Veeam Availability Suite 9.5 Update 3 (U3) Released

Veeam Software, Inc. announced the availability of  its Availability Suite (VAS) 9.5 Update 3 (U3), to extend data management and ensure Availability for all workloads-virtual, physical, and cloud-centrally managed via a single ‘pane of glass.’

With this release, enterprises can replace legacy backup offerings, which have hindered business transformation, and ensure Availability across their enterprise with a single, consistent platform. As the company unveils a data protection and availability solution, they prove yet again that they are the market leader.

“Veeam recognized a decade ago that a more innovative approach to backup and Availability was needed, and delivered what quickly became the N°1 VM Backup solution with unprecedented reliability and ease-of-use,” said Peter McKay, co-CEO and president, Veeam. “Since then, our customers have been clamoring for the same Veeam innovation for all their workloads so that they can ditch legacy backup solutions completely. It is our top customer request, and today we are delivering that making Veeam Availability Suite 9.5 Update 3 the biggest release in Veeam’s 10-year history. In one, unified Veeam solution, customers can manage their entire environment – virtual, physical, or cloud – and ensure number one Availability for any app, any data, any cloud.“

With more than 267,000 customers in ten years, and a Net Promoter Score (NPS) of 73 (over 2.5 times the industry average), the company’s solution has been wholly embraced.

“Our business has evolved exponentially over the past few years, and we have moved to a true multi-cloud environment which, until recently, was becoming a headache to manage. Veeam has made our life so much simpler as it provides a one-stop-shop for ensuring Always-On Availability, allowing us to get rid of inefficient legacy solutions. We don’t have to scramble trying to mix-and-match different offerings to protect workloads in different locations. With Veeam, we have total assurance under one umbrella solution,” said Mike Conjoice, technical lead, Bupa Dental UK, provider in UK’s dental market.

With this release the company is also including its Universal Storage API, a storage interface that will allow  to more rapidly support new storage integration going forward, leading to superior backup performance, lower risk of data loss, and more rapid recovery.

As a result, in VAS 9.5 Update 3 adds integration with IBM Spectrum Virtualize, extending company’s storage snapshot integration capabilities to IBM Storwize and any SAN Volume Controller-based storage arrays, as well as to the Lenovo Storage V Series. This expansion of the firm’s partnership with IBM Corp. is in addition to current partnerships with Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Cisco Technology, Inc. and NetApp, Inc.

“Availability is both a customer expectation and a business requirement for organizations of all sizes in today’s data-driven marketplace,” said Kamran Amini, executive director, server and storage, data center group, Lenovo Enterprise Solutions, Pte Ltd. “Veeam primary storage integration with Lenovo brings the market’s number one Availability solutions to Lenovo V Series hybrid and all-flash storage arrays. With V Series Integration and DS Series Solutions, together, we’ll deliver the new levels of data protection and recovery agility that our customers are demanding to meet their ever increasing uptime requirements.“

Capabilities in VAS 9.5 U3 include:

• Built-in management for Veeam Agent for Windows 2.1 and Agent for Linux v2: In VAS 9.5 U3, users get centralized agent deployment and management reducing complexity and improving usability through a single pane of glass for virtual, physical and cloud-based workloads. Agent for Windows 2.1 includes protection for mission-critical Windows Server failover clusters, while Agent for Linux v2 adds the ability to backup to a Veeam Cloud Connect repository, support for scale-out backup repositories as backup targets, and source-side encryption.

• Support for VMware Cloud on AWS: The company support for VMware Cloud on AWS enables enterprises to deploy Availability solutions across VMware-based public, private, and hybrid cloud environments.

• IBM Storage integration: VAS 9.5 Update 3 will also benefit from Veeam’s expansion of its IBM partnership to include Spectrum Virtualize integration, extending Veeam storage snapshot integration capabilities to Storwize and SAN Volume Controller-based storage arrays. The joint solution will enable users to save time, reduce labor costs, and achieve lower recovery time and point objectives.

