EDITOR ’ S COMMENT

DAVE RUSSELL , VP , ENTERPRISE STRATEGY , VEEAM

Dave Russell , VP , Enterprise Strategy , Veeam , explores the pressing need for data protection to keep pace with the maturation of containers and how businesses can accelerate their modern data protection strategy .

Together , these platforms have revolutionised the way companies use containers – unlocking a whole world of benefits in the process , with their ability to reduce overheads , while increasing

While container orchestration tools , such as Kubernetes , are convenient for their scalability and portability , they can fall short when it comes to data protection . portability , consistency and efficiency – and ultimately driving the containerisation market ’ s expansion and movement toward maturation .

Such is this expansion , 27 % of organisations are already using containers , with a further 34 % in the planning and testing phase of container deployment , according to Veeam ’ s 2021 Cloud Protection Trends

Report . Only reinforced further by the application container market ’ s expectation to register a CAGR of 29 % over the forecast period 2021 to 2026 .

In fact , only 16 % of organisations currently have no interest in deploying containers at this time . But while more and more businesses are beginning to realise the potential of containers and grow excited about the benefits they can bring , there ’ s an essential , mutually inclusive component that cannot be overlooked : data protection .

This is where businesses looking to reap the benefits of Kubernetes and containers require education – and herein lies the purpose of this article . Below , I explore the pressing need for data protection to keep pace with the maturation of containers and how businesses can accelerate their modern data protection strategy .

Understanding the container data protection landscape

In today ’ s increasingly digital world , as computing and storage rapidly move to the cloud , containers will likely become a vital technology for every modern organisation . However , while container orchestration tools , such as Kubernetes , are convenient for their scalability and portability , they can fall short when it comes to data protection . Reasons for this vary . But a major challenge lies in the fact that because containers by their very nature are designed to be temporary , organisations are realising their lifespans are often shorter than the data they create . So , for reasons of compliance , cybersecurity , or protection against system outages , data must be backed up and stored .

Similarly , replication is required for migrating entire clusters between testing , development and protection environments , to be able to return to previous states quickly if you don ’ t get the result you ’ re hoping for . But across the board , more organisations are discovering unexpected things can happen during migration , only strengthening the case for data protection and backup .

It ’ s therefore promising to see that of those organisations deploying containers , 46 % back up in some capacity , while 8 % are actively seeking a solution , according to the Cloud Protection Trends

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