DCIG is pleased to announce the immediate availability of its inaugural Top 5 report on SME Anti-ransomware Backup Solutions. This Top 5 report provides enterprises guidance on the best backup solutions to choose to help in their response to ransomware attacks. Using this Top 5 report, small and midsize enterprises (SMEs) may quickly create a list of the Top 5 solutions to help them detect, prevent, and recover from a ransomware attack.
Backup’s Growing Role in Ransomware Detection, Prevention and Recovery
Ransomware represents a clear and present danger against which all SMES must defend. While cybersecurity software offers the best means to detect and prevent ransomware, it cannot identify every form of it. Here is where SME backup solutions enter the scene.
All SME backup solutions, by default, offer some means of protection against ransomware. These options primarily include:
- Making copies of production data and storing it somewhere else
- Support for removable media
- Integration with Microsoft Active Directory (AD) to authenticate user logins
They also offer new features to detect, prevent, and recover from ransomware to include:
- Storing data in immutable object stores
- Integration with cybersecurity software
- Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) algorithms
The Top 5 SME Backup Solutions
In preparing this report, DCIG evaluated thirteen SME backup solutions on their multiple different features and capabilities. The general areas under which these features fell included:
- Anti-ransomware capabilities
- Backup capabilities
- Configuration, licensing, and pricing
- Recovery and replication capabilities.
- Support
Based on these criteria, DCIG awarded the following SME backup solutions a Top 5 ranking:
- Acronis Cyber Protect
- Arcserve Unifed Data Protection (UDP)
- Asigra Cloud Backup
- Quest NetVault Plus
- StorageCraft OneXafe, ShadowXafe, and Cloud
Similarities between the Top 5 Solutions
In reviewing these solutions, DCIG noted the Top 5 shared some similarities in features. These capabilities included:
- Use Linux to host the backup solution. These solutions all give SMEs the option to use a Linux OS to host their respective backup software. Linux OS often serves as an effective means to deter ransomware attacks on the backup solution itself.
- Multiple options to secure and validate user logins. Each backup solution offers multiple options to authenticate user logins and validate changes to existing backups.
- Make backup data inaccessible. All Top 5 solutions offer means to make the backup files and folders they use to store data inaccessible to other applications.
Differences between the Top 5 Solutions
The Top 5 solutions also differ in some ways in how they respectively detect, prevent, and recover from ransomware. These differences include:
- Alerting and notification. Once configured, some only alert if ransomware might exist in the environment. Others alert only when they detect ransomware’s actual presence. They also differ in the granularity of their reporting capabilities.
- Deployment options. Each solution offers multiple ways for SMEs to deploy, though none of the solutions offer all the same deployment options. Available deployment options include: physical or virtual appliance; software only; on-premises software-as-a-service (SaaS); cloud-based SaaS; or, a converged or hyper-converged appliance.
- Ransomware detection. Each of these solutions may use one or more of the following techniques to detect ransomware in backup and production data. These methods include using integrated anti-malware software and predictive analytics
- Remediation. Each backup solution responds to a perceived or real detection of ransomware’s presence in the environment differently. Some extend backup retention periods, some lockdown or quarantine backup files, and some take no actions at all.
- User login and password management. These Top 5 backup solutions offer multiple, but differing, options to create complex user login and password combinations. Two solutions give SMEs the option to create a new, specific admin login during setup. Three offer the option to choose and enforce complex admin passwords. Four of them integrate with an SME’s existing security infrastructure, such as Microsoft AD.
Top 5 Report Availability
The full Top 5 report is available for download immediately. The full report contains additional details such as:
- Anti-ransomware features that all enterprise backup solutions share
- A deeper explanation on the key similarities and differences between the Top 5 products
- A profile of each Top 5 backup solution that lists three key ways each one distinguishes itself from the other solutions
You may access the full report by following the link below to the following trusted third-party site.
- Disaster Recovery Journal White Paper Resources