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In today’s digital landscape, data is invaluable for ensuring business continuity and meeting regulatory compliance. Downtime in large organizations or factories can cost up to millions of dollars per minute. Therefore, uncompromised data protection (i.e., robust backup) is mandatory and a proven investment.

One of the most reliable ways to ensure data security and cyber resilience are immutable backups for critical data. Immutability is the essential characteristic of secure backups—once backup data is stored, it cannot be altered or deleted, which protects against tampering, accidental changes, and ransomware attacks. Many organizations are adopting immutable backups as a key part of their data protection and business continuity strategy.

What exactly are immutable backups and how can they benefit your organization? How do they compare to traditional backup? In this comprehensive guide, I’ll explore the concept of immutability and its benefits. I’ll also show you how we can help you implement an effective backup strategy as a crucial component of a comprehensive business continuity framework. 

Immutable Backup: What It Means and How It Works?

Immutable backup is a backup file that cannot be altered, deleted, or modified in any way. Immutability is the defining characteristic of secure backup, ensuring that once the backup is created, it remains in its original state until its “lock” period expires. This guarantees the integrity of data and protects against accidental modifications or deletions, data corruption, and malicious attacks. I’ll deal with more use cases later.

WORM (Write Once Read Many) technology ensures backup immutability and is used to keep data safe and unchanged. In practice, even if ransomware gets into company’s infrastructure, it will not be able to encrypt or change backed-up immutable data in the storage. Almost forgotten DVD-R or CD-R discs were a kind of WORM storages, too.

Immutable backups usually have an expiration date. Why not use immutability for everything and keep it turned on indefinitely to prevent accidental data deletion? Leaving it enabled for too long can lead to unnecessary storage consumption and increased costs, while setting the period for too short a time leads to data loss. Neither extreme is ideal.

Pros of Implementing Immutable Backups

The benefits of immutability include enhanced data integrity, robust protection against ransomware, compliance with regulatory standards, and faster recovery times. Let’s discuss these in more detail now.

Enhance Data Security

Immutable backups enhance data security by preventing changes to backup data. This is particularly important in protecting against ransomware attacks and accidental deletion, where attacker activity or human error may lead to altering or deleting backed-up data. This makes this technology important for organizations that need to ensure that their data remains secure and quickly recoverable. Implementing immutable backups is a vital part of a comprehensive and resilient data protection strategy, helping to prevent data loss and maintain business continuity after incidents.

Ensure Data Integrity

By ensuring that data cannot be modified once it is stored, immutability maintains the integrity of backup data. With this technology, you will not overwrite the file or lose important changes. This is essential for reliable and successful data recovery, as immutable backups provide a trustworthy source for restoring information after a cyberattack or accidental loss.

Many industries have stringent compliance and legal requirements for data retention and protection, especially in the sectors of medicine, finances, or government agencies. Immutable backups can help organizations operating in these areas meet requirements of regulations like HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) or FINRA (US Financial Industry Regulatory Authority) by delivering secure and unchangeable data to storage.

Reduce Downtime

The deployment of immutability can also significantly reduce downtime during data recovery processes. By having a reliable, unalterable backup, businesses can swiftly restore operations, minimizing the impact on business continuity. Immutable backups increase the chances of successful data recovery after incidents, ensuring that critical data is always available when needed. It is particularly critical in sectors where every minute of downtime translates to significant financial loss. As you can see, this also makes it a cost-effective advantage.

It should also be mentioned that the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) recommends using immutable backups along with encryption to enhance protection against ransomware threats.

Things to Watch Out When Implementing Immutable Backup

While immutable backups offer significant advantages in terms of data security and integrity, there are several potential drawbacks to consider. Fortunately, they are manageable and mostly refer to a too long period of immutability.

Increased Storage Costs

Immutable backups cannot be altered or deleted once they are created, which can lead to significant storage requirements over time. The inability to delete outdated or redundant backups can result in higher storage costs. Therefore, keep in mind a reasonable time of data immutability. Utilizing dedicated backup repositories can help manage storage requirements for immutable backups by providing secure, scalable, and efficient storage solutions.

Data Sprawl

As data accumulates, organizations may experience data sprawl. This can make it challenging to manage and organize data, increasing the workload for storage administrators and IT teams. Remember to make immutable backups only for critical data if you do not have enough storage space.

Complex Management

Managing immutable backups can be more complex compared to traditional backups. Ensuring that the retention policies are appropriate and that storage resources are optimally used requires careful planning and ongoing management.

Restricted Flexibility

Immutability restricts the ability to modify or delete backups, which can be a disadvantage in scenarios where data needs to be updated or removed due to changes in business requirements or data policies.

To address these challenges, organizations should follow backup strategies and best practices, such as aligning with business SLAs, setting appropriate retention policies, and using validated architectures to ensure effective and reliable management of immutable backups.