• Lenovo Storage integration: The company deepens its Lenovo partnership with storage snapshot integration for the Storage V Series, yielding backup and restore performance. In addition, the Lenovo DS series was recently Veeam Ready certified as a repository for Veeam backups, giving joint company and Lenovo customers a more complete solution.

• New analytics and monitoring capabilities in Veeam ONE: The firm has added Agent monitoring and reporting, as well as Data Sovereignty Compliance Reporting to Veeam ONE, the management component of VAS 9.5 Update 3. With this capability, end-users will receive access to additional guidance and tools designed to assist them through new stringent backup and protection compliance requirements.

This release follows the company’s recently announced support for IBM AIX and Oracle Solaris, enabling protection of physical workloads in Unix environments. This offering will support Veeam’s push into enterprise environments, and also the replacement of traditional legacy vendors with a solution that brings reliability and ease-of-use to all workloads – virtual, physical, and cloud. As the company expands its portfolio to meet the needs of enterprise customers, the support for physical workloads in Unix environments, in addition to Windows and Linux, enables the protection of mission-critical applications, systems, and data that exists in distributed enterprise environments.

“One of the true hallmarks of Veeam has been its continuous evolution to meet customers’ ever heightening requirements around recoverability and availability, and this release shows that it [Veeam] can cover all the bases – physical, virtual and cloud. Their enhanced management capabilities across both their increasingly heterogeneous protection agents and their monitoring platform are foundational for their ascendancy among enterprise and large-scale MSP solutions. That plus their broadening storage ecosystem and expanded platform support (VMware on AWS) should be exciting for those that have already standardized on Veeam for protecting their on-prem VMs and are now looking at the cloud as part of their digital transformation journey,” said Jason Buffington, principal analyst, ESG

“Our number one priority is delivering exceptional guest experiences, and we cannot begin to contemplate having critical services off-line, such as our bars or the casino floor. Whether guests are listening to live music, playing slots, eating in our restaurants, attending conventions, relaxing by the pool or shopping in our boutiques, our mission is to ensure their experiences are stellar. Veeam gives us the peace of mind of knowing that if anything does happen across our infrastructure, we are able to resume services in mere minutes. This a quantum leap forward in terms of performance compared to what we were used to, and I am glad we can now get rid of those antiquated solutions. We are able to successfully deliver to our guests the seamless experience they have come to expect,” said Kevin Ragsdale, director, IT, Hard Rock Hotel and Casino Las Vegas

“Veeam’s centralized management really helps me with the way I have our environment configured. All of our Exchange servers are physical and everything else is virtualized. When we were running a dual environment, our legacy physical backup solution was a major pain. In fact, it made me pull my hair out. Now, with Veeam’s support of our physical Exchange servers, it’s been real nice, especially for any email-related restore requests, because now I can get our employees back to work in a matter of minutes, instead of days, in some cases. Update 3 means I can finally get rid of the other tools that bogged us down,” said Chris Childerhose, systems engineer, McMillan LLP

“As a customer, it is fantastic to see a company release features when they are ready, and ahead of schedule. Software vendors usually pitch updates as bug fixes, but [with Update 3] Veeam throws that out the window to make sure customers get new functionality as soon as possible, and deliver the tools we need when we need them,” said Matt Crape, manager, IT, C3 Group Ltd., Canada

“Veeam Availability Suite 9.5 Update 3 is changing the game again with end to end availability for virtual and now physical workloads all from one familiar and easy-to-use management interface,” said Ian Sanderson, new technology solutions specialist, SITS Group Ltd., UK.

“IBM Spectrum Virtualize is a core element in many of our clients’ data centers. Veeam Availability Suite 9.5 Update 3 integration with IBM Spectrum Virtualize delivers a new approach to data protection versus legacy solutions. Veeam solutions’ have a clear focus on delivering enterprise customers the Availability for mission-critical applications and data wherever it resides – from the data center to the cloud,” said Hamza Nadi, manager, solution sales, SVA System Vertrieb Alexander GmbH.

Resources:
Agent management: Now in VAS 9.5 Update 3
Product Overview 
What’s New in 9.5 (ONE)
What’s New in 9.5 (Backup)
Editions comparison  
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