When it comes to a drastic situation that impacts an organization’s entire Google Cloud account, having an inaccessible, logically isolated version provides an extra layer of confidence for crucial data.
Recently, on September 10, Google Cloud enhanced its backup and disaster recovery solutions by introducing an unalterable vault.
This service is currently in preview status, but it will soon be accessible to Google Cloud clients in select regions in the U.S., parts of Europe, and Taiwan “in the upcoming months,” as announced by the technology giant.
The new backup and recovery service is logic air-isolated
What sets the backup vault apart is its unchangeable nature, guaranteeing that the data remains unaltered, and immutable, making sure it stays intact. Data is channeled into the backup vault from the Backup and DR service and securely stored to prevent any cyber threats or critical mishaps. Even users within the parent organization are prohibited from accessing the backup vault.
Admins have the ability to set a time window during which the vault remains unmodifiable.
Projects leveraging Google’s Compute Engine VMs now have the option to store their data in this novel vault. These vaults operate independently from the source project and can be situated within Compute Engine VMs, VMware Engine VMs, Oracle databases, or SQL Server databases.
The process of backing up Compute Engine VMs can commence right from their creation, getting seamlessly integrated into the VM provisioning workflow. This process aligns with Google Cloud Identity and Access Management policies, ensuring a setup that is both efficient and secure, according to Google.
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Building and monitoring Google Compute Engine VMs
System administrators and application developers have the capability to manually inspect scheduled backup and restore operations, generate reports related to failed or skipped tasks, and receive alerts for crucial backup-related situations. To initiate a backup operation with a Compute Engine VM, an admin simply needs to lay down a backup strategy within Google Cloud.
Instead of backing up your Google Cloud data twice, another option could be adopting a multi-cloud architecture, which presents its own advantages — as observed in the UniSuper incident triggered by the loss of their Google Cloud account alongside backups earlier this year.
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