Comparing Immutable to Traditional Backups

You cannot protect all of your data with immutable backups (well, technically you can, but I highly do not recommend it). “Traditional” professional backup should also be in place, especially to protect non-critical data. When considering immutable vs traditional i.e mutable backups, it’s important to understand the differences. Traditional backups are susceptible to modification, deletion, and corruption, which can compromise data integrity and recovery efforts for super important data, while immutability overcome these limitations by ensuring that backup files remain unaltered. This provides a higher level of data protection and reliability.

As you can see, there is no single perfect solution. Considering the pros and cons of each type of backup, the best choice is to use “day-to-day” traditional backups along with a separate immutable storage for critical data. Backup solutions and many organizations combine both immutable and traditional backups to achieve comprehensive data protection and business continuity.

Use Cases for Using Immutable Backups

I’ve already touched on specific use cases. Let’s explore them in more detail now!

Ransomware Protection

A company’s network is compromised by ransomware, which encrypts data (usually backups are also under attack!) and demands a ransom for the decryption. If a ransomware attack has encrypted your production data, immutability ensures that the backup of this data remains secure and unaltered. Immutable backups protect your production data and serve as a reliable recovery point after a ransomware attack, allowing for a swift recovery without paying a ransom.

Regulatory Compliance

Financial institutions, healthcare providers, and other regulated industries need to comply with strict data retention policies, for example under the NIS2 directive. Immutable backup guarantees that data is preserved in its original state for the required duration, meeting regulatory mandates for data integrity and retention.

Security Audits

An organization needs to ensure that its data has not been tampered with for legal or auditing purposes. With an immutable backup solution, organizations can provide proof that their data remains unchanged since the time of a backup, ensuring data integrity for legal and audit compliance.

Accidental Deletion or Human Error

An employee accidentally deletes important backups or overwrites crucial data? Without immutable backup, it would have severe consequences. Fortunately, immutability will not allow to delete the data, keeping organization and the employee away from reputational damage and legal consequences.

Data Corruption

Software bugs or hardware malfunctions lead to data corruption in the primary storage. Immutable backup ensures that a clean, uncorrupted version of the data is always available for recovery.

Long-term Data Archiving

An organization needs to archive data for long-term storage and future reference. Immutable backup provides a reliable method for data archiving, ensuring that data remains unchanged and accessible over time.

Third-party Cyber Attacks

External cyber attackers gain access to organization’s network and attempt to delete or alter backup data. Immutable backup prevents alteration or deletion and unauthorized access, safeguarding data against external threats.

Best Practices: How to Implement an Immutable Backup Solution?

Assessing Your Backup Needs

First of all, you need to evaluate your data protection needs and identify critical data that requires protection through immutability. This includes production data, production servers, sensitive data, and any other key data assets. Then define clear retention policies for your immutable backups. Determine how long backup data should be retained based on regulatory requirements and business needs. Also, consider the storage space required for immutable backups. Immutable data cannot be altered or deleted, so ensure you have adequate storage capacity.

Choosing the Right Backup Solution

Vendors deliver data resilience solutions by integrating comprehensive backup, recovery, and security features to safeguard critical information. The best idea is to buy an immutable data storage and a secure backup solution from a single vendor. It will considerably simplify management, asking technical questions, as well as identifying and reporting problems (which are common, especially during implementation). For example, Xopero Software offers comprehensive backup solutions that meet a wide range of data protection needs: backup software Xopero ONE and backup appliance Xopero Unified Protection.

Integrating with Existing Infrastructure

Ensure that the chosen backup solution integrates seamlessly with your existing primary storage systems and cloud storage providers, or provides its own immutable data store. It is crucial to integrate with a secure cloud storage resource that offers features like encryption and immutability to ensure data protection and facilitate reliable recovery. Check if you can protect all the files in your organization—from servers, end devices running on different OSes, SaaS, and virtual environments—all with one solution.

Regularly Testing Your Backup and Recovery Processes

Conduct regular tests of your backup and recovery processes to ensure that your backups are functioning correctly and that data recovery can be performed smoothly.

Immutable Backups and the 3-2-1-1-0 Backup Rule

Since I’m writing about the best practices of implementing an immutable backup solution, it would be a shame not to mention the golden standard of backup, the 3-2-1 rule. It has long been the best practice in data protection, emphasizing redundancy and reliability. But since contemporary attacks affect backups as well, this rule has been extended to the 3-2-1-1-0 scheme that aims to address modern data protection challenges.

Let’s take a closer look:

The 3-2-1 backup rule

  • 3: Keep at least three copies of your data.
  • 2: Store the copies on two different types of media.
  • 1: Keep one copy offsite to protect against local disasters.

