More and more customers are aware of the fact that 1 copy of their backups is not longer enough  . Yes!

I always recommend to my customers and colleagues to implement the golden rule 3-2-1-1-0 (see my blog post  : 3-2-1-1-0 Golden Backup Rule | Veeam Community Resource Hub).

The thing I want to highlight is having 1 copy offsite and being airgapped - immutable at the same time!

Veeam delivers here 2 important possibilities : 

1. using a copy job to a service provider offering VCC
2. using object storage with the copy mode in the SOBR capacity tier

In this post the move mode in the SOBR capacity is being ignored.

Also using an object storage appliance on-premises is being ignored.

The purpose of this post is knowing the similarities and differences between the two possibilities I already mentioned.

Why? Because customers and colleagues often ask me why they should choose a copy job to our VCC instead of using object storage at a public cloud provider like Azure or Amazon.

I have a list of 10 similarities and differences between those 2 options.

1. Flexibility

I think that one have much more flexibility when using VCC of a service provider instead of using object storage at a public cloud provider.

Later (topic 3) I will mention that you can define much more easily what you want to copy to the service provider instead of using the capacity tier. You have more flexibility.

2. Wan Accelerator

When using VCC you can use a wan accelerator which can speed up the process, when using the capacity tier you are not able to use this functionality.

3. Scope

When using VCC you can make a selection of your most critical servers being copied to the service provider.

When using the capacity tier, it’s a 1-to-1 copy of the performance tier. I know, you can create 2 different SOBRs : 1 using the capacity tier being used for the servers you want to have a copy, and another SOBR without using the capacity tier for the servers you don’t want to have a copy.

If you decide later that you want to have a copy of a certain VM, it’s much more flexible (see topic 1) to add this to the copy job instead of changing the primary backup-jobs referring to different SOBRs.

4. Monitoring

When using the capacity tier, an automatic offload job is being performed. A copy job to the VCC is much more visible and easier to monitor the result.

5. Proximity

Often a service provider is offering VCC on it’s own hardware in a datacenter. Therefore the proximity is much more higher than having your copy at object storage somewhere in a datacenter around the globe.

In case of a disaster and you need your backups from your service provider / public cloud provider, the chance is that restoring will be faster from your service provider than from the public cloud provider.

And if you don’t have a useful internet-line anymore, the service provider can put your backups on removable media in a fast way. At the public cloud provider 

6. Costs

Normally you pay fixed fees at your service provider every month that depends on the used storage / number of VMs being copied.

Mostly the monitoring of this is being included. Often extra options or services are possible : like having yearly restore tests, etc…

When you want to restore something, normally those costs are included.

When using the public cloud storage, no monitoring is included, no options or services are possible. When you want to restore something, most of those providers are charging egress costs which are often expensive.

The chance is that using object storage of a cloud provider is cheaper than using the VCC of a service provider, but you will get more in return when using a service provider.

7. Service

It’s clear that VCC is a real BaaS (Backup as a Service). Using the capacity tier is just a handy way of copying your primary backups to another location with the possibility of being immutable, nothing more nothing less.

8. License

If you want to make a connection to a service provider, you only need a paid version of Veeam Backup & Replication (so a Standard license is sufficient).

If you want to use a SOBR with capacity tier, you need at least an Enterprise license.

Remark : if using a paid Veeam Agent you can even copy the backup to the VCC, that is not possible to public cloud object storage.

9. Immutability - airgapped

In both options you have the opportunity to have an airgapped or immutable copy.

When using VCC, you can ask the service provider to use Insider Protection (if the backups are being deleted from the VCC repository they are moved to a recycle bin without having access from the tenant being secured).

When using the SOBR capacity tier you can choose a public cloud provider offering the object lock functionality and having the Veeam ready label (see all possible vendors : Veeam Alliance Partner Technical Programs). Examples are Amazon, Wasabi, … Azure is still not offering this possibility.

10. Retention

If you choose VCC, you can easily set your retention and RPO in the copy-job. It’s possible to use a different retention than the one being used on the primary backup jobs on-premises.

When using the capacity tier, we have the same retention as being used on the performance tier.

So as a recap : 

The VCC option has much more flexibility and more options/services possible than using the capacity tier. The last is a nice and cheap option to have an immutable offsite copy but without having extra possibilities/services.

If anyone wants to add something, feel free ;-)

Enjoy.

regards

Nico