam to deliver just that, and empower our IT team to automatically protect our data assets when any unusual user behavior happens, so we can quickly get back to assisting our educators.”

“As the first behavior-driven data management platform that responds to threats when they happen, we are working with DataGravity to provide IT leaders, security teams and Veeam users alike with industry-leading visibility into their data,” said Ratmir Timashev, co-founder at Veeam. “Together, Veeam and DataGravity are driving a new paradigm in Availability by responding to suspicious behaviors in the IT environment automatically and providing all the information companies of all sizes need to make fine-grain recoveries.”

Paula Long, co-founder and CEO of DataGravity, said, “Today’s data management solutions can’t respond to threats in real time, and they’re not aware of what they are protecting. DataGravity for Availability with Veeam represents a leap forward that helps IT and security respond to data issues when they happen. Our partnership supports our joint mission to give customers much-needed data visibility and the forensics to respond to incidents quickly to make smarter business decisions.”

DataGravity for Availability joins DataGravity for Virtualization in the DataGravity data management suite. For more information or a free trial, please visit http://www.datagravity.com/veeam.

ITW 2017 – INOC Makes the Argument for the Outsourced NOC

Chicago, ITW 2017: Many a C-level executive wonders if the Network Operations Center is an asset or a liability. Truth be told, it falls under both descriptions. A NOC is an asset when all goes well and it is a liability when things go awry. While that statement may make many a CFO cringe, there is some merit to that oversimplified explanation.

Hal Baylor, director of business development at INOC, adds a little color to the asset vs. liability conversation when speaking with GigaOM at ITW 2017. Baylor said “NOCs have to both be cost effective and satisfy user needs, all without the drama that problems can introduce.”

Therein lies the real dilemma, a NOC should just work and not CREATE any operational issues for a business. Baylor has observed that businesses large and small are encountering more and more problems when running their own NOCs. Something that can be attributed a comedy of issues, ranging from rapidly changing technologies to a lack of qualified personnel, to increasing demands created by digital transformation and cloud adoption projects.

Naturally, INOC has a vested interest in NOC challenges, the company is in the business of NOC support. Baylor added, “we usually get involved when a business is experiencing customer satisfaction issues due to problems with a NOC, or if a business is just looking for cost effectiveness.”

More simply put, INOC comes into an organization, analyzes the NOC, and comes up with ways to augment the operations. While that may be a very broad explanation, it does indicate that flexibility is part of the equation here.

For the most part, INOC focuses on providing a service that makes sure the operation works well and is efficient, while also planning for growth. The company institutes measurements for effectiveness and customizes support for a client, with the ideology of making CFOs happy with the costs, removing pain points for the COO, and reducing the operational burdens for both the CIO and CTO.

Baylor added “We bring a great deal of value to the table in both expertise and efficiency.” That said, INOC also brings hard earned knowledge to the table. “One of our core capabilities is how we are able to work with vendors, such as connectivity providers, hardware and software suppliers, and many others have an impact on the NOC.”

Problem resolution and support escalation are probably the biggest challenges facing those operating a NOC. Without the appropriate knowledge, problems often escalate into finger-pointing contests without an immediate solution. Baylor said, “we have already dealt with all the major vendors and suppliers, so we are more tuned to what works and what doesn’t when solving a problem.”

All things considered, Baylor makes a good argument for outsourcing a NOC, however, those making the decision should pursue due diligence and at least measure the effectiveness of their NOC operation. Luckily, INOC can help with that as well.