How to Back Up to Microsoft Azure

As enterprises adopt Microsoft Azure to gain the agility of a public cloud platform and escape the limitations of the traditional data center, they are soon presented with a new set of challenges. In general, managing and protecting data in the cloud is different from how it works on-premises—especially in a hybrid or multicloud environment that includes on-premises infrastructure. 

To best protect your data in Azure, it’s important to know where your responsibilities end and Azure’s begin.

Protection in the Cloud Is a Shared Responsibility

Azure and other public cloud platforms operate under a Shared Responsibility model. While they are responsible for ensuring the protection and availability of the cloud, you are responsible for securing all of your data in the cloud. According to Azure’s take on Shared Responsibility, you must protect your cloud-based information and data, as well as your devices, accounts, and identities. That means you are responsible for backing up your cloud data.

 

 

Azure is responsible for securing its physical hosts, network, and data centers. Responsibility for other components, such as applications, network controls, and operating systems, varies depending on service type.

Azure Backup Tools Can Be Limited

Azure does provide some free native data protection manager (DPM) tooling for cloud backups, but it only works for data on the Azure platform or in Azure Blob Storage. Microsoft also offers Azure Backup, a paid backup service with more features that can extend to your on-premises data, but even that solution has its limitations. 

It lacks a centralized management console that would allow you to manage backup and recovery across your entire network. It also lacks the APIs that would simplify integration into an automation chain. And restoring a VM essentially means a brand-new VM deployment instead of a simple restore.

Rubrik Simplifies Data Protection and Management on Azure

Now you can eliminate the complexity of data protection and management on Azure, especially in a hybrid or multicloud environment. Rubrik’s solutions for Azure deliver powerful management features that help you protect data across all of your Microsoft applications—including physical or virtualized Windows, SQL Server, Hyper-V, Office 365, OneDrive, Azure VMs, and Azure NetApp Files. 

With Rubrik, you get robust recovery, search, analytics, and test/dev capabilities. Our native Azure API integration and SaaS-based data protection makes Azure backup and recovery simple. You can easily manage thousands of subscriptions across multiple regions from a single centralized management console, and maintain control over your data by keeping it all in your Azure subscription. 

Deploy our solutions in your on-premises data center as software or using a plug-and-play appliance and enjoy policy-based automation and simplified management across your entire ecosystem. We have solutions for: 

• Cloud archival. Real-time predictive search gives you immediate access for data stored in Azure.

• Cloud backup and recovery. Native snapshots and API-based data protection deliver the security you need.

• Application recovery in the cloud. On-demand instantiation gives you more flexibility when you need to recover an Azure VM as a cloud image. 

• Replication. Replicate backup data across Azure regions, or between on-premises and Azure platforms.  

Learn more about how Rubrik can help you better manage and protect your data on Azure.