The enhanced 3-2-1-1-0 rule

  • 1: Add one immutable copy of your data. An immutable backup is protected from tampering, deletion, and ransomware, ensuring data integrity and business continuity. What’s more, immutability brings backups beyond ransomware resilience, offering protection against data corruption and accidental deletion.
  • 0: Ensure zero errors by regularly testing backups and performing recoverability checks.

Practical Example: Implementing the 3-2-1-1-0 Rule with Xopero Software

  1. Setup Xopero ONE—deploy and configure software to manage your backup operations. 
  2. Ensure that there are three copies of the data—backup your primary data using Xopero, creating two additional copies. To guarantee different copy locations, use Xopero Cloud Storage that lets you store copies even on another continent.
  3. Use two different media types—store one copy using the Xopero Unified Protection on-premises hardware appliance and the other one in Xopero Cloud Storage.
  4. Keep one offsite copy—Ensure that the third copy is kept offsite, providing protection against local physical disasters.
  5. Add one immutable copy—enable immutability for the cloud backup, using the Xopero’s immutability feature to prevent any changes once the backup is created.
  6. Ensure zero errors—regularly test restore operations using the Xopero ONE software to verify backup integrity and recoverability. Use Xopero’s monitoring and reporting tools to ensure that there are no errors in the backup process.

There’s no doubt that implementing immutable backups and following the 3-2-1-1-0 backup rule are essential strategies for robust data protection. These practices ensure that your data remains secure, accessible, and recoverable, safeguarding your organization against various threats and ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements. Using Xopero ONE, organizations can effectively manage backup processes and maintain the highest standards of data protection.

The Best Comprehensive Solutions for Immutable Backups

So you already know what immutable backups are all about and why they are important in your data protection strategy. It’s time to move on to solutions that will allow you to implement the best protection for your data.

I’d like to introduce you to Xopero Sofware whose products provide a complete suite of backup and recovery features, including immutable data storage. The products are designed to protect your data against various threats and to ensure data availability even during cyber incidents, helping to meet business service level agreements and prevent data loss.

In Xopero’s portfolio, you can find 2 types of solutions:

  • Xopero ONE Backup & Recovery, which is software for companies wanting to use cloud storage only or having other own storage resources (you can choose from local storages and S3-compatible clouds, or use multiple locations), and
  • Xopero Unified Protection, a hardware backup that combines the advantages of the Xopero ONE backup software with a disk array, archiver and deduplicator.

Each of these solutions can integrate with object storage for immutable backup.

Key Features of Xopero Solutions

  • Multi-environment protection—Windows, Linux, Mac workstations, servers, VMware and Hyper-V virtual machines, Microsoft 365, and DevOps ecosystems
  • Advanced backup settings, for example deduplication, copy testing, immutability
  • Various recovery scenarios, including the Instant Disaster Recovery feature
  • Encryption data in transit and at rest with own key
  • Secure SAML-based SSO authentication
  • Own secure Xopero Cloud Storage
  • Help stay compliant with SOC2, ISO27001, NIS2, DORA, GDPR
  • And many more.

Case studies: Successful Implementations of Xopero Software Solutions

Many organizations have successfully implemented Xopero’s backup solutions, enhancing their data protection strategies and ensuring reliable data recovery. Thanks to immutable backups, these organizations have significantly increased their chances of successful data recovery in real-world scenarios.

Check out how Xopero Software helped organizations protect their data with confidence

What Have You Learned?

Immutable backups are an essential component of a robust data protection strategy. They ensure that backup data remains secure, unchangeable, and recoverable, providing peace of mind in the face of various threats. With an increasing number of cyber attacks targeting backup resources, immutability provides a fortress ensuring that your backup data remains untouchable and trustworthy. This added layer of security is indispensable for any organization looking to bolster its data protection framework. They also play a vital role in the area of business continuity, ensuring that organizations can quickly recover and maintain operations even in the face of cyber threats or data loss incidents. Additionally, immutable backups allow IT teams, which are aware that backup data is secure and tamper-proof, to focus on other critical areas of their operations. This strategic advantage can lead to more efficient use of resources and a more resilient IT infrastructure.

Xopero Software solutions are at the forefront of this technology, offering businesses a comprehensive, reliable, and scalable option to safeguard their critical data. Integrating immutable backups into your existing infrastructure with Xopero is seamless. Our solutions are designed to be versatile and compatible with various primary storage systems and cloud environments, making the transition to an immutable backup strategy smooth and hassle-free. This flexibility ensures that businesses of all sizes can benefit from enhanced data protection without extensive overhauls of their current systems.

Furthermore, immutable backups are not just about security; they are about ensuring the longevity and integrity of your data. As businesses grow, so does their data. Immutability ensures that historical data remains accurate and intact, which is crucial for long-term business strategies and decision-making processes.

Ready to secure your data and implement a robust business continuity strategy? Book a free meeting with our specialist to discuss your security challenges and data protection needs or try the full version of Xopero ONE for 14 days for free.

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