What Is Nutanix Backup, and How Can It Help You Protect Your Data?

If you run an organization, you will know it is critical to protect your data. Losing information or having your system suddenly go down is costly, as unplanned outages can affect your productivity and severely impact your business reputation. This is why many businesses rely on hybrid and multi-cloud environments to keep their systems and applications protected and ensure you never lose access to your assets. Simply put; effective data backup and recovery is critical to ensuring business continuity.

Unlike other backup and disaster recovery solutions, Nutanix backups allow you to consolidate your backup operations easily and support multiple sites and apps from a single management framework.

Several solutions integrate Nutanix to help you protect your business and ensure you can continue operations smoothly. So let’s go through what Nutanix is, its main benefits, and how this solution can help you minimize data loss, reduce system overhead, and consolidate all your backup operations.

What is Nutanix Backup?

Nutanix is a hyper-converged Infrastructure (or HCI) software platform that runs on top of different kinds of servers or nodes. The platform bundles storage (hard disks), network interfaces, and internal memory so you can run virtual machines and optimize performance. Because it uses different servers, Nutanix also has excellent built-in redundancy – if one node fails, your applications are unaffected.

One of the main advantages of Nutanix is that you can roll out the system anywhere. For instance, the solution can run:

• On-premises.
• In the cloud.
• Combining both on-premises and cloud (hybrid cloud).
• Combining multiple clouds (multi-cloud).

It’s very easy to add and remove servers to and form a cluster. As a result, Nutanix infrastructure can grow with your company – making it an excellent scalable backup solution.

Nutanix Files Solution

Nutanix Files is a core component of Nutanix and part of its Solutions Library. This file storage tool is ideal for architects and system engineers to work with unstructured data such as user profiles, application logs, home directories, archives, and backups.

Nutanix Files is fully integrated with Nutanix and can be deployed as a standalone dedicated cluster or on an existing one. This means you don’t need to create an infrastructure silo (as you would with NAS appliances) because the solution consolidates VM and file storage. The management is therefore much easier.

The storage solution supports native remote replication, file server cloning, and files with both AHV and ESXi. Additionally, you can access robust file analytics, including anomaly and ransomware detection, complete audit trails, data age analytics, and custom reports.

Nutanix Mine Integrated Backup

Nutanix Mine can help your organization minimize downtime and consolidate all your backup operations into one simple, scalable, and integrated solution. For example, you can migrate an entire data center to new technology without any downtime.

One of the most significant advantages of using Nutanix for your backups is the platform’s ability to integrate the entire data lifecycle eliminating the need to purchase, deploy, and manage different products. Nutanix Mine is an integrated solution that can eliminate complexities, provide better protection for your data, and grow and change as your business evolves. You can also meet uptime service-level agreements more easily, reducing backup windows and boosting efficiency.

The Advantages of using Nutanix for Your Backups

Many organizations are considering a hybrid cloud infrastructure to supplement their private cloud deployment with private cloud adoption. However, public clouds have a very different infrastructure (not just when compared to on-prem but also to one another), and you usually require various skills and networking overlays to manage each environment.

Nutanix is a platform that can work with private, distributed, and public clouds, so operators can manage their traditional and newer applications. The solution extends between clouds so apps and VMs can be easily moved without having to worry about translation and license portability or having to learn new practices.

The product offers several advantages to businesses that are looking to quickly deploy and integrate on-premise datacenters with clouds and minimize downtime. With Nutanix, you can consolidate your backup operations into a natively integrated solution with powerful hybrid and multi-cloud capabilities.

Protect Your Backup Data Against Cyber Threats

Nutanix Mine can detect the earliest signs of ransomware and cyber threats before they have a chance to damage your data. The solution includes solid prevention features, too, and ways to recover your backup data in the aftermath of an attack.

Although there is no silver bullet that can protect your organization against all ransomware threats, Nutanix offers a multi-layered approach (defense-in-depth) that includes:

• Hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) to protect all data and manage recovery.
• Physical segmentation and separation of production networks and backup infrastructure.
• Read-only and immutable native Nutanix snapshots that are created on the production platform.
• Periodic and automated restoration of workloads.
• Log scanning.

Nutanix Disaster Recovery and DRaaS

Adopting a proactive strategy for disaster recovery can help you minimize downtime and data loss – no matter if you are working on-premise or in the cloud.

Nutanix’s Disaster Recovery is easy to deploy and manage and can adapt to your RTO (or Recovery Time Objective) and RPO (or Recovery Point Objective) needs. In addition, you only need a single user interface to handle multiple hypervisors and clouds.

Nutanix has an “always-on” feature that is ideal for protecting your most mission-critical apps and data. You can prioritize your disaster recovery options, so you have zero data loss across multiple sites. This is made possible by two main capabilities:

• Metro Availability: You can replicate data between two or more sites in a metro region synchronously (0 RPO and 0 RTO).
• NearSync: You can recover from a failure of two or more data centers even if they happen simultaneously (1 minute RPO).

Let Your Data Adapt and Grow With You

One of the main advantages of using Nutanix and Nutanix integrations for your backups is that you can start with a small storage option and scale-out more secondary locations as your business grows and your backup data volume expands.

Nutanix is designed to be customized to fit your needs. You can choose the backup software, different hardware platforms, and various archival options for your workloads. You can also tier off cold data onto S3 object storage to reduce costs.

This backup solution makes it easy to replicate your data and applications at a local site, a remote Nutanix site, or the public cloud, providing you with unmatched flexibility and scalability.

