Partner POV | OpenShift Virtualization with Veeam Kasten

Article written by Thomas Keenan, Senior Product Marketing Manager, Veeam. 

Today's tech world demands innovation and reliability, and our long-standing partnership with Red Hat delivers just that for the field of data protection. This collaboration merges Red Hat's hybrid cloud application platform expertise with Veeam's leading Kubernetes data protection and mobility solution, Veeam Kasten. The latter's advanced data management capabilities address the critical needs of modern enterprises across virtual machine (VM) and container workloads. 

Red Hat's OpenShift Virtualization: A Game Changer 

OpenShift Virtualization has emerged as a critical component of the virtualization landscape. Kasten's early adoption and integration with OpenShift Virtualization underscores our commitment to staying ahead of our customer's needs. 

Stu Miniman, Senior Director of Market Insights at Red Hat, and Gaurav Rishi, Vice President of Product and Cloud-Native Partnerships at Veeam, discussed the evolution of OpenShift Virtualization and Kasten's role as a key backup partner at Red Hat Summit 2024. 

Miniman: "Kasten was the first backup partner for OpenShift Virtualization, which has been a super-hot topic here at this show." 

The long-standing Kasten and OpenShift integration provides the technology base needed to offer a modern solution to protect container workloads. OpenShift Virtualization is a feature of the platform that allows enterprises to run and manage existing virtualized workloads alongside their container workloads. Kasten's role as a primary data protection partner of OpenShift across multiple workload types highlights our adaptability and foresight in addressing evolving customer needs. 

By leveraging OpenShift Virtualization, organizations can seamlessly integrate their VMs and containerized applications to create a more cohesive and flexible IT environment. This approach not only modernizes operations but also enhances scalability and efficiency, making it easier for enterprises to adapt to changing demands. 

Veeam's Leadership in Data Protection 

Veeam Software is the #1 leader by market share in data resilience, and serves a very broad base of customers. This leadership is further enhanced by Veeam Kasten, a leader and outperformer in the Kubernetes data protection space for the fourth year running as designated by GigaOm's annual radar report. Purpose-built for Kubernetes, the Kasten data protection platform enables backup/restore, disaster recovery, application mobility, and ransomware protection for cloud-native applications. Kasten provides teams the freedom of infrastructure choice without sacrificing operational simplicity. 

Our focus on data freedom also allows customers to maintain flexibility in their IT strategy. The integration of Veeam Kasten enhances our capabilities and helps us enable seamless data management across even the most diverse environments. The ability to support both VMs and containers highlights our commitment to flexibility, providing customers with the ability to choose the best infrastructure for their specific needs. 

Navigating Licensing and Migration Challenges 

The tech industry is no stranger to licensing changes, particularly regarding major players like VMware. Red Hat and Veeam provide the tools and strategies necessary to navigate these changes, ensuring minimal disruption to operations. 

The migration assessments offered by Red Hat and the wider partner ecosystem include discovery workshops, which produce phased, logical proposals for migration. Red Hat also has a group of open source tools to help with migration tasks. One of these tools is the Migration Toolkit for Virtualization (MTV), which is part of the Conveyor open source project. MTV aids in analyzing and migrating VMs by providing a structured approach to what can often be a complex and time-consuming process. This toolkit also integrates insights from years of experience and thousands of customer interactions to offer a reliable migration solution. 

MTV also offers comprehensive support for analyzing and migrating VMs and simplifies the process with detailed insights and automation capabilities to ensure a smooth transition with minimal downtime. By leveraging MTV, enterprises can efficiently adapt to licensing changes and maintain their operational continuity. 

Gaurav Rishi discussed how Veeam Kasten can help organizations adopt modern virtualization solutions and ensure business continuity, including Kasten's integration with GitOps tools for automation. 

"The elephant in the room is that there's licensing changes about with VMware …  [and] customers are starting to look at automation." 

As with any other environment, migrated VMs need robust data protection. Veeam Kasten's deeply integrated solution with OpenShift provides protection capabilities, including backup and restore, DR, application mobility, and ransomware protection. 

Emphasizing Cyber Resilience 

In an era where cyberthreats are becoming increasingly sophisticated, focusing on cyber resilience is crucial. This is why our solutions are designed to provide robust protection against ransomware and other malicious activities. 

Veeam Kasten is notable for its FIPS 140-3 compliance, which is a critical requirement for federal customers and organizations that have stringent security needs. Integrations with security vendors also enhance Veeam Kasten's ability to detect and respond to threats, thereby ensuring data integrity and availability. 

"Kasten announced that we're the only solution right now which is FIPS compliant…[this is] important if you're a federal customer," said Rishi. 

As cyberthreats continue to evolve, Veeam Kasten remains at the forefront of data protection by incorporating advanced security measures and compliance standards. These include certified OpenShift Operator-based installation, air gapped operations, Kubernetes-native RBAC with self-service capabilities, customer-managed keys for data encryption, as well as several security tool integrations for ransomware protection. Our solutions ensure that critical data is safeguarded against unauthorized access and potential breaches, which provides peace of mind to our customers. 

Version 7.0 of Veeam Kasten introduces several enhancements that cater specifically to the needs of modern enterprises. These advancements focus on both cyber resilience and enterprise-grade solutions, including support for OpenShift image streams that enable automated backup and rollback capabilities. 

The Future of Data Protection with Red Hat and Veeam Kasten 

The partnership between Red Hat and Veeam Kasten exemplifies the potential of collaborative innovation in addressing the complex challenges of data protection and virtualization. By combining Red Hat's open source expertise with Veeam's strong data management solutions, this collaboration offers a more comprehensive approach to data resilience. 

As enterprises continue to navigate this dynamic tech landscape, the insights and solutions provided by Red Hat and Veeam will be instrumental in ensuring secure, flexible, and resilient IT environments. With a focus on automation, scalability, and cyber resilience, Red Hat and Veeam Kasten are well-positioned to lead the way in the next era of data protection and virtualization.