As a global provider of cloud-based software and security solutions designed specifically for delivery by Managed Service Providers (MSPs), Datto has announced the commercial availability of Datto Continuity for Microsoft Azure. It’s a comprehensive Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery solution that would safeguard MSPs and their customers’ data in the public cloud from malicious ransomware attacks, security breaches, and vexing events.
Datto Continuity for Microsoft Azure is designed to take use of the secured Datto Cloud to provide a key requirement for MSPs: the additional protection and recovery of data in the public cloud through multi-cloud replication. In order to provide this level of comprehensive data backup and recovery services, MSPs do not have to piece together several technologies or rely exclusively on Microsoft’s data backup services.
“The ongoing cyberwar against ransomware underscores the importance of closing the gap in security for MSPs utilizing the public cloud,” said Radhesh Menon, Chief Product Officer at Datto. “We architected Datto Continuity for Microsoft Azure from the ground up with the key design goals of providing comprehensive protection and rapid recovery, and an extra layer of protection through multi-cloud replication to Datto’s private cloud. In addition, Datto is able to deliver predictability on margin to bring confidence to MSPs that their time and investments in hybrid cloud protection are both secure and profitable.”
Top Public Cloud Provider
There are more and more Small and Medium Businesses (SMBs) using the public cloud to host their infrastructure and applications, and Gartner predicts that worldwide end-user expenditure on public cloud services will increase by 23.1% in 2021 to $332.3 billion, up from $270 billion in 2020. When MSPs support their customers and move to Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) models, this has been an important growth sector.
According to Datto, Microsoft Azure has emerged as a top public cloud provider for organizations in the early to mid-stages of adopting public clouds, including MSPs. Azure would offer reliable cloud services for creating, deploying, and maintaining intelligent applications. However, Microsoft’s Shared Responsibility Model stipulates that clients are responsible for securing and protecting all apps, data, and endpoints within Azure, even though these are all hosted by Microsoft.
According to this model, MSPs are in charge of ensuring that their clients’ workloads are protected between on-premises servers and the public cloud using reliable business continuity solutions.
Azure Outages
There would be less risk of data loss or lengthy system downtime due to ransomware and public cloud outages with Datto Continuity for Microsoft Azure than with competing solutions. As a result, MSPs would no longer have to worry about the security risks associated with relying solely on Microsoft Azure or the immutable, private Datto Cloud for backup. If there’s an outage of Azure, MSPs will be able to provide their clients with the scalability and efficiency of the public cloud while also having peace of mind that their clients’ cloud data is safe and can be restored quickly.
Designed for Business Growth
Datto Continuity for Microsoft Azure offers a predictable pricing approach to assist MSPs scale and grow their businesses. All relevant BCDR expenses are included in a single, simple-to-understand flat-fee payment, and MSPs pay no egress fees. This approach would give MSPs a long-term profit opportunity, remove the need to anticipate public cloud service prices or deal with unexpected charges, and lower the TCO. Datto Continuity for Microsoft Azure is cloud-native, allowing MSP partners to rapidly grow endpoints while maintaining high levels of security and reliability.
Key features and benefits of Datto Continuity for Microsoft Azure would include the following:
- Efficient deployment – Fast and easy onboarding with a 3-click set-up process that would enable a first backup within 15 minutes.
- Hybrid data protection – Providing data protection for both on-premises and Azure virtual machine (VM) workloads from a single portal.
- Multi-cloud replication – Eliminating single-cloud risk with secondary replication to the “secured and reliable” Datto Cloud for better Recovery Time Objectives (RTOs). It performs backups every hour for a one-hour Recovery Point Objective (RPO).
- End-to-end protection – Ensuring consistent management and protection from endpoint to server to cloud by leveraging Datto Continuity for Microsoft Azure in tandem with the Datto Unified Continuity product suite.
- Cloud Deletion Defense – Enabling “easy” recovery of the entire dataset of backups deleted during an agent deletion or when deleting all cloud backups.
- Virtualization to the Datto Cloud – Allowing MSPs to recover workloads within seconds in the event Azure has an outage.
- Automatic boot verification of backups – Validating that backups are running as expected with patented screenshot verification.
Datto Continuity for Microsoft Azure is now accessible through an Early Access Program in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand, with promotional pricing through December. By the end of 2021, the service should be available all around the world with new integrations and features.
