Veeam bites the bullet, embraces Linux

“In most cases [my customers] already have Veeam and really like it, but they value not having Windows more than Veeam” one MSP partner of the backup software specialist wrote drily on a support forum in 2020.

They were trying to persuade Veeam’s CPO Anton Gostev to make its Backup & Replication (VBR) suite available on Linux as well as Windows.

“This basically means re-writing the entire backup server, while the value of this massive undertaking is questionable for most of our customers,” Gostev grumbled in response, adding bluntly, “if this capability is critical to your clients, then indeed they should look for another solution.”

“We're a small (only 6 staff) MSP and we're exploring every option to rid ourselves of the cancer that is Windows but, asking Gostev to rewrite the whole software for Linux isn't realistic,” another sympathetic user said. 

The times, they are a’changing. 

On stage at VeeamON, the privately held company’s tenth annual conference, held in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, the CPO said V13 of the widely adopted disaster recovery suite, coming later this calendar year, would be available on Linux as well as Windows, to some delight. 

Indeed, "some enterprise-focused features and capabilities will be available with VBR for Linux only" executives said.

As one Veeam user from Pure Storage put it to The Stack: “Customers heavily invest in other technologies utilizing SLES / RHEL and Linux for enterprise applications and building up skill. And as you may know windows boxes get targeted more than Linux boxes and if done right it makes things just more secure and more independent from a Microsoft perspective like EntraID or the whole ecosystem in general…”

That was one of a flurry of announcements out of the company including the promise of upcoming support for MongoDB and EntraID backups and the unveiling of a new “Veeam Data Cloud Vault” which sees it follow Rubrik in offering Azure-based immutable and encrypted storage. 

“Veeam Vault pricing includes not just the storage component, but also the necessary API calls to write to that storage in an immutable format, as well as read and egress data in the event of a recovery – eliminating the bill shock encountered by organizations that don’t consider all required costs for cloud backup. Users can access the service through Veeam’s software interface” the company added in a press release. 

Veeam Data Cloud Vault is available now via Azure Marketplace for a single fee per TB/month based on region, and includes storage, write/read APIs, and egress, the company said – saying that it sees simplicity of deployment as a key attraction (“Fully managed Azure storage with zero configuration, management or integration complexities.) Currently it is not available via channel partners.

We'll be sharing more details and depth from the event in coming days. Veeam customer and have questions you'd like us to ask executives?

Get in touch.

See also: Amid ransomware epidemic, backup and security pros need to get closer