Analyst: Krista Case
Publication Date: September 18, 2024
Document #: MCNKC202409
Google has expanded its Cloud Backup service with a vault offering, strengthening its data protection and cyber recovery competencies. This announcement addresses the growing need for secure, scalable, and compliant cloud solutions in the face of accelerating data growth and increasing regulatory and cyber resiliency requirements.
What Is Covered in This Article:
- Overview of Google Cloud’s new vault offering
- Key features: compliance, security, scalability
- Role in disaster recovery and data retention
- Comparison with AWS and Azure offerings
- Analyst insights on the impact of this expansion
The News: Google has expanded its Cloud Backup service with a new vault offering designed to meet the growing need for secure, scalable, and long-term data retention, as well as cyber recovery.
Google Expands Cloud Backup Services with Vault for Secure Data Retention
Analyst Take: Google’s vault offering is a response to the increasing demand for robust data retention and cyber recovery solutions. As data volumes grow and regulatory requirements become more stringent, businesses seek cloud providers that offer scalability and compliance. Additionally, the onslaught of cyberattacks necessitates an isolated data vault for recovery purposes. In certain use cases, the cloud provides the ability to create an isolated data vault environment that does not require upfront capital expenditures and ongoing management, in contrast to traditional on-premises air-gapped storage implementations.
The Evolving Cloud Backup Market
Demand for cloud-hosted data backup and disaster recovery environments is growing. Data is proliferating, cyberattacks continue rising, and the spectrum of data types and workloads that require recoverability continues expanding. Google’s decision to enhance its backup offering with vault capabilities is a testament to the growing sophistication of customer demands.
In the past, cloud backup solutions primarily focused on the basic needs of data retention and recovery. However, the modern landscape demands a more nuanced approach incorporating long-term retention, compliance, and cyber recovery. Google’s vault offering fits this trend by providing enterprises with a logically air-gapped, scalable solution for cyber recovery and long-term data retention. Given that customers in highly regulated industries have typically struggled in migrating to the cloud because of data privacy concerns, Google designed the solutions to address the complexities of regulatory compliance.
Google’s Vault Offering: Key Features and Benefits
Google’s new vault offering incorporates several features designed to address the specific challenges that enterprises face when it comes to data retention and protection:
- Enhanced Data Retention: Google’s vault offering allows organizations to store data securely for extended periods, ensuring compliance with regulations such as GDPR, HIPAA, and other data protection standards.
This is particularly important for industries such as finance, healthcare, and legal services where long-term data retention is a regulatory requirement. - Scalability: One of the primary benefits of cloud-based solutions is their scalability, and Google’s vault offering is no exception. The vault is designed to grow with an organization’s data needs, offering flexible storage options that can accommodate everything from small datasets to vast archives.
This ensures that organizations can continue to store their data without the fear of running out of space or overpaying for unused capacity. - Data Security and Encryption: Google has long been known for its robust security features, and the vault offering is no different. Data stored in the vault is encrypted in transit and at rest, providing high protection against unauthorized access.
Additionally, Google Cloud adheres to several global security standards, further enhancing the safety of stored data. - Integration with Google Cloud Ecosystem: One of the standout features of Google’s vault offering is its seamless integration with other Google Cloud services. This integration allows organizations to leverage their existing Google Cloud infrastructure for backup and recovery, minimizing the need for additional tools or resources. It also enables easy data retrieval and management, ensuring organizations can access their data when needed.
- Cost Efficiency: Google’s vault offering is cost-efficient, similar to many cloud solutions. By paying only for their storage, organizations can reduce the overall cost of their data retention strategies.
Additionally, Google offers tiered pricing options, allowing companies to choose the storage solution that best fits their budget and needs.
Addressing Regulatory and Compliance Challenges
Compliance with data protection laws is a top priority for organizations operating in regulated industries. Failure to adhere to regulations such as GDPR or HIPAA can result in significant fines and reputational damage. Google’s vault offering is designed with these challenges in mind, providing organizations with the tools they need to meet stringent regulatory requirements. The vault also offers audit capabilities, allowing organizations to track data access and usage, further enhancing compliance efforts. The Futurum Group anticipates that work will remain for Google to convince customers in these industries where these capabilities will help to nurture such conversations.
The Role of Disaster Recovery
In addition to regulatory compliance, disaster recovery is a critical component of any organization’s data strategy. With cyberattacks and natural disasters on the rise, quickly recovering data in the event of an outage or breach is more important than ever. Google’s vault offering provides a last line of defense for recovering critical data. Specifically, the vault’s integration with Google Cloud’s broader disaster recovery services helps to ensure that organizations can quickly restore their data during a disaster. This reduces downtime and minimizes the impact of data loss, helping organizations to maintain business continuity in the face of unexpected events.
Competitive Landscape
Capabilities for cyber resilience are increasingly important differentiators for hyperscalers. For example, AWS Backup offers a logically air-gapped vault, as well. We are also seeing from data protection providers, such as Dell, Cohesity and Commvault cloud-hosted data vault offerings. For Google, its cloud data vault provides a step toward a more comprehensive positioning in backup and recovery and cyber resiliency.
Looking Forward
As the cloud backup market continues to evolve, we can expect to see Google introduce additional features and enhancements to its vault offering. These could include more advanced analytics and AI-driven insights, allowing organizations to manage their data better, optimize their retention strategies, and streamline recovery operations.
In conclusion, Google’s new vault offering represents a significant step forward in the company’s cloud backup capabilities. By addressing the specific needs of enterprises in regulated industries and providing a scalable, secure solution for long-term data retention, Google is well positioned to compete in the growing cloud backup market. As data grows in volume and importance, solutions such as Google’s vault offering will become increasingly important for organizations looking to protect their most valuable assets.
Disclosure: The Futurum Group is a research and advisory firm that engages or has engaged in research, analysis, and advisory services with many technology companies, including those mentioned in this article. The author does not hold any equity positions with any company mentioned in this article.
Analysis and opinions expressed herein are specific to the analyst individually and data and other information that might have been provided for validation, not those of The Futurum Group as a whole.
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Author Information
With a focus on data security, protection, and management, Krista has a particular focus on how these strategies play out in multi-cloud environments. She brings approximately 15 years of experience providing research and advisory services and creating thought leadership content. Her vantage point spans technology and vendor portfolio developments; customer buying behavior trends; and vendor ecosystems, go-to-market positioning, and business models. Her work has appeared in major publications including eWeek, TechTarget and The Register.
Prior to joining The Futurum Group, Krista led the data protection practice for Evaluator Group and the data center practice of analyst firm Technology Business Research. She also created articles, product analyses, and blogs on all things storage and data protection and management for analyst firm Storage Switzerland and led market intelligence initiatives for media company TechTarget.
