Dell boosts PowerProtect with new cyber resilience updates
Dell Technologies has expanded its PowerProtect portfolio, introducing new updates aimed at strengthening cyber resilience for organisations concerned about disruptive cyber events. As cyber threats continue to rise, with a significant proportion of businesses expecting a major incident within a year, comprehensive data protection and recovery solutions have moved up the corporate agenda.
Data manager upgrades
The latest version of PowerProtect Data Manager introduces a new Anomaly Detection review analysis page, making it easier for users to quickly identify and respond to potential threats. The system also integrates with Dell NativeEdge, offering what the company claims is the first co-engineered cyber resilience solution for edge computing. This addition provides image-level backup and recovery capabilities for virtual machines hosted at the edge, which are increasingly critical for businesses operating across distributed infrastructure.
Support for Nutanix AHV environments has also been included, thanks to native Prism Central integration. The update means organisations can now benefit from a unified approach to managing backups across different hypervisors, reducing the complexity typically associated with mixed virtualisation environments. Archive to Object enhancements expand the range of supported workloads on Microsoft Azure and AIX platforms, helping businesses manage long-term data retention more efficiently.
Integrated appliance
The new PowerProtect Data Manager Appliance has also become available, consolidating protection and management into one device. This solution offers centralised oversight of both PowerProtect Data Manager and Data Domain, with Dell stating that it can reduce management overhead by half. The appliance is designed for flexibility and performance, supporting growth and changing operational requirements.
Cloud and SaaS enhancements
Dell has released updates to PowerProtect Backup Services, which now offers agentless, cloud-native backup for Microsoft Azure workloads. This is intended to give users more options for protecting cloud-based data in a manner that is easier to deploy and manage. An advanced ransomware add-on has been developed to cover both GovCloud and hybrid workloads, targeting organisations handling sensitive information and requiring high levels of security.
Operating system developments
The PowerProtect Data Domain Operating System has received new features centred on backup immutability and cloud support. The Secure Snapshot feature introduces immutability for Virtual Tape Libraries, which helps protect backup data from deletion or modification, regardless of whether the cause is a cyberattack or human error. Capacity for Data Domain Virtual Edition on Azure has been increased to 384TB, helping businesses consolidate backup operations as their datasets grow, while support for AWS M7i instances seeks to optimise compute costs.
Cyber recovery updates
On the cyber recovery front, PowerProtect Cyber Recovery and CyberSense have been updated with enhanced security and operational measures. These tools now allow for the secure vaulting and restoration of HYCU-created backups, facilitating recovery across diverse IT environments. The management of vaults has also been improved, enabling a single CyberSense server to oversee multiple Cyber Recovery implementations.
"We remain committed to strengthening cyber resilience and security measures, enabling organisations to securely vault and restore HYCU-created backups, ensuring the recoverability of critical workloads across diverse environments in the event of a cyberattack or data loss," said Abigail Sloan, Senior Account Executive, Dell Technologies
