6 Must-Have Ransomware Protection Features (And One Nice-to-Have)

Just about every story you read about responding to ransomware includes the directive to “never pay the ransom.” That’s easy enough to say if you’re not the one whose data is being held hostage. And the odds are pretty good it will happen to your company. CyberEdge’s 2020 Cyberthreat Defense Report calls out that nearly seven-in-10 companies will be affected by ransomware attacks.

So, it’s pretty clear you need to put the protections in place that keep ransomware out. You may think that means bolstering endpoint security since that’s where most ransomware attacks originate, but the reality is that 77 percent of organizations that have been infected with ransomware were running up-to-date endpoint protections.

Since it’s almost impossible to prevent every ransomware attack, what you need is a backup and disaster recovery solution that lets you bounce back from an attack, as unscathed as possible. We suggest you consider the following features when shopping for such a solution:

1. Get Continuous Data Protection

You never know when ransomware will strike, so you need to be prepared. Look for a solution that protects your data at all times by automatically taking continuous, space-optimized, image-based backups. 

2. Look for Efficient Multi-Site Replication

You’ll want automatic replication of your backups offsite, or at least off-network, as well as to the cloud. This should be able to be accomplished simply by selecting the machines you want to back up and pointing their backups to the desired backup targets using a checkbox or a drag-and-drop interface.

3. Simplify Data Protection with an SLA-Driven Workflow

An optimized workflow for SLA-driven data protection should include a “set and forget” policy feature for data protection and management, with a browser-based dashboard that gives you a single workflow to protect and manage both physical and virtual infrastructures. It should give you a global view of all of your recovery points, and let you schedule and manage local backups, set up onsite, offsite, and cloud replication, and retention schedules. A solution with proactive error detection and alerting will further help simplify management and speed problem resolution. 

4. Make Sure Your Data Integrity Is Absolutely Reliable

Choose a data protection solution that ensures your backups will be there when you need them. Inflight verification and automated re-verification of backup images mean you’ll have backups you can count on. Other features like smart retries. self-healing repairs, and PKI-based encrypted channel communication increase backup reliability even more.

5. Include Instant, Flexible Recovery

Because every minute of downtime caused by ransomware is very expensive, you’ll want a solution that lets you get back in business immediately. That should mean you can get back up and running in milliseconds. You’ll also want to be able to directly recover to your primary store, eliminating the need for vMotion and eliminating any performance impacts during recovery. Being able to recover to dissimilar hardware or virtual environments is another valuable feature for ensuring flexible recovery by letting you use available resources instead of waiting for specific resources.

6. Count on Integrated, Cloud-Based DRaaS

The best way to ensure total business continuity is to go with cloud-based DRaaS that delivers orchestrated, one-click virtual failover. So you don’t have to wait for anyone, recovery should be via a self-service portal and not require third-party intervention. Look for DRaaS solutions that include replication as a service, and give you the option to recover using seed drives, BMR drives, and web downloads.   

A Nice-to-Have: A Converged Data Platform to Control Costs

A solution that unifies data protection and scale-out storage onsite and offsite can help you fight back if ransomware strikes. It can also help you control storage costs, and simplify both storage and backup and disaster recovery management. Look for a solution that uses an object-based, distributed file system so you can scale non-disruptively, without any need for configuration. Inline deduplication and compression will also save on storage costs. And scale-out storage lets you add capacity as you need it to keep up with your data storage requirements, eliminating forklift upgrades without sacrificing security.

Get the Facts

Plenty of choices are out there when it comes to ransomware prevention and recovery. That means you probably have lots of questions. Why not get them answered one-on-one with a StorageCraft expert engineer? Schedule your demo here.