The 5 Best Solutions for Nutanix Backups

There are different solutions in the market that integrate Nutanix backups. Each of them offers distinct advantages to protect and preserve your business’ continuity by combining all-in-one backup platforms with a deployable Nutanix AHV Proxy. We have selected five excellent Nutanix backup integrations you should consider if you are considering using the platform to protect your digital assets.

5. Commvault IntelliSnap and Nutanix

The Commvault Data Platform can deliver native Nutanix integration, allowing users to access VM-centric snapshots. Commvault IntelliSnap combines with Nutanix XCP for fast and efficient backups of data, applications, and virtual machines.

Data protection with Commvault and Nutanix can help you consolidate your backups and accelerate restores without the need for scripting (IntelliSnap also collapses all windows so you can manage snapshots in the background).

This integration is good for scaling out linearly without having to re-architect or use external backup appliances. Commvault IntelliSnap on Nutanix is available for Microsoft Hyper-V, VMware vSphere, and Nutanix AHV environments.

4. Cohesity Nutanix AHV Backup

Cohesity integrates with Nutanix AOS and AHV to eliminate data protection silos using a single software-defined platform. You can recover a complete virtual machine or a vDisk image to the original source. Cohesity has a single UI to simplify automation; for example, you can automatically discover and protect VMs). The integration also provides good recovery points and recovery time objectives.

Cohesity is a Nutanix Ready certified solution, so it’s interoperable and 100% compatible with the platform. You can deploy on-premises rapidly or in the public cloud and easily protect traditional and modern data sources.

3. HYCU Nutanix Backup

HYCU provides a complete, ready-to-roll, intelligent backup tool for Nutanix Enterprise Cloud. You can learn to use the solution in less than four minutes, deploy it in less than three, and recover in two minutes.

HYCU’s integration is a purpose-built solution for Nutanix. It preserves HCI simplicity and has a hypervisor-agnostic architecture compatible with AHV and ESX.

Thanks to its 100% application focus, you don’t need to worry about partially-recovered applications. HCYU can see through VMs and discover whether an application is running. It can also initiate single-click backups and automate recovery workflows that are app-specific. The portal is self-service.

2. Veeam Backup for Nutanix AHV

Global backup and recovery solution provider Veeam supports workloads and applications running on Nutanix AVH so that you can update your data center with the latest Nutanix hyper-converged infrastructure (or HCI).

Veeam uses AHV Proxy as a services plugin in its Backup & Replication platform. You can instantly restore to the cloud and to other hypervisors and deploy, manage, and upgrade one or more Nutanix AHV proxies from your Veeam backup console. Veeam ONE also includes monitoring for data protection, alerting, and reporting for Nutanix AHV, and the solution has dashboard access for the AHV protection environment, agentless backups from Nutanix Files or native snapshots, 3-2-1 backup retention, snapshot, disk, and VM restore, recovery for Exchange, Active Directory, and SharePoint, and native Linux file-level, SQL and Oracle database recovery.

If you have a Veeam Universal License (VUL), you don’t need an additional license to deploy Nutanix AHV Proxy.

1. Bacula Nutanix AVH Backup Module

Bacula Systems is renowned for providing some of the industry’s most comprehensive data protection integrations. It’s backup software, Bacula Enterprise, is not only of especially high security levels, but has also recently expanded its rich feature-set to natively integrate with an unusually wide range of different hypervisor-types – including Nutanix. Regardless of your data and company size, Bacula’s Nutanix AVH backup module is an ideal solution for handling your backup jobs and managing disaster recovery. Bacula’s solution is is certified by Nutanix.

The Nutanix-certified AVH module offers several advanced features that can help you improve performance and provide more security, including:

• Snapshot-based backup and restore.
• Complete VM images and network interface restoration.
• Efficient agentless deployment.
• Full, Incremental, and Differential backup levels.
• Hot copy: Online VMs supported (no need to shut down your system)
• Fast block-level image backup through NDFS.
• Support for any kind of guest VM.
• Remote interactive snapshot deletion tool.

Bacula covers an exceptional number of databases and virtual machines and provides remarkably strong security architecture. In addition to Nutanix, Bacula also integrates natively with Hyper-V, VMware, KVM, Xen, RHV, Proxmox, and also offers comprehensive, natively integrated Kubernetes, Docker and Openshift mudules. The platform also has an open-source base, a large number of supported plugins, and an advantageous licensing model with fair prices.

It’s easy to scale Bacula Enterprise, even if your business is booming and your backup needs continue to grow. For example, Bacula has no capacity-based pricing model, and its modular software is especially scalable from the technical point of view. With the Nutanix AVH module, you will be able to expand your installations and perform even more backup and recovery operations from one, highly secure platform.

Nutanix Backups FAQ

What is Nutanix Files’ Architecture?

The solution uses a scale-out approach to provide Network File Systems (NFS) and Server Message Block (SMB) file services to clients. Nutanix Files instances are composed of at least three VMs (FSVMs) running on three nodes. These are based on CentOS and four vCPU, and 12 GB of RAM (you can add more if necessary).

What is AHV?

AHV Virtualization is a secure, enterprise-grade virtualization solution that allows you to streamline operations and manage everything from the same console. AHV provides native security (network microsegmentation and built-in audits and remediation) and requires low operational costs. When combined with Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure, it ensures you can deliver optimal performance for the most demanding enterprise applications.

What is Nutanix Cluster Self-Service?

Unlike many of its competitors, Nutanix Clusters don’t depend on any third-party cloud solution service. You can configure and deploy your own clusters without the need for an external program to manage them – making this an ideal solution for cloud teams. It doesn’t matter how big your cluster is, the deployment time is always the same: With Nutanix Clusters, you can have a 3 or 1 node cluster operational in about 30 to 45 minutes and migrate all your apps to a public cloud without having to refactor them.