The other night, I had a weird dream. It wasn't one of those confusing dreams, but a clear vision of what our lives as backup administrators would be like in a few months. In the dream, Veeam's recent acquisitions — Securiti AI, Coveware and Object First — were no longer just logos on a slide, but a single living organism. The previews at the Veeam 100 Summit in Prague last November got me fired up to work even more. In the midst of all this confusion, I tried to bring some order, and this is what I 'saw' in my dream.
(generated with Nano Banana)
The evolution of the species: beyond simple recovery
Recently, us backup administrators have been talked a lot about recovery. "How secure are my backups?" How quickly can I get back online?" So, over the next few months, we'll be asking ourselves: "What am I recovering and where's the rest of it?"
The deal with Securiti AI is going to change the game for Veeam. They're already top-notch when it comes to keeping data safe (backups and all), but they don't really have a clue what's actually in that data. Like, they can't tell you if there's an Excel file with credit card details in the backup. The idea of Data Command will be introduced, and Veeam will identify sensitive data (PII, credit cards, trade secrets) before the backup even begins. And if a server's got important data on it, Veeam'll make sure the backups can't be changed.
In my dream, I was using the new Veeam management dashboard, which I'd opened in a browser, and it was all done in SaaS. Then, out of the blue, a notification popped up: "Unprotected sensitive data movement detected." Actually, someone in the Finance department had made a "Test" folder on a server and filled it with PDF files full of bank details.
But Veeam didn't just warn me. It had already created a job where it put that data into a special 'critical' category and saved it to a backup that couldn't be changed. The backup had become a preventative measure. The data had become more important than the server.
The bunker
As I watched this intelligence in action, still buzzing from what I had seen, the nightmare of every backup administrator came to life in my dream: a ransomware attack. But the strange thing was how calm I felt. I looked over at the rack and saw the Object First appliance, hooked up straight to the SaaS console. I could see the data packets flowing towards the appliance and freezing in place. Firstly, we need to make sure that the first tier is completely unchangeable.
I remembered the news a few days ago about Object First being acquired. So, Securiti AI is like the brain, and Object First is the armoured vehicle. Hey, has the move to a SaaS-managed Edge Appliance started yet? We need to know if it'll change the security perimeter.
First, it implements Zero Trust Data Resilience and uses the S3 protocol with Object Lock in Compliance mode. Once the data has been written, it's physically protected from deletion commands, even if they come from a user with elevated privileges.
I'll do my best to explain the whole process to help you picture the new world: the Veeam management console in SaaS with a logical separation between the 'command' and the 'data'. There's no need to worry about attackers finding backup servers to compromise because control is in the Veeam Cloud and storage is a Linux-based armoured appliance with no root access that only communicates via secure APIs. Great!
There won't be any patching, upgrades to new versions or maintenance windows.
The attack and the negotiator
The attack had happened, but in the dream, the recovery phase wasn't a frantic rush in the dark.
Veeam was able to restart the machines in seconds, straight from the Object First appliance, but Coveware's intelligence system was already analysing the attack metadata. Actually, Coveware's integration makes for a really impressive post-incident response. We'll be able to get:
- Damage Assessment: Securiti AI lets us see exactly which data has been affected.
- Forensic Analysis: Coveware looks at the type of attack, compares it to its global database, and shows which criminal group is involved and whether it usually keeps its promises. The console actually displayed: "The hacker's in group X. They got hold of 2GB of data, but Securiti AI says these were just temporary files with no PII value. Your core backups are still in place on Object First. We can go ahead with a full restoration without negotiation."
Conclusion
I woke up and realised that this wasn't just some distant dream. It's basically the plan for the next few months. So, getting Object First is the last piece in the puzzle. The way we do backup is changing, and a new approach called Radical Resilience is taking its place.
Veeam is going to be more than just another software program that you install on a server. It'll be an ecosystem that:
- It understands data (Securiti AI).
- It keeps your data safe and sound in a local physical bunker (Object First).
- It makes management easier by using SaaS and reduces the attack surface.
What do you think? Will the dream become reality?
Let me know your thoughts.
