At one point, the hypervisor of choice was essentially non-debatable when it came to enterprise data estates. Market share and competitive prices made the choice much simpler in many cases; and if public cloud offerings were not in the mix, the choice often boiled down to three-or-so hypervisors. Today, anyone in the industry, whether an analyst, a technician, or a CIO, would agree that re-evaluating your preferred hypervisor is likely something that wasn’t planned for 2024 but nonetheless is currently on the “to do” list.

Since its inception nearly a decade ago, Nutanix AHV has been a popular choice for enterprises and their environments. As more enterprise customers embraced this platform, the need for robust and comprehensive data protection became evident. This need was effectively met by Veeam Backup for Nutanix AHV, which ensured the security and protection of your data.

Throughout all these years, Nutanix AHV has seen continued growth in both workloads running on the hypervisor and customers who have adopted the platform. Alongside the evolution of AHV, Veeam Backup for Nutanix has continued to enhance its scope and capabilities, as well as its tight integration into Veeam Data Platform.

More Than “Just a Backup”

When it comes to protecting AHV workloads, questions commonly come in a form similar to, “I’m thinking about moving to Nutanix; can Veeam backup AHV?” Of course, the answer is a resounding “Yes!” But there is more to that “Yes!” when you start to think about Veeam Data Platform as a whole. Backup, while at Veeam Data Platform’s foundation, is essential for data protection, but there are other elements outside of this scope that customers should be aware of and care about.

Security is easily top-of-mind across enterprises. Protecting your data, whether using production-grade security tools or safeguarding your backups, has never been more important for your enterprise’s survival. With cyber threats lurking behind every phishing email, you must have confidence and trust in your recovery plan. Attackers only need to break through our defenses once, whereas IT teams need to ensure critical data remains 100% protected all the time.

With this train of thought, when backing up Nutanix AHV environments with Veeam Data Platform, customers can leverage many of the security constructs native to the platform. Capabilities such as multi-factor authentication help ensure that only trusted users access the platform. Or Four Eyes authorization, preventing malicious or accidental destructive activities while helping you maintain compliance and ensure recoverability. Backup data lifecycle management can help ensure that your backups are not only stored in accordance with your retention policies but also ensure survivability with immutable restore points.

Similarly, Veeam ONE can help you monitor and measure your risks or adherence to governance policies using its in-depth data observability analytics and reporting engine. This can be particularly important post-migration. After all the migrations are said and done, you need a straightforward way to ensure that all your jobs are completing successfully, that all your RPOs are being met, and that change management is still being tracked.

The Freedom You Need for Your Data

Data Freedom is a concept that has been a core Veeam value for a long time now. We don’t lock your data away in a black box, nor do we limit where you can restore it. As IT leaders and CIOs review their infrastructure, partnerships, and investments, they often face the task of assessing the tools and platforms in their environments. Defining where and what hypervisor they will use is always a tough decision — whether increased costs, gaps in features, or something else entirely, moving your data estate to a new platform can bring significant challenges.

Nobody wants to replace their infrastructure unless there is a compelling reason. If this situation does strike, Veeam customers have an advantage: whether migrating to AHV, or one of the many other supported platforms, Veeam’s Data Freedom means that we are here to perform the heavy lifting and help lighten your load. Today our breadth of protection spans five different hypervisors, physical workloads, and cloud data estates, many of which can be restored to AHV or elsewhere, while maintaining access to archived or historical recovery points. Veeam Data Platform helps you avoid the nightmare of maintaining multiple backup and recovery products.

Similarly, integrations that security teams may benefit from today, such as our recent Veeam App for Splunk, our Sophos integrations, or even existing workflows, such as threat hunting with YARA rules, will stay the same, even after switching platforms.

Every Customer is a Partner

Nutanix AHV has proven to be a strong choice for enterprises, and Veeam is here to continue offering unparalleled data protection. Beyond backup, Veeam Data Platform provides comprehensive security measures and data observability analytics to protect your enterprise from cyber threats while helping you measure your compliance goals. With Veeam’s Data Freedom, migrating to a new platform becomes less daunting, as it offers seamless integration and maintains access to archives or historical recovery points. If you find yourself transitioning to Nutanix AHV, Veeam can help ensure a smooth and straightforward process, ultimately allowing you to focus on keeping your business successful. 

Looking to learn more? Be sure to check out our Nutanix AHV page for more details or to download a trial.

The post Veeam and Nutanix AHV: Navigating the Hypervisor Landscape appeared first on Veeam Software Official Blog.