SAN DIEGO—Veeam Software, headquartered in Seattle and recognized as a leader in data resilience, has announced the launch of Veeam Data Cloud for Microsoft Entra ID.This Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) backup solution is designed to simplify data resilience for Entra ID tenants, ensuring organizations can protect their essential digital assets amid increasing cyber threats.

The announcement comes at a critical time. Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure AD) faces over 600 million attacks daily, according to Microsoft’s 2024 Digital defense Report, underscoring the urgent need for robust protection of organizations’ digital identities.The rise in refined phishing campaigns and credential stuffing attacks targeting Entra ID has made identity management a top priority for IT security teams across the United States.

A Unified Cloud Platform for Data resilience

Veeam Data Cloud for Microsoft Entra ID represents an extension of Veeam Data Cloud, which is designed as a unified cloud platform. This platform integrates cloud-native technologies and AI acceleration to protect, secure, and manage data both on-premises and in the cloud. The goal is to enhance business continuity, improve data usability, and drive greater efficiencies for organizations facing increasingly complex data management challenges.

According to Veeam,the new service offers simplicity with an enterprise-ready,pre-hardened,and self-configured SaaS solution that removes the burden of managing and maintaining complex backup infrastructure.

Niraj Tolia, chief Technology Officer at Veeam, emphasized the importance of identity management in cybersecurity: “Security starts with managing your users and ensuring the right people have access to the right systems.That’s why protecting entra ID is so vital, and why it’s the latest addition to our Veeam Data Cloud platform,” Tolia said. “We are giving customers greater simplicity with an enterprise-ready, pre-hardened, and self-configured saas solution that removes the burden of managing and maintaining complex backup infrastructure.”

Addressing Threats, Compliance, and Data Loss

Protecting Entra ID involves more than just addressing cybersecurity threats.It also requires managing compliance requirements, recycle bin limits, accidental deletions, and policy misconfigurations. Veeam Data Cloud for Microsoft Entra ID offers backup and restore capabilities for Entra ID users, groups, application registrations, and other objects, providing an all-in-one cloud service with unlimited storage and a streamlined user interface.

For U.S. companies, the ability to comply with regulations like HIPAA, GDPR (for EU citizens’ data), and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) is critical. Veeam’s new service helps organizations maintain data resilience and quickly recover from issues affecting Entra ID,thus minimizing the risk of compliance violations and associated penalties.

Key features and Benefits

Veeam Data Cloud for Microsoft entra ID offers several key features designed to enhance data resilience and simplify management:

• proactive Protection: Enhances visibility and control over changes within Entra ID, ensuring business continuity, security, and compliance.
• Effortless Recovery: Allows quick restoration of Entra ID users, groups, attributes, app registrations, logs, related metadata, and more with reliability.
• Thorough Inclusion: Offers a secure backup service managed by experts, offloading maintenance, updates, and security fixes.

Krista Case, research Director at The Futurum Group, highlights the importance of Entra ID protection: “protecting Microsoft Entra ID has never been more important. In fact, one in five respondents in Futurum’s Cybersecurity Decision Maker IQ research indicated credential compromise/account takeover as a security incident most impacting their organization. Veeam is making resiliency for these environments, including visibility into possibly malicious behavior and automated backup jobs, accessible to a broader range of customers by delivering it in a managed and hosted model with the addition of Entra ID protection to veeam Data Cloud,” Case said.

Bundling and Integration

Veeam data Cloud already provides businesses with the ability to protect Microsoft 365 workloads. With the addition of Entra ID protection, existing customers can bundle Veeam Data Cloud for Entra ID with their existing Veeam Data Cloud for Microsoft 365 Flex and Premium investments, continuing to pay per Microsoft 365 user.

As part of Veeam Data Cloud, customers can manage all their workloads across a single interface, extending the platform’s features to Entra ID and future workloads. These include security controls such as role-based access control, reduced complexity, and streamlined reporting, all while offloading maintenance, updates, and security fixes.

Availability

Veeam Data Cloud for Microsoft Entra ID is available immediately. For more information about Veeam and its data resilience solutions, visit https://www.veeam.com.

Counterargument: Why Not Rely Solely on Microsoft’s Native Tools?

One might argue that microsoft already provides backup and recovery tools for Entra ID. While this is true, Veeam’s solution offers several advantages. Veeam provides a centralized platform for managing backups across multiple environments, including on-premises, cloud, and SaaS. This unified approach simplifies data management and reduces the risk of data loss due to misconfigured or incomplete backups. Additionally, Veeam’s solution offers granular restore capabilities