NetApp Ransomware in Real-Time with Built-In AI on Enterprise Storage and Enhanced Cyber-Resiliency Solutions

NetApp, Inc. announced cyber-resiliency capabilities that will equip customers to better protect and recover their data in the face of ransomware threats.

The company is one of the 1st to integrate AI and ML directly into enterprise primary storage to fight ransomware in real-time. The firm’s cyber-resiliency capabilities protect both primary and secondary data for organizations whether it is stored on-premises or in the cloud.

Cybercriminals are increasingly aiming ransomware attacks at critical infrastructure and supply chains where operational disruptions can cost millions of dollars, according to Forrester. As a result, 87% of C-suite and board-level executives ranked ransomware as a high, or the top, priority for their organization, according to the NetApp 2023 Data Complexity report. When cybercriminals breach perimeters, networks, and identities storage becomes the last line of defense for organizations’ most critical data. With the threat of ransomware looming, organizations need solutions that not only protect their data but also recover lost data and return to normal operations. The company is updating its cyber-resiliency solutions and leveraging the power of AI to give customers confidence that their data will be safe and accessible when they need it.

“NetApp is taking an aggressive and proactive approach to protecting our customers’ data against cyber threats using artificial intelligence. We are the 1st storage vendor to explicitly and financially guarantee our data storage offerings against ransomware,” said Mignona Cote, CSO. “Today, we are furthering that leadership with updates that make defending data comprehensive, continuous, and simple for our customers.”

The company is focused on designing storage and management systems that maximize data protection and security while meeting data governance and compliance standards, with new updates that include:

• Ontap Autonomous Ransomware Protection with AI (ARP/AI) will spearhead the next-gen of real-time enterprise storage ransomware protection, giving increased accuracy and performance required to detect and mitigate new, more sophisticated cyber threats. The firm pioneered autonomous real-time detection of ransomware directly in primary enterprise storage three years ago. Now, the company will be leading the charge to use adaptive AI/ML models built directly into enterprise primary storage to look at file-level signals in real-time to detect even the newest ransomware attacks with planned 99%+ precision and recall. The company will be offering the 1st technology preview of ARP/AI within the next quarter.

• BlueXP ransomware protection, now in public preview, provides a single control plane to intelligently coordinate and execute an end-to-end, workload-centric ransomware defense. Customers can identify and protect critical workload data with a single click, accurately and automatically detect and respond to a potential attack, and recover workloads within minutes, safeguarding their valuable data and minimizing costly disruption.

• Application-aware Ransomware Protection via SnapCenter 5.0 offers immutable ransomware protection for applications. SnapCenter will now apply the firm’s ransomware protection technologies, previously used with unstructured data, to application-consistent backup. SnapCenter 5.0 includes support for key Ontap features like tamperproof Snapshot copy locking, SnapLock protected volumes, and SnapMirror Business Continuity to enable more robust data protection for applications and VMs. SnapCenter 5.0 supports protection of applications on-premises with the company’s AFF, ASA, and FAS, as well as in the cloud.

• BlueXP DR, generally available, offers integration with VMware infrastructure and provides storage options for both on-premises and major public cloud environments. This comprehensive solution eliminates the need for separate standby DR infrastructure, reducing costs. With BlueXP DR, failover and failback processes are simplified, allowing smooth transitions from on-premises VMware infrastructure to the public cloud or to an on-premises data center.

• NetApp keystone ransomware recovery guarantee extends the company’s current Ransomware Recovery Guarantee to the firm’s storage-as-a-service offering, NetApp Keystone. With this guarantee, the firm will warrant snapshot data recovery in the event of a ransomware attack. If snapshot data copies can’t be recovered through NetApp, the company will offer compensation ^(*).

“Today’s cybersecurity teams face the monumental task of protecting their companies’ data from ever-evolving threats, especially ransomware,” said Archana Venkatraman, research director, cloud data management, IDC. “NetApp’s approach of delivering a secure, unified storage infrastructure makes storage foundational for ransomware protection and reduces the burden on cybersecurity teams. Companies looking to fortify their cyber resiliency and shifting protection left will increasingly look to vendors that take a secure-by-design approach and develop unified storage and data services.”

“Using NetApp in our Advanced Technology Center, we significantly simplified our replication process for VMware virtual machines and their underlying datastores to meet or exceed recovery benchmarks,” said Derek Elbert, solutions architect, WWT. “With NetApp’s solutions, we successfully established the recovery policies for cloud volumes workloads or virtual machines with no existing DR strategy, managing everything through NetApp BlueXP. This transforms how we operate disaster recovery for VMware.”

“To store sensitive genomics and health data, we have to use the right technology with layers of security built in,” said Mark Cowley, deputy director, Children’s Cancer Institute. “With NetApp, we can be very confident that we are sharing the right data only to authorized researchers. The last line of defense is your weakest web-based system, so we’ve implemented role-based access and added resilience to all of our tools.”

The latest cyber resiliency updates from the company empower organizations to proactively address cybersecurity threats in complex hybrid and multicloud environments, leveraging AI to identify threats and prevent disruptions to their operations.

^(*) Specific terms and conditions will apply. Customers must apply for coverage by the guarantee.

Resources:
NetApp Cyber Resilience webpage
Blog : NetApp announces industry-leading enterprise storage with AI-powered ransomware detection
Blog : Industry-leading secure storage gets even better
Blog : Unveiling NetApp SnapCenter 5.0