Nakivo has rolled out version 11 of its Backup & Replication product, and it comes packed with some exciting features. Now, you can back up Microsoft 365 data, which joins their previous offerings like AWS EC2. This update gives businesses more options for securing their cloud data. Customers have often found that while cloud providers like Microsoft aim to keep their infrastructure safe, they leave users responsible for their actual data. Sergei Serdyuk, Nakivo’s vice president of product management, explained that the new features let customers create secure repositories for their data, making recovery straightforward when mistakes happen.
Another noteworthy addition is support for agentless backups in Proxmox, an open-source virtualization platform. According to Nakivo’s internal survey, about a third of current customers—primarily small and medium-sized enterprises—are considering a switch from VMware to Proxmox. This trend follows Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware, which changed its licensing structure, pushing costs higher. Proxmox’s free or low-cost support makes it a tempting alternative for SMEs. While some businesses are looking at alternatives like Nutanix and Hyper-V, many see Proxmox as a viable replacement for VMware.
A significant shift happened this summer when Veeam, known for its VMware backup solutions, began offering support for Proxmox. This move lowers the barriers for businesses thinking of switching, as they can now confidently back up their new environments.
Furthermore, Nakivo has introduced NAS device backups to the cloud. This required special adjustments to ensure file data is compatible with S3 storage. Serdyuk highlighted that while many cloud providers say they support S3, Nakivo had to fine-tune their solutions to make sure the entire file is properly transformed for storage.
Additionally, version 11 now supports backup from NetApp Storage Snapshots for both FAS and AFF arrays. This lets customers back up VMware virtual machines straight from their storage snapshots. There’s a new federated repository feature too, enabling users to create a scalable pool of storage across different locations, with backup options ready in case of failures.
On the service provider side, Nakivo has improved its dashboard. Customers can now manage tenant activity, performance, and resource metrics from one central screen, simplifying oversight.
Founded in 2012, Nakivo initially focused on VM backups with its first version dedicated solely to VMware on Windows. Today, its software supports a diverse range of workloads, including VMware, Microsoft Hyper-V, Nutanix, Windows, and Linux, as well as cloud platforms like Amazon EC2 and Microsoft 365. The flexibility allows users—from small businesses to large enterprises and managed service providers—to deploy on NAS, Windows, or Linux. The granularity in restoration capabilities ranges from single files to complete sites.
In earlier versions, features like ransomware scanning and bare-metal recovery were introduced, enhancing the overall resilience of their backup solutions. Nakivo continues to evolve, prioritizing customer needs as the landscape of data protection shifts.