Enhancing Resilience with VMware Cloud on AWS Outposts and VMware Cloud Disaster Recovery walkthrough

The ever-changing threat landscape underscores the importance of prioritizing ransomware recovery as a vital element of organizational resilience. Ransomware attacks are on the rise and now stand as the primary catalyst for disaster recovery incidents. Shockingly, a ransomware attack unfolds approximately every 11 seconds, resulting in an average financial toll of $5 million for its unfortunate victims.

In an increasingly digital world, business resilience is paramount. Companies must ensure that their operations remain uninterrupted even in the face of unexpected disasters or outages. This is where the combination of VMware Cloud DR  and VMware Cloud on AWS Outposts comes into play. In this guide, we will explore how this dynamic duo can significantly enhance resilience and benefit customers across industries.

We are very excited to announce that VMware Cloud Disaster Recovery VMware Cloud on AWS Outposts as a Protected Site. This allows our customer to build a true hybrid-cloud Software-as-a-Service Platform delivered to on-premises with VMware Cloud on AWS Outposts and cloud secured against Ransomware. VMware Cloud DR is also termed VMware Ransomware Recovery.

VMware Cloud on AWS Outposts caters to customers seeking to harness a cloud-based approach within their on-premises infrastructure. For those customers who desire the agility and innovation associated with the cloud while maintaining the same level of control over their data and applications that they are accustomed to, VMware Cloud on AWS Outposts offers an optimal cloud operational framework within their own data centre environment.

Technical Specifications:

VMware Cloud on AWS Outposts represents a transformative solution that not only offers data locality but also guarantees seamless local data processing within your on-premises Datacentre. Furthermore, the managed service for VMware Cloud on AWS Outposts SDDC provides robust security measures, including regular and timely security patches whenever needed. It is meticulously crafted to be fully hardened and fortified, ensuring that your data remains protected and your infrastructure resilient.

VMware Cloud Disaster Recovery including Ransomware-Recovery is broken down into two main components:

• SaaS Orchestrator: The SaaS Orchestrator offers a central management dashboard that links your VMware Cloud on AWS Outposts Protected Sites with cloud-based Disaster Recovery (DR) resources. It handles scheduled Protection Group operations, secures your data in cloud-based storage, and coordinates DR plans for testing or actual failover. This SaaS-based console simplifies DR maintenance, eliminating the need for manual DR software management. It also provides a direct path for creating and managing VMware Cloud on AWS SDDC for streamlined cloud site management.

• Scale-out Cloud File System: The Scale-out Cloud File System is a sophisticated cloud-based datastore for storing multiple snapshots of your protected virtual machines in their native format. It enables quick recovery via Live Mount connections to the SDDC during DR events. This means you can power on VMs without waiting for full data retrieval from cloud storage thanks to live mount NFS volumes directly to the ESXi hosts in traditional VMware Cloud on AWS SDDC, ensuring faster recovery.

Both, the SaaS Orchestrator, and the Scale-out Cloud File System are the foundation of a strong platform that includes Ransomware Recovery support and delivers multiple benefits as follows:

• Prevent Reinfection at Recovery: To prevent reinfection during recovery, VMware Ransomware Recovery offers an on-demand, VMware-managed Isolated Recovery Environment on VMware Cloud on AWS. Customers can easily set VM isolation policies, eliminating manual firewall rule configurations.

• Confidently Validate Recovery Points: VMware Ransomware Recovery employs modern techniques, including next-gen antivirus and behavioural analysis, within an Isolated Recovery Environment to validate recovery points. It provides security alerts and insights, all in one cloud-based workflow, eliminating the need for separate tools.

• Streamline and Automate Recovery: Recovering from ransomware attacks is simplified with VMware Ransomware Recovery. It offers an end-to-end recovery workflow directly from the VMware Cloud DR Console. The workflow guides users through the process, including data assessment, behavioural analysis, and restore point selection, enabling smoother collaboration between IT and Security teams.

Not only are ransomware attacks here to stay, but they will also become more sophisticated, frequent, and complex over time. With VMware Cloud on AWS Outposts & VMware Ransomware Recovery, you can protect your local Workload and recover your operations faster, reduce data loss, and streamline IT operations. 

Some key benefits of using VMware Cloud Disaster Recovery with VMware Cloud on AWS Outposts:

• Enhanced Disaster Recovery Capabilities

VMware Cloud DR brings a robust set of disaster recovery capabilities to the table. Customers can create, manage, and test disaster recovery plans with ease. This not only ensures data and application protection but also simplifies the recovery process.

One of the most significant advantages of VMware Cloud DR with VMware Cloud on AWS allowing businesses to maintain operations even during a disaster scenario.

VMware Cloud DR provides a unified management console for orchestrating disaster recovery plans. This centralized approach saves time and effort, streamlining the management of complex recovery processes.

Efficiency is key in disaster recovery planning. With VMware Cloud DR, customers can optimize resource utilization and minimize infrastructure costs. Pay only for what you use, ensuring cost-efficient disaster recovery solutions.

• Scalability and Flexibility

As your business grows, so can your disaster recovery strategy. VMware Cloud DR’s scalability ensures that your disaster recovery infrastructure grows with you. Adapt your plans to meet evolving needs effortlessly.

To achieve true resilience, geographic diversity is essential. VMware Cloud on AWS Outposts in different locations offer redundancy and geographic separation, further improving resilience against regional outages.

Data security and compliance are non-negotiable. VMware Cloud DR ensures data replication is secure, meeting regulatory requirements and providing peace of mind to organizations with stringent compliance needs.

• Futureproofing Your IT Infrastructure

The VMware Cloud DR and VMware Cloud on AWS Outposts partnership ensures that your disaster recovery strategy remains cutting-edge. Access the latest disaster recovery capabilities and AWS services right at the edge of your network.

How do you future-proof your IT infrastructure with VMware Cloud DR?

To implement VMware Cloud DR with AWS Outposts effectively, follow these steps:

1. Assessment: Evaluate your disaster recovery needs and goals.
2. Planning: Create a comprehensive disaster recovery plan.
3. Configuration: Configure VMware Cloud DR and VMware Cloud on AWS Outposts according to your plan.
4. Testing: Thoroughly test your disaster recovery setup to ensure it meets your recovery time & point objectives (RTOs/PROs).
5. Monitoring: Implement continuous monitoring to stay informed about the health of your disaster recovery solution.

By following these steps and leveraging the power of VMware Cloud DR and VMware Cloud on AWS Outposts, you can fortify your organization’s resilience against disasters and outages.

To learn more about VMware Cloud on AWS Outposts, check out the resources below: