Become a TechRadar Insider
TL;DR
- Modern businesses can’t rely solely on scheduled backups and manual restoration processes; they need a more responsive solution
- A viable data-protection architecture needs to protect edge and cloud data to the same degree as local systems
- Cyber-resilience is an essential part of modern data protection, to block data threats and ensure clean, recoverable backups are available when needed
- Data-reduction techniques and cloud tiering can provide major efficiency benefits when backing up large volumes of data
- Dell PowerProtect combines all of these capabilities in a unified platform with a single point of management
Backup has evolved. A simple scheduled task is no longer sufficient for modern businesses: they need always-on data protection and fast recovery that works across distributed environments, with built-in cyber-resilience capabilities and efficiency features.
Here’s how backup has changed in recent decades, and how Dell PowerProtect embodies this shift with a comprehensive, multi-layered approach to cyber resilience.
Why do modern businesses need continuous backup and rapid recovery?
Modern businesses need continuous backup and rapid recovery to minimise downtime, as in today’s fast-moving digital market even a short outage can be disruptive and costly.
This means the scheduled approach used by traditional backup systems will no longer do. More frequent backup allows systems to be rolled back to a recent state, minimising the impact of any incident. And today’s backup solutions provide automated discovery and backup of not just files but also VMs, databases and containers. Transparent snapshots can record a complete system state almost instantly with little or no impact on running workloads.
And when recovery is needed, businesses need to get back on track as quickly as possible. Rapid restoration is crucial, with self-service options allowing users to recover their own data with reduced IT management overhead.
How do modern backup architectures handle distributed environments?
Modern backup architectures use software-defined policies to discover and back up data across on-premises, edge and cloud environments.
Unified and software-defined control
Legacy backup systems were often built for specific platforms and network topologies. Today, businesses need unified protection across distributed environments. Software-defined backup enables consistent policies to be applied across on-premises and cloud platforms, with no need for separate tools or configurations. This helps reduce protection gaps and simplifies future scaling and growth.
With the rise of containerised workloads, Kubernetes-native protection also becomes vital, so that fast-changing workloads and automated deployments can be consistently protected and restored.
Why are cyber-resilience and integrity-checking technologies necessary?
Cyber-resilience and integrity-checking technologies are needed to detect threats as early as possible, and ensure that clean, immutable backups are available when needed.
Continuous threat detection and monitoring
Modern backup platforms don’t just copy data back and forth – they can actively detect and flag unusual file activity and behaviour patterns. This helps managers identify potential attacks on company data, and restore clean copies of data before the business is seriously affected.
Ensuring data integrity and trusted recovery
With the rise of threats that actively target backup stores, businesses need to confirm the integrity not just of working data, but of archived files too. Platforms such as Dell PowerProtect support a zero-trust model, continuously verifying backup integrity and applying self-healing measures to remediate data damage. Automatic validation of recovery points helps ensure that data can be restored when needed, and support for orchestrated recovery from an isolated cyber vault provides end-to-end resilience in the face of ransomware threats.
How do modern backup architectures reduce costs?
Modern backup architectures can significantly reduce storage requirements, using strategies such as data compression and deduplication. They can also apply automated tiering to move non-critical data from local media onto lower-cost cloud platforms.
Reducing storage footprint
Businesses are generating more data than ever before, including huge volumes of information from AI and analytics. However, backups tend to contain many copies of the same information, replicated across different locations and backup sessions. Data reduction strategies can therefore achieve significant space savings: in the case of Dell PowerProtect, native data compression and deduplication have been shown to cut storage requirements by up to 75:1 in Dell-tested workloads; actual results may vary.
Minimising infrastructure and network costs
Source-side data reduction – implemented via technologies such as Dell DD Boost – reduces data volumes before the data is transmitted, minimising demand on network and backup servers. All-flash storage options can also cut server power consumption, with Dell’s internal testing suggesting potential energy savings of up to 80%; actual results may vary.
Scalable, cost-efficient storage
To further reduce costs, backup platforms such as Dell PowerProtect support automatic cloud tiering, moving “cold” data to low-cost remote storage to optimise onsite resource usage. The outcome is faster recovery of high-priority data with reduced operational overhead.
How does Dell PowerProtect bring these capabilities together?
Dell PowerProtect brings together all of the capabilities detailed above in one unified architecture. The table below summarises major differences between traditional backup systems and Dell PowerProtect:
Traditional backup systems | Dell PowerProtect |
Scheduled backups, often outside working hours | Continuous, policy-driven protection |
Manual backup checking and restoration | Orchestrated recovery with automatic integrity checking |
Typically limited to on-premises systems | Unified protection across on-premises and cloud workloads |
No native threat detection or recovery | Built-in cyber-resilience with ML-assisted anomaly detection |
High storage overhead | Efficient storage with deduplication, compression and cloud tiering |
Unified architecture and control
Dell PowerProtect uses a single management interface and a unified policy engine to protect against a wide range of data loss scenarios, including protection for hybrid and multicloud deployments.
Continuous protection and cyber-resilience
Dell PowerProtect doesn’t just copy important files: it offers continuous backup and integrated cyber-resilience features, with machine learning-powered anomaly detection. Automated integrity checking and orchestrated recovery support the rapid restoration of working data.
Efficiency and scalability
Native data reduction features in Dell PowerProtect Data Domain can deliver significant efficiency gains: in independent testing by Omdia, PowerProtect’s data reduction and other technologies were shown to cut TCO by up to 61% over three years.
The future of enterprise data protection is architectural, not incremental
Enterprise data protection is no longer a standalone function. Dell PowerProtect represents the convergence of backup, security and storage management into a single architecture supporting continuous, resilient business operations.
If you think PowerProtect is the right storage solution for your business, find out more on the Dell website: US readers click here and CA readers here.