Google Updates Cloud Backup, Disaster Recovery Service

Source: Aleksei Gorodenkov via Alamy Stock Photo

Google has announced three enhancements to its Google Cloud Backup and Disaster recovery service to enhance customers’ ability to manage backups simply and securely, while boosting agility and reducing the workload on IT teams.

Backup and disaster recovery technologies are key components of ransomware defense. The first enhancement allows users to create backup vault storage systems that cannot be modified or accidentally deleted. Backup vault data is stored in Google-managed projects and “logically air-gapped” from Google Cloud projects, the company stated in a blog post. Compute Engine virtual machines (VMs), VMware Engine VMs, Oracle databases, and SQL Server databases are supported.

Backup vault storage isn’t visible to users inside the organization, preventing direct attacks, and Google manages access through its Google Cloud Backup and DR service application programming interfaces (APIs) and user interface (UI). Users can set vault backup rules on modification and deletion when creating vaults. The backups are fully self-contained, giving users the opportunity for recovery when a source resource is no longer available, helping teams keep production applications online.

Google is also making updates to its centralized backup management system. Its new fully managed service is an integrated, developer-centric, self-service model that allows app developers to back up their VMs while the teams managing storage and backup systems retain governance and oversight. Monitoring and reporting capabilities include scheduled backup jobs and restore jobs, customizable reporting, and alerts and notifications.

The system, integrated with Google Cloud Identity and Access Management (IAM), lets developers create backups during the creation of Compute Engine VMs so that users have correct data protection policies deployed from the outset of project creation.

Both products are currently available in preview, Google said. The backup vault feature will be generally available in the coming months. During preview, users will be able to access these features through the UI and Google Cloud CLI to protect Compute Engine VMs. Once it is generally available, users will have access to APIs and Terraform.

About the Author

Jennifer Lawinski is a writer and editor with more than 20 years experience in media, covering a wide range of topics including business, news, culture, science, technology and cybersecurity. After earning a Master’s degree in Journalism from Boston University, she started her career as a beat reporter for The Daily News of Newburyport. She has since written for a variety of publications including CNN, Fox News, Tech Target, CRN, CIO Insight, MSN News and Live Science. She lives in Brooklyn with her partner and two cats.